After enlisting in the 82nd Airborne Division, I eagerly asked my recruiter what I could expect from jump school. “It’s three weeks long,” he said.

“What else?” I asked.

“The first week they separate the men from the boys,” he said. “The second week, they separate the men from the fools.”

“And the third week?” I asked.

“The third week, the fools jump.”

— Robert Gardinier