A Knife Edge (2006)
“Before Sergeant Fester's Humvee rumbled up to the front door, I'd showered and dressed and inhaled a large can of beans I found in a kitchen cupboard. It was cold and wet and miserable outside. I threw on a jacket and walked out into the rain.
We drove in silence out to Pope AFB, pulling up to a building I knew from the old days. Seeing it again made my nuts go light and my feet heavy. I walked into supply. Other men and women were being issued equipment; most were eager, a few quiet, shitting ...themselves. I was handed a flight suit, helmet, O2 bottle, and the MC-5 ram-air chute. I'd used MC-5s before on numerous occasions and, unlike Ruben Wright, had walked away every time.
I sat through the one-on-one briefing Fester conducted via a whiteboard and took mental notes in silence. Emergency procedures—malfunctions, cutaways, entanglements… all the things that could go wrong and sometimes did. Fester covered off jump commands as well as the oxygen system. There was also a nav board refresher—the instruments strapped to the chest that facilitate navigation at night and in all weather conditions.MoreLess
We drove in silence out to Pope AFB, pulling up to a building I knew from the old days. Seeing it again made my nuts go light and my feet heavy. I walked into supply. Other men and women were being issued equipment; most were eager, a few quiet, shitting ...themselves. I was handed a flight suit, helmet, O2 bottle, and the MC-5 ram-air chute. I'd used MC-5s before on numerous occasions and, unlike Ruben Wright, had walked away every time.
I sat through the one-on-one briefing Fester conducted via a whiteboard and took mental notes in silence. Emergency procedures—malfunctions, cutaways, entanglements… all the things that could go wrong and sometimes did. Fester covered off jump commands as well as the oxygen system. There was also a nav board refresher—the instruments strapped to the chest that facilitate navigation at night and in all weather conditions.MoreLess
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