Jump School Murphy's Law

5/21/2007 8:45:34 PM

The company that I am in now is not an airborne unit, so I will not be receiving that great airborne pay, which would roughly pay for coffee and the gas to go get it... So I spent 3 weeks running and jumping just for the exercise, and my cool Airborne wings, that do look good on my uniform. I obviously survived jump school, but I did have a close call on my last jump, isn't that the way it always happens.  It was our night jump with all of our gear ( rucksack, for all nonmilitary people its a big backpack, strapped around the front of my legs, and a weapons case strapped onto my left side). I jumped out with no problems, looked up to check my parachute to make sure it was there and not tangled, but it was hard to see with only a halfmoon.  I looked up again to make sure it was ok when i noticed that my chute was tangled, after a few seconds of twisting I was back to floating down like a 200 pound sack of potatoes.  I looked down to make sure that I was going to land in the "soft" landing area when I realized I was going well past my safe area.  I tried to steer back to it but I was too far away.  I then noticed that the ground was coming up very fast, I hastily released my rucksack and attempted to release my weapons case, but it would not release ( I had forgotten to release the safety knot, a simple shoelace knot) and I hit the ground.  My first thought was "woohoo" I survived I am now an Airborne MP, my second thought was "stupid string", and my third thought was why am I so wet?  I had landed in a small stream! After a few seconds I packed up my parachute and started the long walk back to the staging area.  All in all it was a successful jump. 





Comments

Brad W. on 6/13/2007 1:23:20 PM wrote:
Glad to hear you landed okay! Next time remember that you can discharge your weapon on the way down... Those tracers would give you enough light to see your 'chute ;)

Good luck with the rest of your training, and hope to see you in Aug.





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