I am not sure if this is the right spot for this story but here it goes. Part of this tale I can personaly vouch for (the small part I play in it) and part I cannot. There might very well be someone out there who can verify it or "throw the bullshit flag" as it were. When I was stationed in Hawaii with the 25th Inf. I made many jumps with the military club that was there at the time. In the fall of 82 I stopped at the class 6 store for some liquid refreshment to be consumed after jumping that day As was my habit (and still is) I picked up a copy of the Army Times. In the front section was a small story about a paragraph or two long describeing a recent jump at Ft. Bragg that went wrong. A young soldier rode a streamer malfunction in but to everyones suprise he survived with only a few sprains and bruises. Well that paper was passed around and everyone agreed that soldier was one lucky SOB! Fast Forward to 1989. Yours truly was working at that time at a lumber yard called "84 Lumber". One fine cold winter day two gentlemen from Mojave drove in and purchased a garage package from me. As I was assisting them in building the load of lumber on their truck, I noticed that one guy was wearing a field jacket with a SF patch on it. I asked him if he was a veteran. He stated that he had been assigned to the SF in Bragg as part of the support company, and while not being "tabbed" as a full operator he was airborne qualified and as such on occasion he would get to do currency jumps with the teams. I asked him when he had been assigned there. He said "79 to 83" . I had a flash of recall and asked him if he had heard of the incident. He and his friend then started to laugh so hard that they had to lean on the side of their truck. I told the guy that he was on of the luckiest men that I had ever met. He looked at me while trying to get his breath and said"Dude, you don't know the story" This is what he told me. When he was loading up to do a jump with the teams one of the guys who had been in since Christ was a coporal smuggled on a pet. The pet was an orangatang. A rig had been modified and the idea was to put the unfortunate primate out on a jump. Well every thing went as scheduled until the orangatang was put out of the plane. The poor beast freaked out, started climbing the risers, spilled the air out of the canopy and SPLAT, scratch one ape. As the troopers were gathered around the dead pet/mascot they hear on the radio that another unit on a different part of the dropzone had witnessed the "accident" and a MEDDAVAC was enroute. To further complicate matters the ADC (assistant division comander) was out and about inspecting training and had heard the radio traffic and was also enroute. This was an "oh shit what the fuck are we gonna do now moment" The old MSG in charge did not waste time. He pointed at the young soldier and said "You have just survived a most catstrophic parachute accident" They put a rig on the young man and instructed him to hold on to bumper of on of the support vehicles commonly known as a "gamma goat" They drug him down a jeep trail with the orders to "let go when it starts to hurt" The young man did as he was ordered. They laid out his canopy and the NCOIC said "their coming son, make sure you moan REAL good" In a short time the medics arrived along with the ADC. They found the young man moaning for all he was worth and thus a maraicle was recorded. Whenever I tell this story it never fails to get a laugh. When I tell it to SF veterans that I run into from time to time they say "its just crazy enough to be true" You have to admit it makes for a great tale.
