Farewell Arvin Good Guy ~ Mitch Poteet SCR#4

[Star Crest Skydiving Award 3]

We are saddened to recently learn of the passing of Mitch Poteet, one of the most highly respected "Big Way" Relative Work pioneers. He was in the first air-to-air 4, 5, 6 and 8-way star photographs taken by Bob Buquor at Arvin, CA. Mitch is SCR004, he preferred that format because his good friend, Don Henderson, always called himself "007." Mitch typically avoided the spotlight and quietly slipped away from us without much "fanfare." His family provides the following:

 

  "This is in memory of Mitch Poteet who 'flew' with the Arvin Good Guys in the mid-to-late '60s.

    He was drafted in 1967. He opted to join the Marines and was seriously wounded in Vietnam. He spent 6 months in the hospital recovering from serious stomach and body wounds when a mine blew up in front of him.

    He was also awarded two Purple Hearts.

 

    After he was released, Mitch worked on regaining his strength and began jumping again out of Perris, CA and then Elsinore, CA. He joined a team with another buddy, Al Krueger, who had lost an arm at the elbow, in Vietnam. Al's brother, Bud Krueger (RIP), told him he could still jump using his hook, and when he finally tried it, he was good at it. They formed a team calling it 'Captain Hook and the Sky Pirates.' They went on to win many awards and then a Gold medal in the 10-Way Speed Star competition at the first FAI World Championships of Relative Work in Warendorf, Germany in 1975 and then again in 1976 for the United States. The United States Air Force flew the team over. They competed against 13 other countries, winning the Gold.

    It was truly the thrill of their lives.

 

    Mitch was unofficially accepted as being the fastest flier in the speed-star community. He defied the belief in those days that flying fast was easier for the shorter jumpers. Mitch at 6'5" proved the naysayers wrong. He sometimes left the aircraft 10th out and entered the star as early as 7th in. This was confirmed by Chet Bennett, one of Mitch's fellow speed-star competitors. Chet believes Mitch will probably continue to hold that honor because speed-star competition has been replaced with sequential formation flying which allows the jumpers to exit the aircraft already gripped together.

    Mitch retired from jumping after he got home from the Worlds and started his own business.

 

    Mitch Poteet died January 8, 2021 and is survived by Jo Ann, his wife of 25 years."

 

We welcome any stories, comments or corrections from those who knew, or knew of Mitch Poteet back in the day.

 

Fly Free Mitch

Rachael Newell-Machado

 

World's First Photographed Four Man Star

 

World's first four man star over Arvin California, March, 1964

Clockwise from top: Mitch Poteet, Don Henderson, Any Keech, and Lou Paproski

Color Stills: Bob Buquor - courtesy of Don Henderson

Edited October 25 by Star Crest Skydiving Award
left out the 1st part

[ArvinAlP64 9]

Wow Rachael, you finally found him. Not the news we'd hoped for, but it does bring some closure.

I didn't know Mitch that well. In fact, he only ever said 8 words to me. But they proved to be the most meaningful of my jumping career.

It was 60 years ago, on October 17, 1965, that I saw Mitch, followed by Don Henderson, drive onto the dusty parking area of Arvin DZ. Jim Dann and I exchanged slow nods, knowing that something good was going to happen that day. Bob Buquor walked over to me, "Get up a load, and make sure Gary Young's on it." We knew the double-edged excitement of manifesting a Buquor camera-load. Primarily, you knew you were on it, but your other choices better be the "right" people. You had to make sure everyone was packed and then get the list to Pep Hill so she could organize the planes.

A half hour later Mitch said, "Bob wants to talk to you." He walked me over to where Bob was sighting in his helmet-mounted Nikon still-camera. "Can you catch Gary?" So now the base was set. Bob and Gary had started jumping at the same DZ. However today, Bob failed to inform Gary of the exit order, so I had to "break the news." I used the assumptive approach.

As we walked toward the planes, I talked about how Bill Newell would spot and Gary would crawl out first and hang from the far end of the strut of Walt Mercer's Howard. Then how I would be hanging next to Gary, looking at him, while Gary watched Bill in the door for the "GO" signal. Mitch and Bill Stage would follow.

Gary let go with one hand, then the other, which created a "hitch" in the exit. I finally caught him at terminal. A few seconds later, I looked around and everybody was in. Then, what I had intended to be a rebel yell (yee-haw), came off like Gertie when she saw ET. You can see Brian Williams and Newell looking at me. Even Bob, who was on his back, snapping pics below us, remarked later that he could hear me.

So we're walking through the weeds back to the packing tables when Mitch says to me, "Nice pin." Coming from Mitch Poteet, who was there from the beginnings of the discipline, those words were GOLD to me, and still are today. I know when Mitch first returned to jumping, he organized a weekend of "30-way" tries using the original "ring" formation and was in a couple of 26 or 27-ways. Then he went on to the Worlds. What a career!!

It's a shame Rachael, that this news hasn't raised more response here but, like someone else noted, since the site was rescued by the OGs, nobody can find it using the old "Dropzone dot com." That turns up a totally different page with no helpful link to skydiveforum dot com/forums. I'm so glad that you were able to put your message up on your Facebook Star Crest pages where more people will see it.

Fly Free Mitch

Al Paradowski, SCR002

 

[wmw999 2,650]

Oh, it got read all right! It's just that Mitch Poteet was a skygod when I started, and still is. Blue skies, Mitch

Wendy P.