Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: jpulliam@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Jacqueline Pulliam) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Dropping Stuff (was Re: Airborne Operations) Keywords: heavy drop, jumpmaster, door check, faux pas Message-ID: <1990Jul23.202439.6322@cbnews.att.com> Date: 23 Jul 90 20:24:39 GMT References: <1990Jul13.015904.4354@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jul17.032035.23017@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jul18.040832.14212@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington IN. Lines: 34 Approved: military@att.att.com From: jpulliam@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Jacqueline Pulliam) >From: Sam Chamberlain > >By the way, the door check is the highpoint of the jump for the jumpmaster. >At about 60 seconds to the dropzone, the jumpmaster gets to stands on the >little jump platform, forces his (her) feet against the corners of the door, >grabs (hard) on the door rim and leans out as far as possible with elbows >locked and back arched. Several items are checked, like the (correct) dropzone >is ahead, but mostly, you just get to act cool since its hard to tell one DZ >from another, especially at night. However, it is easy to observe if any >airplane behind is below. Yeah, life is grand... See? You start talking about airborne ops and the people who have experienced it start smiling, they sit back and relax, some smoke cigarettes... I'm not saying it's as good as sex, but I'm not saying for sure that sex is as good as it, either. 8-) > >Once in awhile you loose a jumpmaster early (i.e., he falls out). Life is not >easy after that (for awhile). These are the things legend are made of. > >Sam Chamberlain My XO fell out the door on his hang in Jumpmaster school. According to one of his classmates, the scoring clipboard did indeed follow him out 8-). But the point is, he went right back to school, graduated, and has since proven himself to be one of the most professional and proficient jumpmasters I know, other than myself (the occupational hazard for paratroopers is pride 8-). I enjoyed your sketch of the jumpmaster's duties, Sam. John Pulliam