Oakesdale's Operation Market Garden

NETHERLANDS - First Sgt. Mitch Kriebel was 77 years late, but he jumped from a plane over the Netherlands to honor the soldiers of Operation Market Garden.

The Oakesdale native and Washington Army National Guard member was one of 1,500 paratroopers from the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands to parachute during the last week of September to commemorate the largest airborne assault in history.

In 1944, about 30,000 Allied soldiers parachuted and rode gliders behind Nazi Germany lines to secure eight bridges during Operation Market Garden. It was to open a path toward Ger...