Airborne!!!

A C130 flew over the campground at around 0900 so we hustled to the car and took off for Fryar Drop Zone, Description at LINK. This is where the Airborne School does the training drops.

I clobbered in here in 1963 when my main chute had a partial failure and my reserve failed.  I was terrified at being recycled and have to repeat Tower Week. They hauled me to the hospital and said take 2 salt tablets and drive on (that's what we did in '63). I jumped the next day and they hauled my butt back to Lawson to get another drop in. Later I found that I had several fractured vertebrata...but I didn't get recycled! Airborne!

The 130's take off from very nearby Lawson Army Airfield and climb to altitude in minutes...the flight time is minuets. They drop, land, and reload. Usually there are 2 130's doing this over and over again because 300 students need to get 5 drops.Weather was iffy. As we pulled in a 130 was on final. We rushed out and got some pictures.



Afterwards talked with the "Black Hat" NCO in charge, SSG Williams from Richmond VA. Black Hats are instructors and are to be feared (but very respected). What a Soldier he is. He said this was a winds aloft test by cadre...i..e., jokingly, wind dummies. Winds were too high for novices so no more jumps today. He will text us in the AM if they're dropping then.

BTW, I had a generational incident with SSG Williams (a Black Hat and Senior Jumper). I said I had a "Mae West" on my 2nd jump here on this very field (and 2 guys were dragged to death in high winds). He had no clue as to what I was talking about. I'll confess that Mae West was before my time but I understood the reference to the chute being diminished by suspension lines dividing it in half...where it looks like a bra...something Mae West was famous for it seems. Here is a site that explains it: LINK

Murica!!!!

They need to jump about 300 students 5 times in one week. Weather is hurting that. 

After this we explored main Post. Took some pix of the Airborne School. Don't know where the students were.

The 250" Towers. They pull you up by your chute and hold you there for a few minutes. Then, a few feet more and you are popped loose and it becomes a normal parachute drop without the need for an airplane. Alas, SSG Williams told me they don't use them much anymore because they were made to use with a circular T-10 type parachutes. The new T-11's are more square (LINK) plus they drop further before catching air which makes it sketchy when you only have 250' to work with. Airplane drops in training are from 1250". 

The 34" towers. You climb up and hook up on to a zip line. On command, you exit as if in a plane. A Black Hat sitting in a chair grades your exit. If he doesn't like it, you climb the tower again. And again. And again. I liked the 34's...they were fun.

C-119. What a beast. Jumped it several times and worst plane ever. The ones we jumped in '63 looked just as bad.

Later we visited the Infantry Museum  LINK. What a fantastic facility. They must have had Hollywood audio visual help. Very moving.

but she wanted to see it, 

What a great day. About 6 hours tomorrow to New Orleans. Robin is all excited about getting lots of beads in the French Quarter!

What did we learn today?

• Soldiers like SSG Williams make us very proud and enable us to sleep well at night. Love being in contact with today's military. They give me comfort. We're in good hands with them.
• I'm so happy that I stumbled into being a soldier as a career. Who knows where I would have ended up in anything else. I wish I could say that it was all the result of careful planning but it wasn't. Pure dumb luck. Like meeting Robin. 
• Happy to see Robin sucking in the Hooah Army stuff. I was ready to blow off the museum. So glad we didn't.