Wednesday, October 5th.
Today we had the last jump we're going to experience for a long time. The wind was high, and the Air Force was about as decisive as Rosie O'Donnell at an all-you-can-eat buffett. Paratrooper injuries go up proportionally with wind speed. Despite some precautions we had eight or nine guys end up in the Field Ambulance (Medic's humvee) after every group had jumped. A Lieutenant I work with ended up with a concussion. I think luck was on my side today, as I had a great exit from the aging C-130H, and also a fairly soft landing on the DZ. After impacting (not landing) back onto the earth, it takes a second to make sure everything is working and is still in the right spot. The Field Ambulances roam the DZ after each chalk (group of paratroopers) lands to make sure everyone is ok. The injury for me was my ID card, which had a corner broken off. I'm not sure how that happened, as it was in my left breast pocket during the jump. I left after jumping, as there were still some things to be accomplished back at the office. I had been on the main post for about five minutes before the clouds started dumping rain. I felt lucky at the time, but unlucky four days later when the rain had not stopped.
