zoobrothertom

QuoteIt's Cal Callahan of the 7th Army Parachute Team, Tempelhof Airport Berlin. September 16th and 17th 1972 at the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force. This was the first parachute jumps made over Berlin since the end of WW2. I was right behind him on the demo. I remember that we were only allowed to go to 3000' everything above that was Soviet controlled airspace. A strange thing about this demo was the close proximity of the wall to the landing zone which made direction of jump run and spotting the P.C.'s difficult to say the least. ---------------------------------------------------------- I jumped into the 1936 Olympic stadium in Berlin in 86 or 87 (don't have my logbook handy) for a marathon hosted by the French Army. The French team was 'too busy' to jump with us. So, us Yanks jumped with the Brits. No protestors but we did get snubbed by the commanding general who didn't want the engraved Baton the Brits landed with. So the Brit SGM said to hell with him and gave it to us (US Army). Berlin sure looks small from the air! BTW, was that big jet a DC-10 or L1011? ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

The large twin is definitely a DC-10 or L-1011. My guess is Germany somewhere in the early 70s. Off the nose of the twin is an odd WWI German looking symbol painted on the concrete. BTW the way, awesome photo of the jumper looking down! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

QuoteThanx Nick! The next page isn't as good, but after that they got better. My first jump was signed by Dick Spates (D-6224) but it was actually his X-wife, Theresa, that put me out. (I did get to jump with her a few years later when I ran into her in Coolidge.) Dick did put me out my second jump The rest are signed by Wayne "Smitty" Smith (D-8715), Bob Young (D-3976), Billy Sokol (D-9098), & Lenny Luzak (C-16801). (edited to ask: Where are they today?) -------------------------------------------------------- LSC!! That brings back some memories! I was stationed at Ft. Monmouth and used to take the bus over to LSC on Friday after school. Don't forget co-owner Joey (?). I'll get my page scanned soon. Theresa Spates put me out on a 15 second delay for some turns. I buffeted a little, but did my turns. She wrote "uncontrolled turns" in my logbook. I couldn't figure it out. Then I realized she wasn't wearing her glasses! I added my own "correction" to her entry. . Here's another one you don't see nowadays. I arrived at LSC on 5 second delays with my own gear. A Starlite in a Starlite container. AAD, what's that?

---------------------------------------------------------- Are guys talking about the '83 convention where Norman Kent premiered the "Freak Brothers" movie in the hangar? The Booze Brothers and Rare Earth rocked the place down that night! I got my #FB 1371 at the '83 convention, so I figure we were there at the same time. At least I think I was there ... I remember arriving and departing and not much in between! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Here's a poster that I still have from 1983 when Chris was jumping at Decatur, TX. Chris was a good friend and lived on the DZ in a small hangar that he'd made into the coolest apartment. The poster was left behind in the apartment where I found it very shortly after he departed for the Army. Had an erie feeling then that I needed to grab it and hang on to it. ---------------------------------------------- Thanks for posting the poster! I had forgotten that Chris reenlisted for the Army in '83. He did a tour, got out and came back. When I met him, it was sometime in '84 at Ft. Bragg at the 82nd parachute club. Dave Bullen, the NCOIC of the club, had told me a story over beer one night about some lucky dumbshit who disappeared behind the trees with no reserve out (streamer on a PC?). They went to look for the body and found Chris hanging from his belly mount reserve in a tree. Chris said later that the tree saved him at line stretch. A few months after this story, Chris showed up and Dave said "what do you know, that's the dumbshit I told you about!" Chris was a great guy and always upbeat. Cheers to you Chris! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Hey Mark, Do you think the FAA too quick to assign pilot error because they found no other evidence? ~30 ft. snap roll without a haress/belt is a little odd. Tom ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Damn right you're still a skydiver! Right now I'm on a forced 5 year layoff because I'm living overseas. I've had other interuptions because life just got in the way.

I'm with you on that one. I played 9-11th grade and then gave it up. Everyone was getting too big!. The drinking age was 18 back then. A tradition in my high school was that ex-player seniors were the core of the senior party team. We organized all the after game keg parties and other illicit pranks and activities. Edited to add: Almost forgot (go figure). We were also in charge of the visine at morning pep rallies.

Here's a few more - AM only radios in cars. AM transistor radios about the size of a deck of cards. Action Jackson - an undersized GI Joe clone Pin Ball machines with real numbers. Not those pussy LEDs. Floppy disks the size of an LP. (you know, about 2 CDs wide) VHS tapes for computer backup. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Hey John, I remember all but one. Back Row L>R: Pete Burnett, Chris Bickerdike, John Kincaid, Scott Thomas Front Row L>R: Cliff Birch, ???, Tom (Whit) Garrison, Russ Anastacio. Remember any of them? ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

The most recent post about Chris finally got me off my butt to scan in some pictures of Chris. These shots are from Easter '85 at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas at the annual airshow. In the B-25 picture, Chris is standing back right and I'm kneeling in front of him. We jumped the Silver Lady through the rear escape hatch in the floor at 13 grand. Did some RW and then put together 2 biplanes and landed them. The Line up picture was right after a jump. Chris is back row 2nd from left and I'm front row 2nd from right. The third one has Chris in the background lugging his gear behind us in this shot of me and my grandfather. Airborne!! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Hey Chuck, After reading your post, I just had to dig into my old log books and see what we we're doing CRW wise at Ft. Bragg back in the mid 80's. I show an 8 stack attempt that built to 7 on 1 Sep 85 out at St. Mere. My logbook says Ft. Bragg record even at 7. Maybe ... maybe not We finally did an 11 way attempt that built to an 8 stack/plane out at Raeford on 8 Sep 85. Skip Summers with Prizm (4 way CRW team) organized it. Except for Skip, it was all military. The 8 stack/plane in order was was Bill Jackson, Skip, Ken Carter, Chris Bickerdick (RIP), Mike Valdez, Raff (RIP), Me and Charley Brown. J.R., Paul Jackson (RIP) and Bill Cole were all lined up close to dock cleanly when we just ran out of altitude to complete it. I don't know if this was the first 8 stack at Ft. Bragg, but it sure was pretty! Great Memories! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Does anyone know where you can download a copy of the video? ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

The 2nd photo looks like a starlite! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

It was my first square! I put about 100 jumps on one. It definitely improved my landing skills! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Hey Nick I got 2 B-25 jumps. Both free while on the 82nd team. "Silver Lady" and "Blue Dog" during airshows in Texas in '85. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Will you count it as a B for the white shack at the bottom, an A for the open lattice-work of the central part of the tower, or an S for the arm? Mark I guess it would be 'S' so that eventually I'll have all the BASE'S' covered ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

During my Airborne training in '82, it was a freefall demo by the Ft. Benning team that turned me onto skydiving. During tower week, we all got to 'jump' the tower. It felt like "ahhhhhh, thud. rinse, repeat." Hot, humid and landing like sandbags. Suddenly, a Huey sweeps by and starts climbing to 10 grand. They exited, fell forever and opened up. What the fuck is that!? It ain't round! They were jumping Strato Clouds (i think) and landed on their tip toes. I looked back at the tower and said to myself, "when I finished this torture, I definitely gotta try those square things. That's for me!!" I finished jump school and made my first skydive at Ft. Lewis, Washington 2 months later. Wow! I never thought about it. I'm adding one more jump to my BASE count. That now brings me to a grand total of (drum roll please) ..... 8. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Never got one, but I remember a few folks in the early 80's had had their numbers for years.

Does anyone know why the cup holder on my PC keeps retracting and spilling my drink on the keyboard? Frustrating as hell!! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Not sure if this is tastless enough... What happens when you cross an insomniac with an agnostic and a dyslexic? You get a person who sits up all night wondering if there really is a Dog. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Hell, Yes! Case(s) of Beer. Some DZs had a rule of maximum one case per jump. My first clear and pull in '82 was a 4 case jump at Ft. Lewis, WA. 1 - first freefall 2 - Dropped my ripcord (at 100' putting it in the pocket) 3 - First tree landing 4 - The damn tree was a giant Chistmas tree shape that turned into a slide and deposited me safely on the ground ..... for my first standup landing! Fortunately, beer at the PX was a lot cheaper back then!

Got a copy myself a few months back. Good reading! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

---------------------------- .... on a moonless night over an unfamiliar DZ Airborne! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!