US Army Airborne School Motivation | Old-School Video

Looks like my timeframe, CPT (Join to see)! I made my fifth and qualifying jump on 9APR70 and we were awarded our wings on the DZ!
SGT (Join to see)

Funny, this old leg was assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps when I was in the Rapid Deployment Force (24th ID).

Brings back lots of memories. Here's my 250 ft tower experience. My roster number was C001, as I just happened to be the first ROTC cadet to inprocess. So when it was time to perform on the tower, they went by roster number. I was the first person in the class to go up and be released. Up I went, with the eyes of the entire class on me. There is that metallic clicking sound, and you feel the chute getting released from the ring.

As I'm coming down, all I'm thinking is "feet and knees together". I'm feeling good, but failed to account for a crucial factor. My feet are 6 feet below my eyes. So as I see the ground approaching, I actually hit the ground sooner that I expected, and completely unprepared, and just sort of crumple up into a ball that bore no resemblance to the PLFs we had been practicing. Ugh. Unsat grade.

So I waited while the rest of the class got their first drops in, and then at the end of a very long, hot day in August, they decided I would go up for my second (and final) attempt at a satisfactory landing. You had to make 1 out of 2 or you were recycled. Up I went again, with jump school on the line. The ring releases again, and down I go. I'm still thinking feet and knees together, but also thinking about being ready earlier. My feet hit the ground, I go into the PLF. But my head, rather than staying tucked in, snaps back and slams into the ground. And it's not just any ground. It is sunbaked clay that is just like concrete. So there is a big "bang" as my head bounces of the ground. My bell is rung, as we used to say. I'm wearing wire rim glasses, and the force of impact has bent them to mold to my face like wraparound sunglasses. I get up, and move in front of the black hat. But I'm so concussed that I can't remember what I'm supposed to say to report. For that matter, I can't actually get my mouth to form the words that are in my head.

I'm standing there speechless in front of the black hat, glassy eyed and unable to speak. He looks at me, and says "God damn, Charlie 1! Your head is not a fucking point of contact! But anyone who can hit their head that hard and stand up deserves to jump! I'm giving you a Marginal Satisfactory. I mumbled something, unable to form the word Airborne! and moved over to the detail that rigs the chutes on the ring. There was some sort of little jingle that we said as we hooked it up, but I couldn't remember it or say it anyway. I spend the rest of the day in a daze, unable to form complete sentences but happy as hell I was going to jump week.

And the funny part of the the whole thing is that they must have been more impressed with my hard head than I realized, as I ended up being selected as the Distinguished Graduate for the class!