James M. Gavin

So yeah, I mean the scale of these and the excess in the number that was built is staggering.

General James Gavin, who at the time in 1957 was the head of research and development for the Army, testified before the Senate.

Remember now, it took one bomb to destroy Hiroshima.

In 1957, we had about 6,000 bombs, almost all of which were much larger.

And, um, so obviously the 504th has dropped on September 17th, but the 3rd Battalion hasn't seen too much action.

So they're gonna be picked by the division commander, uh, General James Gavin, for this possibility of having a, uh, like, a water crossing on, on, uh, very makeshift boats to basically outflank, um, some of the German defenses that are still existing in Nijmegen, which are very close, of course, to the, to the two, two key objectives, the railroad bridge and the road bridge at Nijmegen over the Waal River that takes, then takes you, uh, the road takes you on to Arnhem.

It's about 10 or 11 miles away, something like that.

So, um, so we see Ryan O'Neal playing Gavin approaching Julian Cook, played by, of course, Robert Redford, who is, you know, arguably Probably, you know, in the mid-1970s, the leading male star probably, among Americans at least.

Um, so the, the problem is, like, how you're gonna be able to launch that, um, because getting the boats up there is a real problem up the, up the, that embattled corridor that we call Hell's Highway.

British engineers have the boats, but, um, you know, it, I mean, trying to get through that maw and, uh, get them in a truck and get them to where they need to go.

You also have this, this scene where, um, Gavin, played by Ryan O'Neal, is very kind of snippy with the 30 Corps folks, and he even says, "If this were an American unit, we'd have boats.

Do you have boats?" You know? [laughs]

... and as a tribute to Ryan.

Um, 'cause I, I went and looked at a lot of that correspondence, actually, that, uh, that Ryan had and, and, uh, Kate or Katharine, who, his wife, and, uh, and General Gavin, James Gavin, who was one of the advisors on, uh, on the movie.

Yep.

And, um, and had some problems with it, actually, because he didn't think Ryan O'Neal should've played him, um, because he, he just like...

Uh, this was really interesting 'cause, well, Gavin was not put out, but like, "Nah, this guy just doesn't have it to be me," kinda thing.

He, he-

Kind of too much of a pretty boy? Is that what you're thinking?

And he liked O'Neal.

I learned a great deal from them.

Mostly I had the good fortune to serve under close, serve under and closely observe the conduct of such men as Matthew B. Ridgeway," who actually I think we're gonna get into on the next podcast, "Maxwell D. Taylor, James M. Gavin, Creighton W. Abrams, and many others.

I watched these men very closely.

My wife is continually astonished at how much I remember about my former commanders and colleagues.

Yeah, J- James-

... as Gavin

...

J- James Gavin was one of the youngest generals in the US Army.

Now, supposedly, if we look closely in one of these scenes, you see Richard Attenborough wearing glasses playing a lunatic.

[laughs]

I think we might have a few about somewhere.

A couple of Ryan O'Neal quotes I found that are interesting.