No day is a good day for a parachute jump, or so I am whining. There are actually many halcyon days out there that are bright and beautiful for airdrops. However, my chickens**t fear refuses me to take notice of the glory of jumping on a light weather day.
My battalion colonel was a true admirer of days with beautiful weather. He just loved a good ol’ daytime light-weather jump and was blatant about moving the schedule around vigorously to allow himself enough time to slip away and strap-hang on another unit’s airborne operation.
Colonel James, or James Roosh as was his name, would sit high in the saddle and jump any day.
However, some days, (most days, I say), I would pout that the winds low on the ground were suddenly squirrelly and too rough to jump in. That flags a man as cowardly; an event you shouldn’t want to invite upon yourself for fear of being shunned.
Once, even the good Colonel Roosh happened to get tangled in a parcel of squirrelly air. And it dragged him out over the nearby golf course.
He was having too much fun to chop away his canopy. And when he landed, instead of stowing away his parachute, he politely allowed himself to be dragged the near breadth of the golf course until he uttered his classic phrase:
“AHOY THERE… MIND IF I PLAY THIS ONE THROUGH??”
Not even the post commander could possibly be mad at that episode. As for me I look at the event, decide if anyone was hurt, or any property damaged, and if I can say negative to both questions then there was no reportable event. PLAY BALL!
By Almighty God and with honor,
geo sends
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Geo, the more stories I hear about jumps, the less appealing it sounds (I prefer my feet planted flat on the ground LOL).
I suppose if you are to be dragged around by a parachute, there would be no better place than a golf course, the grass seems to be so much softer than a football field.
Thanks Geo.
YP, interesting story of parachute jumpers of the RLI, thank you.
Ain’t that the truth, Mrs. Joie!
geo sends
Well documented George! A combat drop was made on a golf course… in 1945 at the top of a cliff…. Corregidor in the Philippines… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_CGSuXzGIw
-Yankee Papa-
YP,
you are the best of the best. Thanks for posting and adding a relative link.
all respect,
geo sends
When I returned to the States, my description of Rhodesian parachute doctrine was flatly disbelieved by some who viewed as mere “tall tales…” Leaving aside the Rhodesian SAS (and some other special units)…just referring to the Rhodesian Light Infantry (regulars… many foreign volunteers served with them…) … Jumps from DC-3s… “Dakotas…” “Lazy Old Daks”… RLI ultimately jump trained and often sub-units so deployed… Good news was backup chute not needed… on the other hand…
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“…Because the RLI soldiers could now parachute into action, some changes were made to Fireforce procedure. For a start, the number of G-cars (choppers) in a Fireforce was reduced; only three of the eight sticks—12 of the 32 men—would now be dropped by helicopter, with the remainder jumping from a Paradak.[1] To prevent themselves from becoming easy targets for ground fire, the RLI paratroopers would jump from low altitudes so they would be in the air for as short a time as possible. The regulation height decreed by the Rhodesian Security Forces was 500 feet (150 m), but in practice it was much lower, sometimes as low as 300 feet (91 m).[4] The lowest recorded operational jump by an RLI soldier was from a height of 217 feet (66 m).[5] Jumps such as this would give the parachute barely enough time to open before the Rhodesian soldier landed, and landing could be dangerous as the terrain was often rough or rocky. However, the men of the RLI quickly became skilled paratroopers. On operations, they would jump from the Paradak door as quickly as possible, one after the other, so they would land close together and around the same time: a seasoned group of 20 RLI men would jump in less than 20 seconds. They would exit the aircraft in the order desired on the ground, with the commander in the middle of the stick.[4]
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The men of the Rhodesian Light Infantry made more parachute jumps than any other military unit in history. While an Allied paratrooper of the Second World War would be considered a “veteran” after one operational jump, an RLI paratrooper could make three operational jumps in a single day, each in a different location, and each preceding a successful contact with the enemy.[3] Between 1976 and 1980, over 14,000 jumps were recorded by the Rhodesian Security Forces as a whole. The world record for operational jumps by an individual soldier is held by Corporal Des Archer of 1 Commando, RLI, who made 73 operational jumps between 1977 and the end of the war.[4]”
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Yankee Papa
Amazing video on the jump into Corregidor. What better place to jump than a golf course — soft, green, cropped grass. It was a priceless scene to see the golf course covered in white canopies where at such point they streaked down the cliff and onto the beach to be picked up by rescue cutters and placed back in the fight.
I’m watching part two of the battle of Corregidor now.
geo sends
Not much “soft green grass” after U.S. naval and air assets had worked over topside for many days… Still…it was all there was… YP
Geo, That sounds like a scene right out of Stripes, Spies Like Us or Top Secret!. Lol!!