JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska –
For more than 80 years, C-47 Skytrain tail number 42-100857 has connected generations of Airmen.
On June 6, 1944, the aircraft carried American paratroopers into Normandy during Operation Overlord, one of history's defining airborne assaults.
After D-Day, 42-100857 continued supporting airborne, airlift and glider operations across Europe through the end of World War II. The aircraft eventually found a second life in Alaska, transitioning from wartime service to civil airlift and search-and-rescue operations as a DC-3.
Following its retirement in 1975, the aircraft was preserved and restored to reflect its military heritage. Today, it is undergoing restoration at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson for permanent display outside Hangar 18, home of the 176th Operations Group, preserving a tangible link between the airborne forces of World War II and the Alaska Air National Guard's rescue heritage.
In honor of the 82nd Anniversary of D-Day, 43 Alaska Air National Guard Airmen traveled from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to Normandy, France, to support commemorative ceremonies and airborne operations honoring the Allied invasion of Europe.
Airmen participated in ceremonies across Normandy alongside joint and allied service members, including events at Omaha Beach, La Fière, Pointe du Hoc, Saint-Marie-du-Mont, the Normandy American Cemetery and the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment Memorial in Amfreville.
A centerpiece of the commemoration was a series of military freefall and static line parachute operations conducted by members of the 176th Wing's 211th and 212th Rescue Squadrons alongside U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, the U.S. Army Golden Knights and the SOCOM Para-Commandos demonstration team.
Before departing Alaska, the rescue teams were entrusted with a unique mission.
"Chief Master Sgt. Chris Bowerfind and I were entrusted with carrying the original control yoke and magnetic compass from C-47 tail 42-100857 and parachuting them back into Normandy during the memorial jump over La Fière Drop Zone, better known to American forces as Iron Mike," said Maj. Dan Warren 212th Rescue Squadron Combat Rescue Officer and Director of Operations.
The mission was simple: return the yoke and compass to the skies over Normandy aboard an Alaska HC-130 while delivering Alaska Guardian Angels to Iron Mike Drop Zone.
Flying the HC-130 carrying the jumpers and historic artifacts over Amfreville and La Fière were Lt. Col. Jeremy Brewer, commander of the 211th Rescue Squadron, and mission commander Maj. Erick Lee, combat systems officer. Eighty years earlier, those same drop zones were flown by US Army Air Force IX Troop Carrier Command and received paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division's 505th, 507th and 508th Parachute Infantry Regiments during the Normandy invasion.
"Eighty-two years later, putting combat rescue Airmen over Normandy reminds us that we're not inheriting history, we're responsible for carrying it forward," Lee said.
Although separated by more than eight decades of aviation history, the HC-130 and the C-47 share a common purpose.
The C-47s that came to Alaska following World War II became part of the lineage that supported the 144th Air Transport Squadron and the 10th Air Rescue Squadron before evolving into Alaska's modern rescue enterprise. That heritage continues today in the 211th Rescue Squadron's HC-130 fleet and the 212th Rescue Squadron's Guardian Angel teams.
The relationship between the two squadrons reflects a partnership that began between troop carrier crews and airborne forces during World War II. Then, C-47s like 42-100857 delivered paratroopers into combat and later under NG tail numbers operating as a DC3 delivered cargo and airborne rescue forces across Alaska. Today, HC-130J crews provide command and control, extend the reach of rescue forces and deliver pararescuemen and combat rescue officers into personnel recovery missions across Alaska and around the world.
During the 2026 commemorations, weather proved challenging. Seven military freefall operations were planned, but high winds and rain forced the cancellation of five jumps.
When conditions improved, the 211th HC-130J launched over Normandy carrying military freefall jumpers. By the close of ceremonies on June 7, the Alaskan Combat King II had successfully supported two airborne operations over historic drop zones near Amfreville and La Fière, resulting in 67 joint military freefall jumps in support of the commemorations.
Warren and Bowerfind were among the jumpers.
The two artifacts carried into Normandy were entrusted to Airmen whose own service reflected the rescue community they represent.
Warren and Bowerfind first served together as PJs during combat operations in Afghanistan in 2012. After Warren commissioned and later joined Alaska's rescue community, a move strongly encouraged by Bowerfind—the pair spent the next 11 years flying rescue missions across Alaska as teammates in the 212th Rescue Squadron.
"Dan and I have shared a lot of missions over the years, but this one was bigger than either of us," Bowerfind said. "Standing alongside 43 Alaska Airmen in Normandy, carrying a piece of our history back to the skies where it began, was a reminder that the strength of our rescue community has always been its people."
For the commemorative jumps into Normandy, Warren led a seventeen PJs and CROs parachuting to the ground at Iron Mike. Dispersed amongst the team was the original magnetic control yoke and compass from 42-100857. Eighty-two years after the C-47 carried American paratroopers into the Normandy campaign, Alaska rescue specialists, supported by the 211th Rescue Squadron aircrew, returned those original controls to the skies over France aboard an Alaska HC-130.
As the final jumpers reached the ground near Sainte-Mère-Église, the HC-130 made a low pass over the drop zone, banking its wings toward the crowd in a salute to the Airmen below before departing the area.
For Warren, who retires later this year after 25 years of military service, leading a formation of 17 jumpers to the point of impact “V” on Iron Mike Drop Zone carried significance beyond a final jump.
"Standing on the ramp of the HC-130, twenty years of rescue came rushing back to me," Warren said. "In that moment, I realized that none of us are the point of the story. For a brief time, we inherit the legacy of those who came before us, and our responsibility is to leave it worthy for those who come next."
The Normandy commemorations concluded June 7, but the journey of the yoke and compass from 42-100857 is not yet complete.
Following the events in France, the artifacts will return to Alaska, where they will be displayed in Hangar 18 in view of the restored C-47 they once helped guide. There, they will stand as a tangible connection between the Airmen who flew into history over Normandy and the combat rescue Airmen who continue that tradition of service.
From the troop carrier crews and paratroopers of World War II to today's HC-130J aircrews and Guardian Angel teams, the partnership between aircraft and jumper remains central to Alaska's rescue heritage.
For one week in Normandy, the yoke and compass of 42-100857 flew once more, carried through the skies over France by Airmen of the Alaska Air National Guard.
The aircraft has changed. The mission has evolved. The responsibility to carry others forward endures.