When Sgt. Maj. Brian Briggs straps on his parachute, he carries a legacy.
Briggs is a third-generation paratrooper. His grandfather, Cpl. Joseph Briggs, a member of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, jumped into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Like many of his generation, grandfather Briggs didn’t speak much about the war. He didn’t have to. The silence told its own story.
“I was very young when he passed, so we never had a chance to talk about it,” Briggs said. “But my dad, who was also a paratrooper, told me that the only times he saw my grandfather cry were when one of his Army buddies died. That’s how deep it went.”
Cpl. Joseph Briggs volunteered for airborne service, joining the newly formed ranks of the U.S. Army’s elite paratroopers in the 507th PIR. He would go on to jump into Normandy, fight in Operation Market Garden, and endure the freezing hell of the Battle of the Bulge. Among those who served with him, he earned the nickname “Duck Butt”—a nod to the divot his rucksack left in the snow as he marched, his short frame cutting a duck-like trail through the Ardennes.
“It’s that same camaraderie we have today,” said Sgt. Maj. Briggs, smiling. “A bunch of grown men—and now women—picking on each other out of love. That hasn’t changed.”
Though Joseph rarely spoke of the fear or the loss, his strength left a lasting imprint on the family he built when he returned home. “He was tough. Disciplined. Physically fit,” Briggs said. “That carried into my aunts and uncles—state champion runners, football players, baseball players. But more than that, he loved deeply. He loved like a paratrooper. With what I call a ‘thundering velvet hand.’”
The family has preserved heirlooms from Joseph’s service—mementos that remind them of where it all started. “I think of him and my dad every time I hit a new milestone or take on a new job in the Army,” Briggs said. “They’re the kind of leaders you want to make proud.”
Asked what his grandfather might say if he could see the Army today, and his grandson in uniform, Briggs paused.
“I’d like to think he’d be proud,” he said. “Maybe a part of him would wish I hadn’t picked a job that’s sent me to combat. But I think—no, I know—he’d be proud.”
Briggs’ voice carries the cadence of someone shaped by airborne tradition—not just by uniform and rank, but by a sense of duty born in the skies over Normandy and passed down like sacred ground.
“Discipline and love,” he said. “That’s how I was raised. That’s what he gave us.”
From Normandy to the modern battlefield, it’s a legacy still falling into place—one jump at a time.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade is the U.S. Army’s Contingency Response Force in Europe, providing rapidly deployable forces to the U.S. European, African, and Central Command areas of responsibility. Forward deployed across Italy and Germany, the brigade routinely trains alongside NATO allies and partners to build readiness and strengthen the alliance.
This article by Capt. Jennifer French first appeared on DVIDS.
