At 02:11 PM 12/15/04 -0600, you wrote:
>"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" starring Lt. Charlie Williams!
>
>Was he ever lucky!
>
>Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
>
>
>
>Lt. Charlie Williams of the Royal Army plummeted 3,500 feet
>after his parachute failed to open, but a corrugated iron
>roof of a Kenyan hut broke his fall.
Yep, when I first to FT. Campbell 1965 (Assigned to 101st Airborne)
the AF was still flying C-119 (boxcars) along with other transports.
when we go up to jump, along with the aircrew, and the jumpers, were
two "Safety NCO's" whose job it was oversee the drop and then
assist the aircrew in recovering the deployment bags and other
duties. These 2 did not jump and flew back to the airfield to
turn in the bags.
in 1966 we had a night drop, we dropped and off flew the planes.
one C-119 had a gear problem, that prevented them from landing at CAAF
safely
the aircrew elected to fly to another field that had better emergency
equipment and facilities. The safety NCOs were given the option to
go with the plane or jump, however they only had the AF backpack style
chutes, they both elected to jump on the DZ that was next to CAAF.
one landed OK, the other was found in the soft dirt next to a stand of trees.
they determined that even though he was rated as a masterparachutist
and jumpmaster, he had NOT ever used a AF chute and appeared to have
not pulled the D-ring, while waiting for the static line to open his chute
as he was accustomed.
MAJOR RULE CHANGE.. ALL 101st jumpers will ONLY use static line chutes
even IF they only flying as safety or observers... from that time on..
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