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Extreme sports

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Sports, Wars and warfare

Herbert Sobel

Herbert M. Sobel Sr. was a commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. Sobel was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by David Schwimmer.

Sports, Wars and warfare

Ronald Speirs

Lieutenant Colonel Ronald C. Speirs was a United States Army officer who served in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. He was initially assigned as a platoon leader in B Company of the 1st Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Speirs was reassigned to D Company of the 2nd Battalion prior to the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and later assigned as commander of E Company during an assault on Foy, Belgium after the siege of Bastogne was broken during the Battle of the Bulge. Speirs also served in Korea, where he was assigned both as a rifle company commander and as a staff officer. He later became the American governor for Spandau Prison in Berlin. He reached the rank of captain while serving in the European Theater during World War II, major during the Korean War and retired as a lieutenant colonel. Speirs was portrayed in the television miniseries Band of Brothers by Matthew Settle.

Sports, Wars and warfare

Felix Baumgartner

Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil, and BASE jumper. He is best known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere on 14 October 2012. Doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier without vehicular power relative to the surface on his descent. He broke skydiving records for exit altitude, vertical freefall distance without drogue, and vertical speed without drogue. Though he still holds the two latter records, the first was broken two years later, when on 24 October 2014, Alan Eustace jumped from 135,890 feet – or, 41.42 km (25.74 mi) with a drogue.

Sports

BASE jumping

BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E. jumping, is parachuting or wingsuit flying from a fixed structure or cliff. "BASE" is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: building, antenna, span, and earth (cliff). Due to the lower altitudes of the jumps, BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than skydiving from a plane. In the U.S., BASE jumping is currently regarded by many as a fringe extreme sport or stunt. In some jurisdictions or locations, BASE jumping is prohibited or illegal; however, in some places it is permitted such as Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho. BASE jumping became known to the wider public through depictions in a number of action movies and being featured in the 2014 documentary Sunshine Superman.

Sports

Paragliding

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside.

Sports, Wars and warfare

Yonatan Netanyahu

Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer who commanded the elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal during Operation Entebbe, an operation to rescue hostages held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda in 1976. The mission was successful, with 102 of the 106 hostages rescued, but Netanyahu was killed in action—the only IDF fatality during the operation.

Sports, Wars and warfare

Ira Hayes

Ira Hamilton Hayes was a Pima Native American and a United States Marine who was one of the six flag raisers immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Pima Indian Reservation located in the Pinal and Maricopa counties in Arizona. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942 and, after recruit training, volunteered to become a Paramarine. He fought in the Bougainville and Iwo Jima campaigns in the Pacific Theatre of Operations.

Sports

Wingsuit flying

Wingsuit flying is the sport of flying through the air using a wingsuit which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift. The modern wingsuit, first developed in the late 1990s, creates a surface area with fabric between the legs and under the arms. Wingsuits are sometimes referred to as "birdman suits", "flying squirrel suits", and "bat suits".

Sports

Dean Potter

Dean S. Potter was an American free climber, alpinist, Base jumper, BASEliner, and highliner. He was noted for hard first ascents, free solo ascents, speed ascents, and enchainments in Yosemite National Park and Patagonia. Potter died in a wingsuit flying accident in Yosemite National Park.

Sports, Wars and warfare

Jan Kubiš

Jan Kubiš was a Czech soldier, one of a team of Czechoslovak British-trained paratroopers sent to eliminate acting Reichsprotektor (Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, in 1942 as part of Operation Anthropoid.

Sports, Wars and warfare

John Steele

Private John Marvin Steele was the American paratrooper who landed on the pinnacle of the church tower in Sainte-Mère-Église, the first village in Normandy liberated by the United States Army on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Sports

Canyoning

Canyoning is travelling in canyons using a variety of techniques that may include other outdoor activities such as walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling (rappelling), and swimming.

Sports

James Miller

James Jarrett Miller, also known as Fan Man, was an American parachutist and paraglider pilot known for his appearances at various sporting events. His most infamous appearance was the November 6, 1993 boxing match between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fan Man made headlines in the United States when he used his powered paraglider to fly into the arena, eventually crashing into the side of the ring.

Sports, Wars and warfare

John Frost (British Army officer)

Major General John Dutton (Johnny) Frost CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DL was an airborne officer of the British Army best known for being the leader of the small group of British airborne troops that actually arrived at Arnhem bridge during the Battle of Arnhem in Operation Market Garden, in World War II. He was one of the first to join the newly formed Parachute Regiment and served with distinction in many wartime airborne operations, such as in North Africa and Sicily and Italy, until his injury and subsequent capture at Arnhem. His military career continued until his retirement from the army in 1968.

Sports, Wars and warfare

Joseph Beyrle

Joseph R. Beyrle is thought to be the only American soldier to have served with both the United States Army and the Soviet Red Army in World War II. He took part in the D-Day paratroop landing in June 1944 and was soon taken prisoner.