ah what a month!

I know I am terrible...its been a while...

Well the biggest thing that has happened this month is Jump School.

I always made fun of the Army before but now i really know...they are...different to put it nicely!

The first week is spent practicing jumping out of an airplane door, learning PLF's( Parachute Landing Falls) and jumping out of a 34 ft tower. Pretty rough all the way around... The PLFs hurt a lot and we had to do them over and over and over...

Week 2 moves on to mass exit over the mock plane doors...thats 15 jumpers out of both sides of the plane, the Swing Landing Trainer and being dropped from a 250 ft Tower. The SLT was a serious pain. I was dropped about 25 times, each time leaving bruises on my ribs and a rather severe headache...
The Tower was amazing! They hook you up in a parachute and then drag you to the top of the Tower...and then drop you to the ground... You could see the whole base and it was pretty sweet!

Week three is the serious gut check...five jumps out of an airplane moving at about 200 MPH. You spend hours in the Harness Shed waiting for your turn...and then they call your number. You realize as you are walking on the C-130 the this is the point of no return.

Once you get on the bird you are given a ten minute warning...then you stand up, hook your static line to a wire in the bird, and then wait. You hear the wind rushing past the plane, you can feel the adrenaline in your stomach, tasting the bitterness in you mouth, your eyes dialate...classic fight or flight stuff. You soon realize that Flight is the only way:)

Once you start moving you are out of the door before you know it...your whole body goes horizontal in a wind that feels like a freight train. This last for an intense 3 seconds that feel like forever...and then you are floating. It takes about a minute to hit the ground but it feels like 5 seconds.

Anyway if you go to youtube.com they have plenty of airborne videos.

I got my wings pinned on on Thursday and felt the pride inside me swell even more:) There are about 100 Radar Marines in the Fleet and only two currently have jump wings, SSGT Ashby and myself so you can understand my feelings of Awesomeness!!!

This was a good and fun(which means really terrible!) and the best part of this month was by far...getting home to My Sweet Audi! Three weeks felt like an eternity without seeing her. We got to talk at night but usually only had an hour or two...mix that with the time difference and it got tricky to communicate. What's important is that we made it and I am so happy to be home!

This is all!