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97-year-old veteran parachutes into Normandy 75 years after D-Day

Rice said afterward, "it went perfect, perfect jump." He continued, "I feel great. I'd go up and do it all again."

Credit: AP

U.S. World War II D-Day veteran Tom Rice, from Coronado, CA, parachutes in a tandem jump into a field in Carentan, Normandy, France, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Approximately 200 parachutists participated in the jump over Normandy on Wednesday, replicating a jump made by U.S. soldiers on June 6, 1944 as a prelude to the seaborne invasions on D-Day. (AP Photo)

A 97-year-old U.S. veteran has parachuted into Normandy — 75 years after he made the same journey on D-Day.

Tom Rice of San Diego was among some 200 parachutists who filled the Normandy skies for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. They were honoring the airborne soldiers who jumped into gunfire and death ahead of the June 6, 1944, seaborne invasion.

Credit: AP

U.S. World War II D-Day veteran Tom Rice, from Coronado, CA, parachutes in a tandem jump into a field in Carentan, Normandy, France, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Approximately 200 parachutists participated in the jump over Normandy on Wednesday, replicating a jump made by U.S. soldiers on June 6, 1944 as a prelude to the seaborne invasions on D-Day. (AP Photo)

Credit: AP

U.S. World War II D-Day veteran Tom Rice, from Coronado, CA, parachutes in a tandem jump into a field in Carentan, Normandy, France, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Approximately 200 parachutists participated in the jump over Normandy on Wednesday, replicating a jump made by U.S. soldiers on June 6, 1944 as a prelude to the seaborne invasions on D-Day. (AP Photo)

Credit: AP

U.S. World War II D-Day veteran Tom Rice, from Coronado, CA, after parachuting in a tandem jump into a field in Carentan, Normandy, France, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Approximately 200 parachutists participated in the jump over Normandy on Wednesday, replicating a jump made by U.S. soldiers on June 6, 1944 as a prelude to the seaborne invasions on D-Day. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

Their engines throbbing, C-47 transporters dropped group after group of parachutists.

Rice said afterward, "it went perfect, perfect jump." He continued, "I feel great. I'd go up and do it all again."

He jumped in a tandem into roughly the same area he landed in on D-Day, outside of Carentan, a Normandy town among the main objectives for the Allied paratroopers on D-Day.