| My wife asked me to write about my Army past........ so here is a story about my last day in US Army Jump School. Damn it's early...... we're always running around. Airborne shuffle is what they call it. It's kind of like a jog in slow motion. It's funny that all of the Army REMFs here in school actually think its tough. The Marines that are here for our Army school make fun of them. Tell em.. "hey get back to your supply room!!". Sergeant Airborne drops them like flies. Nothing's more rewarding than watching some jarhead pump out push ups. "YOU WANT TO QUIT!!!!!?" They always ask that, only one jump left and they think a little exercise will really get anyone to quit at this point. But it worked the first week of school. Sad to think that almost 40% of the class dropped out before jump week. I came to school straight out of Infantry boot camp. All the physical parts of the school were a joke. There were also five other people who had to quit because of injuries. What's funny is that four of those injuries were marines. What does that tell you?! Ahhh the 5th injury was a nice old Chaplin who had over 200 jumps under his belt, but didn't notice the big white van in the middle of the drop zone. LOL PT done. Breakfast Done. Off to the airfield we go. It's a calm day. No wind. Good jumping weather. C141 on the deck. Jet engines. We file in. Monster plane. It's always amazing to think that this much metal will actually get off the ground. I'm the last to get in the plane. Just like I wanted. Last in, first out. Short taxi and we are up. We sit in these sling seats. It's tight. Warm and the constant hum and vibrations of the plane make you sleepy. Suddenly the door opens. Air rushes out of the plane. Temperature drops about 10 degrees. I must have dozed off, I wasn't ready for that. Adrenaline starts cranking. Sergeant Airborne is in the door yelling, hard to understand what he is saying, it's so loud. People standing up. I stand. Hook my chute to the line. Tighten all my straps. Everything starts going into slow motion. He turns to me.... "STAND IN THE DOOR!!" I shuffle forward. I can see the jet engines on the wing outside the door and feel the vacuum-like pull. He puts his hand on my chest and looks at a little red light by the door. For the first time I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look back and see a huge line of camouflaged people standing in a line behind me. All of them with a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them. Air is rushing around us so fast! So loud. Hand on my chest shakes me hard. I snap my head around back to the door. All I see is tree tops. "GET READY!" "GREEN LIGHT GO, GO, GOOOOooooo!" I suddenly realize I'm not in the plane anymore. One One Thousand. Falling at those trees, it seems like 200mph. So loud! Two One Thousand. I look back towards the plane and see what looks like hundreds of people jumping out of it. Three One Thousand. Suddenly it feels like I've been slapped by some giant hand and I realize its just my chute opening. All the noise is suddenly gone! Just like I put my hand over my ears. Then I look around at the view. My God! So beautiful. So peaceful. It seems like I'm not moving. Just hanging in the air a 1000 feet off the ground. There are a bunch of chutes all over the sky now. Looks strange and foreign. Unnatural even. Man wasn't meant to float like this. But it feels like this is one of those rare treats that God gives out sparingly. No time to ponder for long. Ground is getting close! It takes everything to take my eyes off it and look straight ahead like we were taught. Trees tell you when it's close. Execute a perfect PLF. Pull one of your riser clasps. Chute deflates. Wrap it up. Throw it in your bag and run to the buses. Less than an hour later we are standing in formation and the Sergeant Airbornes are walking around shouting about being in an elite club and other things that I half hear. Just then a HUGE man steps in front of me holding a small piece of metal. I feel the tiny points on my chest as he gently pushes it through my uniform. I look down to see the wings. Then feel the hands on my back. Then those points are slammed into my chest with enough force to knock three men over. But I hardly notice. They call them Blood Wings. Hurts like hell when you pull them out of your chest later. "Your Airborne now! Never forget that! Be proud of who you are!" I think the smile stayed on my face for about a week. It wore off slowly as my life came back to a routine. Life tends to do that. But the feeling of jumping out of an airplane and the thrill and joy that comes with it will not ever be forgotten. |
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Family Stories >
Big Airposted Jul 23, 2008 8:55 PM by Marc Morgan |