Thanks for the briefing!

It was night as we loaded the six C-141’s with paratroopers. The Division routinely sent soldiers down to Panama for jungle training, and that was where we were headed. Why were we jumping when we could have landed? Well, we were Airborne!, and we never landed when we could jump. I was jumpmaster on the sixth aircraft. We were carrying about half the amount of troopers as normal because we were going to “in flight rig”, so we needed the extra space for all the parachutes. On long flights, it would have been a literal real pain to wear the chutes all the way down to Panama.

After chuting up, and doing all the jumpmaster checks, we were very ready to get out of the plane. I remember leaning out of the open door to check for safety issues. To my left I could see the five C-141’s ahead dropping their troopers, and to my front, or to starboard of the aircraft I could see the ships in the Panama Canal. It was one of those moments that I wish I could have put on “hold”. It was a truly amazing scene. It was something that “legs” will never see.

After the last man was out, I jumped, and for the only time in my jumping career I must have not put my head down, because my “deployment bag” slapped me across the back of my helmet. The force of the slap was impressive, and I was glad I was wearing a helmet. My camo cover was ripped off, and was hanging down over my face, which caused some disorientation. It is hard to be properly oriented when you can’t see. However, I soon had the cover off, and all was well.

Our drop zone was Gatun DZ. I could see some Special Forces guys running the DZ for us. I also noticed that there was a rock road down the middle of the DZ, and I was heading right for it. Since we had MC1-1 chutes, I had some control so I steered away from the road. Then when I was much lower I noticed that the rest of the DZ had a shallow water covering. (Of course it did, this was Panama.) Well, I did not make it back to the road, and got wet.

Thanks for the briefing!