Doogie320

I'd love to hear your takes on it. My old Guard unit had a rigger that was at Bragg when that happened plus I've heard it from other sources.....all of them said two members of a SMU did it landing near some 7th Group guys doing S/L jumps (I've heard two different DZ though, St. Mere and the other escapes me, it wasn't Sicily); one of the MFF guys was an O, the other an NCO. How true any of this is, I'm not sure. I'm guessing some of it has become a bit of an urban legend, 90% BS, 10% fact, that sort of thing.

Nice to see my old unit was there for Don's service even if I couldn't be. Thank you for posting those, Sid. BSBD,

Twardo, do you mean Crete? I think that was the last major drop by the Germans, although their Airborne fought as groud troops for the rest of the war.

Can you pass an APFT? Good, you just smoked jump school physically. The constant PLFs made me a bit sore, but nothing Motrin didn't cure. Physically, the school is a joke. Slots? Not hard to come by especially if you are in a slot that calls for the "P" identifier on your MTOE/ UMR. I guess your school date will depend on when your unit can send you. Summer is a little tougher because of the ROTC and Academy types that are there taking up the slots for their badge finding trip. Keep your feet and knees together, pay attention to the Black Hats (don't jump off the swing landing trainer), and don't mess with the Regimental guys. The rest will take care of itself. Good luck. Class 44-93

I rolled the tail and used a knee to control the roll until I could put it into the bag.

Well, another one of the good guys is gone... Don, thank you for sitting on a barstool at Flagler and talking to me for hours one day. You will be missed. BSBD, DOL See you at the rally point.

Jordan, I'm a contractor on my second year in Afghanistan with a 6 year (yikes!) layoff in progress. So I have to refresh my gear, retrain, etc. No worries. The important thing to consider is that the sport will be here when you return. I don't know what your job is but everyone in Iraq is a warrior right now. Stay safe, take care of your teammates and yourself, and accomplish your mission(s). We'll be here when you get back. BDBD, D-20712

I had forgotten about him working on the -52. Thank you for jogging my memory. Last I heard he was up in Indiana or Illinois working on a LifeFlight helo as a nurse.

shall, Couldn't get your link to work. Bill Tharp jumped there around that time frame. He was a mentor to me in my learning days in 95-96. Johnny Sumner was teaching at a local community college around 95-96 when I last saw him. They had a DZ there in 98-99 before things got....stupid. Great DZ though, good memories. The locals hated us (we could've done without that). Take care,

Lou, I'm down at Cunningham at BAF. I think I flew through those canyons two weeks ago coming back from Salerno. If we have two different locations in mind, there's some awesome terrain out there as you are aware. My condolences on losing SFC Munoz and SFC Johnson. Take care and be safe,

In talking to some PJ and CCT types, the a/c has some serious drawbacks. Serious enough that the PJ community doesn't want it and is hoping to get the EH-101 or S-92 instead (I think this is going through with the -22 slated to replace the MH-53Js). The CV/MV-22 won't have the capabilities that the MH-47G will have and its (-22) major advantage is speed. It is lacking in armament, cargo capacity, and the horrendous rotor wash makes insertion and extraction difficult. I have no doubt the bugs will be worked out, I just think the a/c's importance is being overstated by its supporters, most of whom won't have to work on/ in it. Would I jump it? Sure. Would I be scared sh--less on the ride to altitude? Hell yeah.

That thing is such a huge piece of crap you'd want to have a rig on and hope you could use it. Some Marine Recon bubbas have jumped it, I'm not sure about AFSOC.

I've seen 3 of our JM's do it from a UH-1H about 2K. The s/l was attached to another jumper's d-ring on the harness. This was about 93-94 and the only O present was the company commander. As for holding the s/l? That almost sounds like an urban legend. IIRC the break cord is around 75 lb. or so.... I'd think the forces involved would be a bit much for a human arm to handle without some injury. I've been wrong before though.

Interesting spin on things by a normally credible channel. The Gatling gun wasn't designed with Indians in mind, but the slaughter of run of the mill white guys during the Civil War. While it was used in Indian campaigns its weight (slightly less than a cannon) made it impracticle to use for most battles with the Natives. It did see some combat during the Spanish American war notably during the fight around San Juan Hill. At that point in US history (and in the world) the opponent didn't matter much, arms makers just wanted to build bigger, more reliable, faster firing rifles. While that leads itself to "massacres" it isn't unique to the US or her campaigns against the natives.

Try Cabelas.com for thermals. I'm in Afghanistan now with a set of their medium weight. A full 2-piece set will run about $40-50 depending on the weight of the fabric. Underarmour is good, it just tends to be a bit thin. For layering it is excellent as a base layer.

The Airborne slice, Market, of Operation Market- Garden contained roughly 20,000 paratroopers of 3 divisions. Operation Varsity, the Airborne support of the Rhine crossing was around 14,000 paratroopers in 2 divisions. Many of these men were glider borne and I do not have exact numbers of those arriving in 'chutes vs. those in canvas and plywood gliders. Additionally, not all of those men were in the air at the same time but it is a safe bet that it exceeds 6 or 7 hundred. I don't know why Guiness doesn't list either of these when it does list the evacuation of the USS Lexington as the greatest life-saving operation ever. Certainly Guiness observers weren't on hand for THAT event either.

I injured my back thanks to a poor PLF doing a military jump with a round. At the time it was thought that I had strained muscles. After several weeks of pain X-rays indicated a hairline fracture in my L-5. I jumped within 6 weeks of my injury, but then again it wasn't THAT serious (as compared to other options). To echo what others have said, each situation is different. Here is what I did to return to mil and civilian jumping: - strengthened my abs: crunches, sit ups, flutterkicks, etc. Back exercises helped obviously, but working my abs was the best thing that I could do (as advised by my Dr.) - Stretch my hamstrings at least twice daily. Really you should do other stretches, but ALWAYS stretch your hammies. - Loosen up before jumping: stretching. - Pack a bit of a snivel. Once I built up my muscles I was able to jump without any special or unusual packing methods and even had some hard openings that didn't bother me. Several years later I DID have a very hard landing that re-injured those back muscles, so I'd say you are more susceptible to future back injuries. To this day even if I don't exercise I will at least do ab exercises. Good luck!