C-130 rolling down the strip

[Squatch]

Airborne daddy gonna take a little trip.

Stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door
Jump right out and count to four

If my main don't open wide
I've got a reserve by my side

If that one should fail me too
Look out below, I'm a-coming through

If I die on the ol' drop zone
Box me up and ship me home

Pine my medals to my chest
Tell my Mom I don't my best

Quicktime, March!
Yo left, yo left, yo left, right - AIRBORNE!
Yo left, right - AIRBORNE!

1, 2, 3, 4 - OOH AH AIRBORNE!

(Later that day)
Outboard personnel...STAND UP!
Inboard personnel...STAND UP!
Hook Up!
Check Equipment!
Sound off for equipment check! (ALL OK JUMPMASTER!)
Stand...in the door!
Standby!
GO!!!!

[AllegroRondo]

1. boy, does that bring back memories.

nothing like a little 4 mile run at 5 AM with a couple hundred of your closest freinds.

[Squatch]

2. When did you go through BAC?

[AllegroRondo]

3. A long time ago

Basic - 1988, Ft Dix NJ
AIT - Little Creek Naval Base, Norfolk

[Squatch]

4. What's a Cav wienie doing at Little Creek?

[AllegroRondo]

5. thats where the Music School is

cant make band weenies without a music school. And the Army was too cheap to get their own, so the send us to the Navy.

[Squatch]

7. An Airborne Band Weenie?

:rofl:

[Squatch]

9. BTW...no offense intended.

[AllegroRondo]

11. no problem, I've heard them all

everyone jokes about the band weirdos, until they see what we actually do every day.

[Squatch]

13. Our last Brigade change of command at Ft Lewis....

we had the I Corps band playing Sousa marches as the entire 4000-person brigade passed in review under the majestic Mt Rainier. Not many of my comrades enjoyed that kind of pomp, but I thoroughly looked forward to times when you can march to a band.

[AllegroRondo]

15. Yup, I did that kind of thing every day.

sometimes 2-3 ceremonies a day in the summer. Plus parades, concerts, and other performances for the public. We spent a lot of time on the bus. I loved it.

Every couple of years, the bigwigs in DC would look at cutting the bands to save money. But the Generals, espeicially at the divisions, would always fight it. "No way you're getting rid of MY band!" A ceremony just isnt the same with music on tape.

[AllegroRondo]

10. ever jump from a plane with a sousaphone?

gotta be careful with those cords.

[Redstone]

6. Easier to go off the floor than out the door, isn't it? My first time out the door, I said

"Better get your boot ready, because I'm about to turn into the biggest fuckin' Popsicle you've EVER seen."

But I ended up not freezing. Did pick up an addiction, though, cured only by marriage.

Redstone

[Squatch]

8. I tried to get the door as often as possible.

Something about looking at the Chatahoochee out the door of a C-130.

My first jump: not as scared as I thought I'd be.
My second jump: absolutely terrified, because now I knew what to expect.

[Redstone]

14. Really? Most jumpers I've known were the other way around. Were you thinking about

what it woulde be like to going into a hot zone, when you did your second jump?

I can see how THAT would make the second jump terrifying.

PS: Being terrified on ANY jump is perfectly natural and entirely rational. You're jumping out of a PERFECTLY GOOD AIRPLANE and trusting your next 4,000 vertical feet to some CLOTH?

That goes against EVERY survival instinct we've built up over that last 50,000 years, it does.

Embrace your fear. Undeerstand that it's healthy.

Redstone

[Orsino]

12. 10-1/2 years now...

...since I led the platoon in that cadence.

Me, I was a Chairborne Ranger, but I loved me some Jody calls.