Airplane Parachute

I love it... GA

jt.

An Irishman goes to the registrar and says, I want to change my name please.
Are you sure? asks the registrar? Yes, certain he says. Ok, well what's your name?

Patrick, patrick shithouse he replies.

And what name would you like? asks the registrar.

Michael, he replies.

Nice one! Permission to borrow sir?

"Amen" to that ... ... (August 1978, here... "those were the days, eh!?") ~ from "Airborne!" to "Diver-on-bottom" ... what a change! Looking-back at my youth, I feel a 'kinship-of-sorts', to those old codger characters in "Space Cowboys"...

( ^{Just ain't the same, being relegated to a desk-job nowadays}...)

. . . my friend, we thought they're never end. We'd sing and dance . . . (Mary Hopkins version is the one I remember.)

Yeah, yeah, I know I'd dating myself.

Yeah, 1984 seemed like a long time ago in a galaxy far far away . . . from what I do now. But interestingly enough, the pilots would play Van Halen's hit from that year over the crappy sounding intercom system just before we would enter either the Normandy or Holland DZ's at Bragg. (Jump !!)

. . . if my 'chute don't open wide, . . . the hooh-ah stuff comes back far too easy.

Tom, you were Airborne too? What PIR?

I served with the 506th PIR, '76 & '77, followed by Ranger School and 2/75 @ Lewis. RLTW!!!!!

Gotta love those old T-10B chutes....

Anyhow, we most likely ate the same DZ dirt! LOL

I pinned on the wings in '84 but never served in an Airborne unit (until much, much later downrange with USACAPOC as a reservist-not jump status though). Back when I was active duty (11 yrs), I was shunted off to work as a SigO for intel folks in another part of the country, then other non-traditional stuff except a stint as a Bn S-4 in ROK. 5th SF Group (not black hats), under Benning's supervision, taught the course at Bragg. You did the serious hard-core stuff. I'm not sure I would have made it through Ranger school. A tip of the hat to you. You have my respect for surviving all that, and then serving with the 2d Battalion at Lewis. I hope your knees held out.

Yeah, T-10Bravos were easy enough, but man, even when I was 175 lbs., I still hit the ground like a ton o'bricks. I felt bad for the big guys over 200 'cause they were screwing up knees and ankles left and right. Especially on the Holland DZ because that place was rough. Normandy DZ was a much better DZ for landing. A lot more sand. Still a cherry. At least as far as Uncle Sam is concerned.

I preferred the jumps we made with the MC-1 because at least that way we could face into the wind and not end up performing a 3-points of contact PLF (heels, ass, head) if you got unlucky enough to be blown backwards on the T-10 and you couldn't pull enough slip to get yourself around in time.

I have a few more take-offs than landings in a Cessna 172. That was fun when I was a younger punk. Haven't had to urge to go back to a DZ. My oldest daughter was enrolled in AFF for a while. I think the money squelched that for her. She may go back when her money situation improves. She's a 68WM6 in the Reserves (LPN). Good soldier, but she'll do better to stay leg.

Cheers !

I pinned on the wings in '76. Always glad to run into another Airborne Troop! :-) So, you were a Commissioned Officer too, serving as a Bn S-4 eh? Kewl beans man, especially in the ROK. You must've seen a lot of time on the DMZ there. Scary place, and you have me respect for just serving there alone! So you served in Civil Affairs and Psych, eh? That must've been pretty interesting duty, for sure! Since you were with 5th sOG, you may have run into a buddy of mine while at Bragg. Do you know Howie Keene by chance?

I tell ya, Jump School at Benning was a cake walk compared to Ranger School. I almost flunked out because I nearly drowned in the freaking Chattahoocee River! LOL Serving in the Rangers was awesome. OP Urgent Fury on the other hand was a total ClusterFuk with screwed-up tact radio freqs, no grid maps (only old and basic tourist maps), typical Washington DC screw-ups coordinating or relaying vital info and Intel, and not all the St. George Medical Students were at the Blue Campus! On top of all that, the freaking Cubans knew we were coming no thanks to the media jerkoids. Making a combat jump onto Pt. Salienes Airfield at 0530 (basically the break of damn there on Oct. 25) was a major tactical error...we lost the element of surprise w/ no darkness, hence the 500' AGL jump to get the 130's under the Cuban's Quad-four AAA setup on the surrounding hills. I was a very green 2nd LT then. Anyhow, we still received a lot of small arms fire that punched holes in the fuselage. Kinda unsettling to be sitting in a cramped darkened C-130 Herky Bird and all of sudden little rays of light start emminating from the a/c's walls because of hits.

Anyhow, I later served in the USAR for 8 years: 464the Engineering Bn, Schenectady NY. Did the Big Beach Ball Party in SA commanding a Reinforced Engineering Company (my Company, Bravo + 2 Platoons from Alpha Company/464th Bn) attached to the 2nd ACR. We breached the paralleling two berms along the Saudi-Iraq border for those bad boys, as well as providing mine clearing. Saw a lot of action in support of the Cav, including taking the Iraqi Airfield at Tahil. After DS/DS i Resigned my Commission, even though I was on the O-4 Promotion List. My X didn't want to hear it that I wanted to put in another 5 years to get my 20. Long story, best told over a few cold ones some day!

I hear ya on those T-10's, even the D models. Forever twisting in the wind! LOL At least with the new MC1 chutes you can steer it much better, and with less oscillations. I never did get around to jumping with one of them...after my time.

No, my friggin' knees give me nothing but pain from all of those jumps, especially on cold days and whenever it's going to rain or is very humid out. I should have knee surgery, but I detest going to the VAMC for anything. Give me a private doctor any day!!!! What bothers me more than anything is where I broke my right ankle landing in a freaking pine tree because the damn Jump Master screwed the pooch misreading the wind speed and shifting direction.....me and half the stick landing in the trees. If a bunch of Grunts could kill. I'm sure you know what I mean! ROTFLMAO

I did do some private jumping up until about 8 years ago, then my health went south and I got heavy. These old bones can't take the punishment anymore. Besides that, I'm pushing my luck if I continue jumping out of perfectly good airplanes! I have to live long enough to walk my 2 daughters down the aisle and see their kids born!

Congrats and thank you to your daughter for serving! She'll do well, unless O-Bozoman continues to kill/destroy the military. My only son is now serving in the USAF in the Security Forces, A1C, at Dyess AFB. He's been guarding the B-1B Lancers on the flightline. Next month he deploys to Qatar. At least I got to see him when he came home last week on his first Leave, even if it was a short 7 days. I rarely saw him because he was his girlfriend or his buddies most of the time! hahaha

Well, gotta go hit the sack now, as it's been a long long day here! Glad to have met another Airborne Brother!! AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!

Regrettably , by 'training/certificate' only (Ft Benning--31Aug78), following ROTC Advanced Camp at Bragg. I was the *only* one (at that time) to have EVER been sent through both courses after freshman year only...

Also...(regrettably), the Army did *not* come through with the ROTC scholarship that I'd been *promised* ... which had been the "impetus" to quit my job at the G.E. plant and transfer from my (Reserve) unit (4/92^nd FA / 8" Howi's) INTO the ROTC program. (BTW, it had nothing to do with grades, it was a 'few-months-AGE' issue...!)

"Long story short", having NOT applied for any kind of student aid (having been *promised* the scholarship), and having spent every dime I had to pay my own way through that first year ... in the absense of any possible financial assistance (trust me, everyone was *looking* for a way!), I was forced to 'accept' a 256A... (())