Saturday, June 6, 2020 will be the 76th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy during World War II. The sheer magnitude of what was done in one 24 hour period is still amazing to me — 156,115 American, British, and Canadian soldiers landed by boat and airplane across a 55 mile coast line defended by 50,000 German troops. There were crises on every drop zone and every beach. But by the end of the day, the Allies had established a foothold in France. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus crisis, there will be no commemoration this year marking the largest combined operation and amphibious assault in history.

As a former paratrooper, I loved reading about and visiting the Drop Zones and objectives of the paratroopers on both flanks of the invasion. In the west, around 13,100 American paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions made night parachute drops behind Utah Beach, followed by 3,937 glider troops during the day. Behind Sword Beach (in the east), the British 6th Airborne Division inserted approximately 8,500 men by parachute and glider. Both Dick Winters of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (in the west) and Major John Howard of D Company, 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 6th Airborne Division (in the east) were made famous in books by the historian Stephen Ambrose.

A more unfamiliar paratrooper to many is Lieutenant Colonel Ben “Vandy” Vandervoort (picture bottom left), the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 82nd Airborne Division, a unit of about 560 paratroopers. His mission was the land at Drop Zone O and “capture and hold the town of Ste. Mere Eglise (top picture).” Yet, after months of planning and rehearsals in the early morning hours of June 6th, his paratroopers were scattered across the French countryside (505th PIR “sticks,” or groups of 18 paratroopers, are marked by orange dots on the map, bottom right). Even Ben broke his foot during his landing. In spite of the adversities, Lieutenant Colonel Vandervoort assembled a small group of men, moved overland, and together with the 3rd Battalion attacked and seized the small village of Ste. Mere Eglise and its crossroads. For the next several days, Vandervoort and his men defended north of the town against determined German attacks.

For his actions in Normandy, Ben Vandervoort received a Distinguished Service Cross (the nation’s second highest award for valor), as well as a second Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during Operation Market Garden, the parachute jump into Holland. As one combat veteran and friend described him he was “calm… clear and decisive in combat and always led from the front in the standard 82nd fashion.” After the war, he left the Army and served in the Central Intelligence Agency. In the movie, The Longest Day, John Wayne portrayed him.

The 82nd Airborne Division in 1944 and today plans for things not to go right during a parachute jump. Whenever you drop thousands of paratroopers at night, there will be chaos, the unexpected, and adversity. To overcome the challenges of a night airborne assault, the leaders in the 82nd Airborne Division then and today ensure that all paratroopers understand the mission+leader’s intent.

The mission statement the 2nd Battalion, 505th PIR used included all the answers to the 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. I’m sure this type of mission statement is familiar to all corporate and non-profit organizations.

But what really helps the paratroopers (and your team) is adding the leader’s intent and its three components:

• The purpose, or the why (think about a slightly broader purpose than the mission statement that enables people to make decisions in your absence)

• Key Tasks that must be accomplished

• The end state, or what success looks like (for corporate groups I find it helpful for the end state to be measurable and be tied to a date in the future)

The battalion’s mission statement was 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment conducts a parachute assault at 0110 on D-Day to seize and hold the town of Ste, Mere Eglise to prevent a German attack on Utah Beach.

Lieutenant Colonel Ben Vandervoort’s Leader’s Intent might have been:

• Purpose: Protect the Northwest Flank of Utah Beach and the 4th Infantry Division

• Key Tasks:

  • Assemble the battalion

  • Attack Ste. Mere Eglise

  • Defend Ste. Mere Eglise

• End State: Ste. Mere Eglise and its road network in the battalion’s possession on D-Day + 1 (June 7, 1944)

The next time you put together a plan, try using the mission+leader’s intent. If your team understands the purpose (or the why) and the end state (what success looks like at a point in time in the future), in addition to the mission statement, they will be better able to handle adversity and the unexpected, just like Ben Vandervoort and his paratroopers.

And if you want to read more about the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II, I highly recommend The Sword of St. Michael by Guy LoFaro.