There are many stories throughout a person’s life that could
possibly be passed down from generation to generation, but the moral of a story
is something that makes that story one to learn from. Although I have many
stories I can see one clearly in my head right now considering I am wearing a
shirt to remember it from. Let me put you into my boots, figuratively, and tell
you a little story about following directions.
In my line
of work, attention to detail is a very important quality that one must
accomplish before moving on in our career field. Anyway, one morning the Army
ROTC program was having our 0600 physical training again in the cold of the
twilight just before sunrise. The birds were chirping and the soldiers were
chanting. I was doing the pushup when one of my officers strolled up in front
of me and asked me if I knew how to speak Spanish. Now of course I was a little
weary and hesitant to answer this question because an officer just doesn’t come
up to an average joe and start asking questions like this without a reason. I
gave an answer of yes but warned him I wasn’t an expert or anything. He then
followed it up with one of the best questions I had ever heard up until that
date. “Would you ever like to go to Army Airborne School?” Of course I said yes
and he explained that I would need to go to a Columbian cultural immersion
program first but going to airborne school is one of those goals for almost all
combat soldiers in which not many ever get the chance to go.
Next thing I
knew, maybe two weeks later, it was finals week and I was off to Fort Benning,
Georgia for the immersion program and Airborne school. After I successfully
completed WHINSEC, I was off to my first days as an airborne soldier in
training. From the very beginning the sergeant airbornes yelled louder than
Zues himself to pay attention to detail. “Attention to detail cadet!” they
would yell. Other phrases we would hear would be “This will save your life,” or
“Listen to this detail carefully or you WILL be sent home soldier.” Throughout
the next two weeks of training I saw many soldiers get dropped out of our beloved
airborne school for not paying attention to the details. For the most part, we
all understood that details will save our limbs, so the people who were smart,
paid extra attention to details like how to tie your gear to your body or how
to jump out of the plane the right way.
It was now
week three, jump week. We were all nervous for what will come and we were
surprisingly all silent as we waited in the jump warehouse with 1500 soldiers of
all ranks, for the C-130s to roll in on the runway to whisk away 60 more
jumpers. Jump week was almost over as we each completed four jumps at 1300
feet. Each jump provided the EMTs with soldiers that jumped out wrong and got
hurt, collided in the air or landed the wrong way. So far, I had done
everything according to what I had learned and was safe.
It was my
last jump and my stick had just been tasked to hop on the C-130. I was in a
little bit more of a laxadazical mood than the last four jumps because they
were completed flawlessly and my parents were also down in the landing zone, so
my mind was a little clouded. “Stand up!” the sergeant yelled. “Hook up!” he
yelled again. My heart was racing like the past times I have heard these last
words and then he yelled, “GO! GO! GO!” Then we began to jump from 1300 feet in
the air, from a perfectly good airplane.
I was three
people from the door and yet I was still not thinking about the correct
procedure. I then got to the door, turned, and past off my parachute cord to
the sergeant. I am telling this part as if it were slow motion but keep in mind
from the time we hear “go, go, go,” there is about less than 30 seconds for all
60 people to jump out. I stepped up to the door, passed off my chord, and
looked at the world below me. It was so far down and it was so loud up there that
muscle memory just took over my body. Although this is what we wanted, we still
needed to be thinking about what we were doing, which was the attention to
detail part yet again. As I passed my chord and took my step out the door, head
down, feet together, pencil dive type of position, I felt a tightening on my
left arm.
The chord
was wrapped around my arm because I hadn’t passed it off correctly to the man
at the door. I had a split second to react or else my arm would instantly get
ripped from the chord down (which I felt on my bicep). A sense of fear shot
through me like never before and I swung my arm back and out in a circular
motion as I prayed that my arm would break free. A split second later, I was
out the door and checking my parachute for holes. I then look down at my left
arm and I broke free. A sense of thankfulness, shock and fear all ran through
my blood as I had about five seconds to just hang out and check out the
beautiful sight from above. I then needed to find a good landing spot and try
to direct myself to it using the techniques I learned my first two weeks of
airborne school.
I looked up
to get my grip on the pull chords and that’s when I see another soldier right
above me through the center hole in my chute. Now although this may not seem
bad to the average person, to us, this is bad. When someone is directly above you
when you are parachuting, it can be dangerous because your parachute is taking
all the air his needs to capture, thus making him fall right into the middle of
your parachute and sending both of you to the ground in the full force of
gravity. Thanks to paying attention to detail, instinct took over again as I
yelled at him to pull his front right chord as I pulled mine so we could veer
away from each other. I took a look down and we were almost at the ground. I
pulled my clip and let my rucksack and rifle fall 20 feet below me attached by
yet another chord so they would hit the ground first. I then look back up and
he is swaying in and out into the side of my parachute. I was praying he wouldn’t
get tangled in my chords or else we both would have been pancakes on the
ground, yet another scare on this dreadful last flight. Next thing I knew I had
to prepare for landing and performed the proper techniques. I landed just
before he landed, 10 yards away. We gathered up our supplies within a few minutes
and got off the landing zone.
If I had not
paid attention to all the proper techniques and contingency plans that day, I
may not have been writing this story today. If I could pass anything down to
the generations below me, it would be this: “PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL.” What
seems like a small, obscure detail at the time, may just end up saving your
life one day, especially at the United States Army Airborne School.
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