When I went thru jump school in Aug 65, (one of 4 USAF guys in an Army school) we chuted up and sat on the grass, back to back, leaning on each other, off the taxiway, waiting for our plane. A silver C-130 landed and missed our taxiway....wait! The pilot threw the prop pitch in reverse and it backed up! Planes aren't supposed to go backward!
It turned down our taxiway, dropped it's ramp and we walked on. I was on an inboard stick. We took off, no, not nervious yet. On the jump run they open the doors; the smell of JP4 exhaust wafts thru the plane..."outboard stick stand up...hook up...check equipment...sound off equipment check...one by one the count is sent back to the jumpmaster. All eyes are on the jump light, waiting for it to change from red to green. There! The jumpmaster yells "GO!" and swats the first troop on the butt. One by one the troops shuffle back to the door. Looks easy...nervous..NA!
The AF loadmaster activates the staticline retriever that drags the staticlines and deployment bags back inside the plane.
The plane makes a 3 min "racetrack" to get back on the jump run. "Inboard stick, stand up!" OK, now it's our turn. Hook up, follow all training from the last 3 weeks. Nervous, hmm... not yet. Here we go, moving toward the door, I can see out now, couple more steps, turn right...I don't know if the Jumpmaster slapped my butt or not.
Everything suddenly goes in slow motion...I have a tight body position rolling onto my left side...I feel the 50 lb cord break, opening the pack, f a l l i n g, f a l l i n g..UGH! Opening shock! Look up and check canopy...all good! Look at the ground, look around at everyone else. Ground's coming up....point my toes, bend knees...here it comes..hit, shift, roll...jump up, run around the canopy to colapse it.
IS THAT ALL THERE IS TO THIS?! I'm a 1 jump commando!
Next day, jump #2. A repeat of everything yesterday...except, I didn't keep my feet and knees together, didn't keep the training. One of the black hat cadre walkes over to see if I'm OK, then kicks dirt on me and walks away.
The begining of 372 jumps, mixed staticline and freefall, mostly freefall.