Okay, this part can be a little scary. You always hear people saying "don't look down." Well, you have to look down while doing this so that you can "Slip" into the wind to off set any drift, whether front, rear, left, or right. You also have to slip away from other jumpers to avoid becoming entangled or landing on each other. Slipping is performed by reaching up and grabbing the risers above you and pulling them into your chest. This causes your canopy to "spill" air out of the opposite side and give you a nominal amount of thrust. Another version of the T-10 Canopy has an upside down T shaped hole cut in the back that gives the canopy 9 knots of forward thrust. This helps off set higher winds, but I never cared for these, and neither did any of my buddies as best I remember. The tracks in the sand below are mostly made by the HMMWV(Hum-Vee). They are a very wide track vehicle, so this should give you an idea of the height. Training jumps at Ft. Bragg are made at 800 ft above ground level and real-life combat jumps are made even lower. At this altitude we had about 45-60 seconds of time in the air.

This is me, probably on my next-to-last jump, rigged up and waiting on green ramp to get onto a bird of some sort. In the background you can see some of the jump masters performing JMPI (jump master pre-inspection). This is a pain stakingly thorough inspection of you and all of your equipment. They won't let you by with so much as a frayed strap or a lowering line bulging by 1/2 inch from its case. Here you can see the amount of equipment that is involved on a combat jump. I jumped with a M-60 machine gun which is supposed to be lowered, along with the rucksack (hanging upside down on my front) prior to landing. Also, on my front, you can see the reserve parachute and the static line run over my shoulder. The line was run over my right shoulder, which means I was going to jump from the right door. Behind and slightly below the reserve chute is my aviator kit bag. This bag is folded and stowed in your harness and is used to store the parachute when you land. Behind me, you can see a C-141 sitting on the tarmac at Pope Air Force Base.

A couple of years after I got out of the Army, I was training at Ft Bragg with the National Guard when a F-16 fighter collided with a C-130. The wreckage from the F-16 crashed into a C-141 located about where I am standing in this picture. I believe that there were about 8 killed. I heard the explosion and saw the mushroom cloud rise into the air. I drove onto Pope AFB but was unable to offer any assistance. I had the sad honor of watching a memorial for my fallen comrades on local television a few days later while in Raliegh on other business.

This is the inside of a C-130 Hercules. This particular mission has been split up into more than one pass. You can see the first pass jumpers standing up, hooked up, and waiting to go out the door. The person standing behind all of the jumpers is the safety. Had this bird not been split up into more than one pass, I would not have had time to take the picture. Jumps are generally split to allow multiple jump masters and safeties to get credit for a single operation.

On the left is me on this last jump. The picture is kind thrashed, but I was able to crop it down to the important part, Hah!! On the right is yours truly shortly after my return to the states. I had not yet been awarded all of those medals which now get me a great discount on coffee down at the Quick Stop. I hope to soon find a way to put the few modest medals that I was awarded on my web page, which include; The Army Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Medal, South West Asian Medal, Kuwaiti Liberation Medal, and Army Service Ribbon. Our unit also received another Presidential Unit Citation after I got out. One of my friends has sent me that as well and hopefully I will be able to put together a little display case one of these years.

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