From July 1978 until my separation from active duty in January 1979 I was assigned to the 6th Marines Regiment S-3 office at Camp LeJeune as the Assistant Operations Chief. While stationed there I had the opportunity to join the camp skydiving club. $40 covered our training and the first three jumps. When we jumped we parachuted from CH-46 or CH-53 helicopters. Other than the jump suits and helmets, the equipment was provided by the club. After the first three jumps we only had to pay $1 per jump which helped cover the cost of buying lunch for the helo pilots. The club members included everyone from rookies like me to Marines who had hundreds of jumps to their credit. One of the things I learned when we put our parachute rigs on was that the harness was supposed to fit snuggly which could be pretty uncomfortable. After my 7th or 8th jump I decided not to tighten the harness as tight as I had in the past. The hike to the helicopter and ride to jump altitude were more comfortable than they had been in the past but I soon learned why it was important to keep the harness tight. When I jumped out of the helo and my parachute opened it felt like my groin had been yanked up into my throat. I didn’t even try to steer the parachute but instead was kicking my legs up and trying to loosen the straps between my legs. I was told later by my fellow club members on the ground that they thought that I had gotten my legs caught in the parachute shroud lines and was trying to get them untangled. Somehow I managed to land in the drop zone even though I never steered my chute. I laid there for a few moments trying to catch my breath and some of the other members came running over to check on me. When I told them what had happened they all laughed. I guess I learned an important lesson the hard way. I think it took me about a week to stop speaking in a falsetto voice and to walk normally.
The title of the story should have been “A Lesson Learned”. The title “It’s a Gas” was from another story.
While on Embassy duty in Munich Germany my duty buddy and myself joined a sky diving club. We did our three static line jumps. Waiting for the day to end we watched a LT do his first free fall and had May west. (Line over the canopy). Our next jump the next week was to be our first free fall. For some reason we got busy and never did return. Always regretted never returning.
This happened in 1969 or 1970
Joined the Cherry Point Club in ’71 and made my first two static line jumps in Wilson, N.C. The Club managed to get the Duty Crew of a CH-46 on base to allow us to make a couple of jumps one weekend also. Then the Top sent a bunch of us to Iwakuni…there I got a jump out of a USMC C-47 and a Navy S-2. Then sent to MCAS Rose Garden, Thailand. One of the Office POGs/jumpers was assigned to the Generals’ Staff. GREAT BIG Guy with one Star….almost fell over myself coming to attention when meeting him. Really nice guy, said he used to jump large cargo chutes, I am guessing T-10s, until the Corps “suggested” he stop. The office POG was a former Army retread, so he hooked up with the local Green Beret detachment that was there training the Thais. They offered us a chance to make a static line jump, but my Command “convinced” me it was not in my best interest to “injure” myself.
Mike Cushing ’69 – ’75