A 2nd Beginning: Ringway

When we reached England we were absorbed by the British Airborne and became part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade, 6th Airborne Division. Because the British paras were required to jump from bombers we had to learn their technique. We were sent to an airfield called Ringway near Manchester and took our training there.

A sergeant jump instructor showing a new group of arrivals at Ringway, Manchester, England the fundamentals of a British type parachute. The Nisson Hut in background is one of many that housed us while we underwent the conversion from exiting from the door of a Dakota to exiting through a fabricated hole in the floor of a bomber.

Here they are fully suited with the British type parachute and ready to visit the balloon for trial drops. This is intended as a familiarization drill of exiting through a funnel shaped hole in the floor. Note, no reserve parachute! All were assured of a replacement parachute if the one issued did not open. Lovely protective helmets I might add!

After a day spent acquainting us on how to egress through a three foot diameter hole in the floor of a mock-up platform located 30 feet high up in a drill hall, we were introduced to an apparatus called "The Fan". Wearing a harness, an instructor would hook us up to this rope that was wound around a two inch rod that had a double bladed paddle attached at one end. The idea being that as we dropped through this hole the rope would rotate the rod and the fan controlled our rate of decent. Talk about a Rube Goldberg apparatus. Having survived that stage we were introduced to a barrage balloon. The barrage balloon was the closest they could come to simulating egressing from an aircraft in flight.

The drill was "Up 7 down 5", meaning, five of us wearing parachutes, would climb into a basket suspended below a barrage balloon and it would rise to a height of 700 feet. One by one we would place our legs in the hole and at the command "GO" from the instructor we would snap to a sort of attention position, grab our trouser legs and clear the hole trying not to bang our parachute on the lip of the hole as we did so. If this happened due to poor attention to performance as instructed, we would bounce forward as we dropped and most assuredly bang our nose on the other side of the funnel. This unfortunate occurrence was given the name of "Ringing the Bell" by the Brits.

It was quite a ride when you left the basket under the balloon as it takes about 200 feet for the 'chute to open and without prop-blast, perhaps a bit more than the 200 feet. Anyway it was awesome, especially if there was ground fog. From sunlight, into a blinding band of fog and in the final moments you'd burst through and see the others looking up at your decent. Whew!

After 3 of these, they figured we were ready to try the real thing and practicing the same technique we did so from an aircraft in flight. It soon became repetitious and I thought I would be smart knowing that as we emplaned, the odd numbered guy climbed in and went to the tail and the even numbers went to the front of the hole through which we exited. This meant the odd numbered guys faced the prop blast wind, quite unpleasant and striking the feet first would cause them to dive head first towards the ground until their 'chute opened and straightened them to the upward position., while the even numbered guys got a pleasant slap on the backside as they left the plane and rode down like on a child's slide, right-side up.

On our 5th and last qualification drop, I must not have tightened my harness as tight as it should have been. It should be very tight on your body but is most uncomfortable, causing one to walk bent over. By this time however, knowing the sequence of events as we left the plane, I chose to be an even number in the ‘stick’ entering the plane. I was counting on a friendly slap on my backside like my last three drops had been. I did not enjoy my first egress as I left facing forward and the rushing wind hit me full in the face and was not pleasant. Just as we were emplaning, a chap up front fainted, and not wanting to hold up the aircraft we all stepped past him and lo and behold I became an odd number.

Now the fun part.
As I left the plane the blast hit my legs and I went into a dive. Both shoulder straps pulled off and if it hadn't been for the intense training whereby we were taught to grab the sides of our trouser legs to keep our arms from flailing about, I wouldn't be here to tell you about it!

When my chute opened I glanced "down" to prepare for the landing as they dropped us at 500 or 600 feet and we had to prepare for the landing rather quickly. "What the hell" I saw my parachute canopy????

I looked "up" and saw the ground roaring up at me. This meant I was upside down. I immediately started to climb up my harness in an effort to land on my feet and got 1⁄2 way up when THUMP!..... I "came to" with buddies undoing my harness and collapsing my 'chute!

This pix was taken as I was trying to collect my senses while buddies collected my parachute and then assisted me off the field, little knowing what physical damage if any had taken place.

Note: the white cords hanging from the zipper of my jump smock. They are retrieved "break cords" kept as an ego status of each jump completed for all to see. The "break cord" is the last cord that attaches you to the aircraft. It's breaking strength is approximately 75# and is calculated to allow the parachute to be deployed properly before you are freed from the A/C. The more cords the greater the ego.

The outcome of the foolish decision not to tighten the harness is that I now suffer from 3 compounded vertebrae near the bottom of my spine!

I did not know about this until 12 years later when I resigned from the Army. The Medical Officer insisted I have an X-ray when I related my training accident, and to my surprise told me I should have either been paralyzed or possible have died at the time!

No wonder I had to be almost carried off the field as I could not feel my legs for quite a while but I did not report this injury for fear I would miss returning to Bulford Barracks with my buddies.

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