mark 107
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and he sends photo of himself "all dressed up" in uniform
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Do you have the photo? The uniform would have jump wings on it??
edited: The photo would not have wings if the 501s wasent formed until 1942
and he sends photo of himself "all dressed up" in uniform
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Do you have the photo? The uniform would have jump wings on it??
edited: The photo would not have wings if the 501s wasent formed until 1942
Quote
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and he sends photo of himself "all dressed up" in uniform
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Do you have the photo? The uniform would have jump wings on it??
edited: The photo would not have wings if the 501s wasent formed until 1942
His brother provide a color copy of the letter, but since they were sent to him by his sister she may not have sent the photo. The only photos are Navy taken right after basic. I do not know what happened to anything his sister had after her death.
I expect most was destoyed - she was adamant that I leave the past in the past... and because of her health I did not ever press her. She turned it over to the brother - both are deceased now, but in 1996 when I contacted the FBI both were alive and in good health...the FBI never spoke to either of them about Duane. The brother had not seen Duane since the 50's when his mother died, but Duane and the sister kept in touch....and Duane went to visit her in Modesto - Oakdale (where the note was mailed to a Newspaper by Cooper or someone claiming to be him) is right there.
Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber
The letter is dated April 15, 1943 - SO this does make some sense. In this letter he states " glad you received papers, I tried to take out $10,000 in insurance but they would only allow me $8000 because of my $2000 Navy insurance. I also had my bonds signed over to you. The chemical end of it is just as good as anything else. Maybe I will get a chance to see John soon(his brother). He might get shipped to Camp Sibert Ala before he goes across."
Duane has already been kicked out of the Navy and is going for the Army? - I do not see how he got into the Army at all? 
Also - please note this --- in the 80's we went to Al. and we had to go thru Columbus for something...Duane took a swing South on the Georgia side and I do not remember how far we went, but he made this statement which I have told about before... and what he told me didn't make sense and now with this it makes less sense.
He showed me an area and pointed out a duplex - and said "That's were we used to live"...I do not know who he was referring to - supposedly one of his wives and nor do I know the time frame in his life he was referring to..none of the wives I have knowledge of ever lived in Columbus. After this he points to an area - and said "Over there is were we used to jump".
I thought nothing of what he said about Jumping and only retorted that he was never in the army.
His reply "Anyone can get into the army in war time" He immediately changed the subject and I did not ask anymore. Now I know he was in the army, but the thing that bugs me is that he said 'Over there is were we used to jump."
This letter indicates he was in the army and is mailed from an army address but something he says on the end of the letter is ODD: "I only have one more week on detention and then I can go anywhere on the base. That sure will be a relief. I'm sure that boy will be a alright if you people use your head at Akron and keep his location a secret because this boy is making good and wants to keep right on." I don't understand the letter.
He ends up in CA and on probation. In Jan of 1945 a letter is sent to his mother in Montobello, CA (do not have a clue WHY his family moved during that time) - from a probation Officer informing her that Duane has been arrested in Rockford, Ill and is being sent back to CA. Then he is sent to McNeil Prison in WA.
I have always wondered WHY he would have been sent to a prison in WA. and not in CA.????
That arrangement sounds very ODD unless McNeil had some kind of program going on that might salvage this wayward young man. His parents were people who would have sought the best circumstances for him - but as we all know he continued in this life of crime and went to several prisons with the last one being Jefferson and his sentence was "commuted". A criminal who had already been in at least 6 prisons and several jails for a period of 17 yrs. is commuted) he never goes back to prison ) 3 wks before Martin Luther King is assassinated by an acquaintance James Earl Ray.
There is just something wrong with this whole picture.
I have not reveal this much detail about Duane's past - but NOW IS THE TIME to not hold anything back. If I am going to find any resolutions I need all the help I can get and that means putting it right front of all of you.
Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber
Columbus is the home of Fort Benning, which, in turn, is the home of the US Army Airborne School. As far as I can remember, all of the DZs at Benning are on the other side of the river (in Alabama). Was he pointing towards Alabama when he said "Over there is where we used to jump."?
Also, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense that he was not only allowed into the Army after being discharged from the Navy, but that he was made a paratrooper.
Also, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense that he was not only allowed into the Army after being discharged from the Navy, but that he was made a paratrooper.
I am trying to remember exactly what we did in Columbus - I thought we were on the East side of the river. I guess I need to go up there and see if I can get the feel of it. I am also trying to put this trip in the right time frame - had to be between 1980 and 1989. I wil try to take myself back in time and give you a more accurate date.
I know that on that same day - we went to an old ghost town - all of the buildings had old furniture in them. He was going to go into one of the shops to see an old friend...but he asked me to stay in the car. He was taking a long time and I went in. I simply told him I was getting bored in the car and that I needed to use the ladies room. I was told were the facility was and then wandered around the back making sure I stayed out of hearing range.
Duane was annoyed that I came in.
He made a brief introduction to the man - one word for the name no last name. They were having a very serious talk and keeping it low. I want to say that the first name of the man was something like Sarge or Cap (in that category). If you are familiar with that area - help me out here.
I know that on that same day - we went to an old ghost town - all of the buildings had old furniture in them. He was going to go into one of the shops to see an old friend...but he asked me to stay in the car. He was taking a long time and I went in. I simply told him I was getting bored in the car and that I needed to use the ladies room. I was told were the facility was and then wandered around the back making sure I stayed out of hearing range.
Duane was annoyed that I came in.
He made a brief introduction to the man - one word for the name no last name. They were having a very serious talk and keeping it low. I want to say that the first name of the man was something like Sarge or Cap (in that category). If you are familiar with that area - help me out here.
Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber
Orange1 0
QuoteAlso - please note this --- in the 80's we went to Al. and we had to go thru Columbus for something...Duane took a swing South on the Georgia side and I do not remember how far we went, but he made this statement which I have told about before... and what he told me didn't make sense and now with this it makes less sense.
... After this he points to an area - and said "Over there is were we used to jump".
Jo, I don't recall you having posted this before? Forgive me if I have forgotten if you did, but if you hadn't... why wait till now, and why theorize about possible prison programs etc before posting this? Surely this comment would have been important enough to put in your very first post rather than waiting so very long?
Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.
I honestly don't think military paratrooper training matters one way or another. Static line jumps out of a C47 aren't anywhere close to a freefall out of a passenger jet. At most, military training would let him know what he didn't know about skydiving and would cause him to go get civilian training. I think putting him at a civvie DZ is really the important part, from a jumping factor.
mark 107
QuoteI honestly don't think military paratrooper training matters one way or another. Static line jumps out of a C47 aren't anywhere close to a freefall out of a passenger jet. At most, military training would let him know what he didn't know about skydiving and would cause him to go get civilian training. I think putting him at a civvie DZ is really the important part, from a jumping factor.
That would be true for smoke-jumper training as well.
Mark
Orange1 0
QuoteI think putting him at a civvie DZ is really the important part, from a jumping factor.
agreed, but so far (and it's been a very long thread in terms of both time and # of posts) we don't have him near any type of parachute at all
...Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.
I told the FBI, Himmelsbach. As time goes on more and more is slipping away. This is one of the reasons I am here - to NOW tell everything I can remember.
I have told this story before - if not here then to anyone who would listen.
I even called Fort Benning - I have to go back to that record before I tell you what happened with that call. It WAS very strange, but I would prefer to go back to the written notes of that time so I get it right. If I get it wrong I could destroy someone's career or retirement. I would rather relate that conversation in a phone call to authorities that I could trust - the FBI ignored it.
Stated Duane had never been in the Army??????
I have told this story before - if not here then to anyone who would listen.
I even called Fort Benning - I have to go back to that record before I tell you what happened with that call. It WAS very strange, but I would prefer to go back to the written notes of that time so I get it right. If I get it wrong I could destroy someone's career or retirement. I would rather relate that conversation in a phone call to authorities that I could trust - the FBI ignored it.
Stated Duane had never been in the Army??????
Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber
QuoteQuoteI think putting him at a civvie DZ is really the important part, from a jumping factor.
A greed, but so far (and it's been a very long thread in terms of both time and # of posts) we don't have him near any type of parachute at all...
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Sorry,
I hope I have not bored you - every thing needs to be explored. You could talk to me for yrs and everytime you might learn something new. How do you remember everything one says and does in a 17 yr marriage. Putting him in a chute is why I am here - I need the help of everyone because the FBI is not going to do it.
Exactly why I have explored every avenue - why I am trying to put out there anything in our marriage
that happened or was said that might involve a chute or any experience regardless of how remote.
Remember this: A place in CO he took my daug and I around 1978. They were para-gliding or para-sailing off of cliffs in the Boulder area. He explained in Detail what they were doing to guide the thing - one was standing near us - he pointed out things on the apparatus. He was showing excitement - ? This was definitely not his first experience with this.
He did live in the Boulder area for quiet some time in the 60's- you see I forget to say some of the things that are important. His wife had family there.
Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015 by Jo Weber
ltdiver 3
Merry Christmas, Jo! 
Lori
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon
this is how long I have known the FBI had LOST the Cigarettes butts: So you see it is not NEW information.
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Jun 22, 2003 9:28 PM
homes4ubyjo - Thank You Mr. Hughes
I looked eveywhere for what you found and I have contacted the station for a copy of the tape. They may doubt his confession, but they cannot doubt what I have found nor the fact that I held the airline ticket in my hand. They have not been in contact with me in several yrs regarding any new evidence I may have found. One is that the original artist who did the composites was interviewed by Doug Pasternack for 2 hrs or so and he revealed to Doug something he was not able to portray. Doug did not reveal what it was to me on the phone, but I told him what it was and that did it...I would never doubt Duane's confession. There is no way I could have pulled that one particular thing out of a hat...it was a habit that my husband had and I keep it under my hat until I can talk to Tina Mucklow...she or one of the stewardess told the artist about this and it was never revealed to the public. How could I know what it was...if Duane was not Cooper. I still want to know what they are using for DNA.
They claimed to have lost the cigarette butts and the tie was handled by many people over the yrs and was probably purchased from a used store.
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4 yrs they still haven't found those darn butts and my stand today - Dec 28 of 2007 is the same as in June of 2003. Also note the recent surfacing of that composite done for the benefit of Florence Shaffner - has only enforced my stand - that expression - it is there . Even then before any DNA was done in late 2006 - I contended that the tie was handled and used.
That Mouse conquered his fear and he did good. He went to Times Square for New Yrs with his lady.....He bought her a new car and one for himself and Minnie went off to CA in search of a new life without Mouse. Yrs later Mouse contacts Minnie and finds she's been a bad girl - Mouse is very ill and he doesn't know what to do - Minnie's done let that cat out of the bag.
HAPPY NEW YR. Not drunk just another one of those things I'm sitting on.
Ckret 0
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec07/dbcooper123107.html
bozo 0
Cooper was no expert skydiver. “We originally thought Cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a paratrooper,” says Special Agent Carr. “We concluded after a few years this was simply not true. No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky.Quotehttp://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec07/dbcooper123107.html
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Ckret, I thought you had your shit together. If you wrote this you still dont have a clue about skydiving nor skydivers. Dude....its all about the risk.
bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.
Ckret 0
I saw "Point Break."
I don't know the history of sport jumping, however, from the investigation in 1971 it was determined there would be few if any 45 to 50 year old's at a drop zone chasing the high. it is for this reason and many others that we came to the conclusion he is not one of you.
I am sure it is much different today, I am sure the sport is full of the over 40 group.
I don't know the history of sport jumping, however, from the investigation in 1971 it was determined there would be few if any 45 to 50 year old's at a drop zone chasing the high. it is for this reason and many others that we came to the conclusion he is not one of you.
I am sure it is much different today, I am sure the sport is full of the over 40 group.
bozo 0
QuoteI saw "Point Break."
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Is this what you have based your skydiving knowledge on ??????? Get serious.
I hope youre kidding.
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I don't know the history of sport jumping, however, from the investigation in 1971 it was determined there would be few if any 45 to 50 year old's at a drop zone chasing the high. it is for this reason and many others that we came to the conclusion he is not one of you.
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And....thats one of the reasons youve never caught him.
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I am sure it is much different today, I am sure the sport is full of the over 40 group.
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I'm way over 40.
bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.
QuoteI'm way over 40.
Yea and your idea of "chasing the high" is jump rope'n with your walker and playing grab ass on the nurses down @ the VA...........
you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo
bozo 0
QuoteQuoteI'm way over 40.
Yea and your idea of "chasing the high" is jump rope'n with your walker and playing grab ass on the nurses down @ the VA...........
Ya just had to come and out me dint ya ?
bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.
Guru312 0
QuoteI'm way over 40.
And I am way, way over 40.
Oh, and I'm still not DB Cooper.
Guru312
I am not DB Cooper
I am not DB Cooper
Ckret 0
yes I am kidding about the movie.
Bozo, maybe you posted and I missed it in this very long thread, but what information can you provide that points to Cooper being a sport jumper or a paratrooper. The whole point in going public was to get information and a new perspective.
Bozo, maybe you posted and I missed it in this very long thread, but what information can you provide that points to Cooper being a sport jumper or a paratrooper. The whole point in going public was to get information and a new perspective.
labrys 0
This sport sees more than it's share of people doing things way over their abilities and training doing things they have no business doing all the time and I'm guessing that was as true 35 years ago as it is now.
Why would it be that far out of line to imagine a guy with no formal training but 1 or maybe 2 static line jumps thinking that they could manage to pull a ripcord and live? Someone with the balls to hijack a plane might have the balls to jump without a lot of practice, right?
Why would it be that far out of line to imagine a guy with no formal training but 1 or maybe 2 static line jumps thinking that they could manage to pull a ripcord and live? Someone with the balls to hijack a plane might have the balls to jump without a lot of practice, right?
Owned by Remi #?
Zing 2
Well, here's a perspective on Cooper being an experienced (to some degree) jumper.
An experienced jumper who hijacked an airliner in 1971 and requested specific sport-type gear (meaning a sport main and reserve parachute system) would realize that that action would point investigators toward looking for an experienced jumper. A relatively small population to sort through at that time.
At the same time, an experienced jumper would know that asking for multiple parachutes would get him a selection of gear, and he'd know that an emergency backpack rig, like an NB6 would suffice to make the leap.
I'd have no problems going off the airstair door of that airplane at 10 grand, 200 mph, in the dark with an NB6 emergency rig with a 26' Navy conical in it ... no prob at all for $200,000 1971 dollars.
Since neither harness was equipped with front-mount D-rings for a sport reserve, I'd cut up the good one to get the cords I need to secure the money, and I'd toss the phony front-mount training reserve out the door to make the cops think I bounced.
I could go on, but still I think Cooper's hijack plan was much better thought out than the FBI and a lot of jumpers choose to believe. I also think it more likely that he survived the jump than that he bounced.
An experienced jumper who hijacked an airliner in 1971 and requested specific sport-type gear (meaning a sport main and reserve parachute system) would realize that that action would point investigators toward looking for an experienced jumper. A relatively small population to sort through at that time.
At the same time, an experienced jumper would know that asking for multiple parachutes would get him a selection of gear, and he'd know that an emergency backpack rig, like an NB6 would suffice to make the leap.
I'd have no problems going off the airstair door of that airplane at 10 grand, 200 mph, in the dark with an NB6 emergency rig with a 26' Navy conical in it ... no prob at all for $200,000 1971 dollars.
Since neither harness was equipped with front-mount D-rings for a sport reserve, I'd cut up the good one to get the cords I need to secure the money, and I'd toss the phony front-mount training reserve out the door to make the cops think I bounced.
I could go on, but still I think Cooper's hijack plan was much better thought out than the FBI and a lot of jumpers choose to believe. I also think it more likely that he survived the jump than that he bounced.
Zing Lurks
This topic is now closed to further replies.
How old do I have to be to qualify?
The Navy never has run jump schools to see if their recruits were Army material.
The US Army Parachute Test Platoon validated the airborne concept in August 1940. The first airborne regiment (the 501st) wasn't formed until 1942, too late for even a motivated pre-Seal to join before getting court-martialed. The first jump school was organized at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1942.
Also, the pre-requisite for smoke jumper is experience as a wildland firefighter. Any documentation of firefighting experience?
Mark
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