4 day weekend!

Been a long, hellish week too so this so so richly deserved...even though I've only been off of leave for two weeks now. I was on the manifest for three...count 'em THREE jumps this week. Monday afternoon: pre jump and sustained airborne training for tuesday's jump. Tuesday morning...jump is scratched due to rain and wind. Tuesday afternoon: pre jump and sustained airborne training for wednesday's jump. Wednesday...got on an LMTV and ride all the way to Motobu for the ferry over to Ie Shima (hour long ride). We get up to Motobu and...jump is scratched because of sea conditions. Wednesday afternoon: sustaned airborne training for Thursday's jump...Thursday...one the first stick and I actually got to jump! Wahoo! 

Sitting there in the door of the UH 60 (Blackhawk helicopter), feet dangling off the edge, wind a blowing in my face...oh my word but the view of Ie Shima and mainland Okinawa and the Sea of China and everything...so so beautiful. 

So...there I am sitting there, watching the blades rotating just five feet over my head, staring out into the blue ocean and islands, parachute on my back, kevlar on my head, the cargo strap in front of me removed so we can go...we made a dry pass. I was deathly afraid for a few moments that I would fall out when the bird turned for the second pass. In fact...out of some odd 30 trips up in various aircraft, this was the only time I was scared. Never had a jump like this one before...what if I fell out before it was time to go and had to land in the water? What if I shoved off too hard and hit the rotor blades? What if someone's reserve went off and we all had to go at once to avoid being swept out like sardines?

Then it was time...I was the fourth man to go and as I heard that first "execute" for man number one...all fears, all thoughts, all emotions ceased. Four seconds later I was free falling...

"One thousand, two thousand, three thousand..." It was at this point I realized I had my eyes closed...i quickly popped them open.

"Four thousand, five thousand, six tho--" and my chute opened...

This time I played with the steering toggles a bit, running with the wind (man I was going FAST!), turning into the wind to slow, etc. etc. I popped the chest buckle on the chute and about 50 ft from the ground I flared the chute a bit to create a nice soft pocket of air...

Landing was beautifully soft...barely felt any shock or jolt as I fell to my side and did a PLF... Unfortunetly, with the winds as they were (they'd pick up so much later that a lot of soldiers wouldn't get to jump), my chute didn't collapse when I hit and I got dragged a few feet. Popped a riser off and stopped getting dragged...but the chute still didn't fully collapse. I pooped the otehr riser and realized, with a shock, that if I didn't hold that second riser I'd never see that particular parachute again.

There I was, on Ie Shima, clutching the riser of a parachute that was trying to fly away, struggling to get out of my harness. It was rather comical really...

All in all I rather nice jump...and thank goodness I don't have to attend another manifest or do sustained airborne training for a while. I mean...all week I was having this HUGE sense of deja vu!

I love jumping out of helicopters as apposed to airplanes. Since they release us at slower speeds you get more of an actual free fall. With the C 130 airplanes you don't have time for the falling to register before yoru chute opens. With the UH 60 and CH 47s there is just enough time to realize you're falling from 1500+ feet and you have a second or two to enjoy it. God damn but I am SOOOO going to take up free fall sky diving when I get out of the military...

That of course makes me wonder...will I EVER find an inexpensive hobby? I mean, jeesh...rock climbing, DAT taping, traveling, SCUBA diving, and sky diving? Why can't I just have an addiction to paracheesi or something?

Anyway...along those lines...I need to kill this and head down to the SCUBA locker to pick up gear. Going diving in an hour and a half :)

Before I go...one last rumination...now I remember why I stopped using Geocities...maybe one out of every five page loads will load all those pictures I put in my last entry ;P 

current mood:  excited
current music: Tool _Lateralus_ 
 

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