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From: akp@isrnix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Re: Parachute joke - (nf)
Message-ID: <1247@pur-ee.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Dec-83 03:35:21 EST
Article-I.D.: pur-ee.1247
Posted: Thu Dec 15 03:35:21 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Dec-83 02:50:23 EST
Sender: notes@pur-ee.UUCP
Organization: Electrical Engineering Department , Purdue University
Lines: 28

#R:sun:-36800:isrnix:7100025:000:1264
isrnix!akp    Dec  9 15:19:00 1983

I have to assume this story is true; it was told by an ex-CIA operative-cum-
English teacher...
	Seems my teacher and two friends were chosen to test the "new" (at
the time) maneuverable parachutes.  They were cool and daring about it, and
things were going without a hitch; they jumped out of the plane, the 'chutes
opened, and they were lazily floating down, occasionally guiding their descent,
talking to one another in the peace of parachute-fall.  Suddenly, it penetrates
that there is a bullhorn calling from the ground: "Number three! Bank left!
Number three! Bank left!"
	"Say, Paul," my teacher said.  "Aren't you number three?"
	"Yup," replied Paul casually.
	"BANK LEFT!!!"
	But it was too late. He was only feet from the ground, and managed to
strike the obstacle which had caused so much worry. He sheared the skin from
the outside of his right leg on the top corner of...
	...an ambulance.
	Nothing like a little luck, is there? Of all the things to hit...

							-- Allan Pratt

(this teacher was asked (repeatedly, as I recall) about his adventures as an
operative for the CIA (stationed in Central and South America). When asked
if he'd ever been shot at, he replied cryptically, "Yes, but at the time it
didn't matter."  Can YOU figure it out?)