2013-07-12-Fort Benning, GA.-Gabe is Airborne!

On a foggy morning at Fort Benning, Georgia, Gabe and his fellow soldiers and a handful of Marines and Airmen graduated from Airborne School, receiving their coveted silver paratrooper wings after three weeks of training and five parachute jumps, including a night jump. Over four hundred military personnel started "Jump School" but only three hundred and forty finished it. Fort Benning is the home of the US Army's infantry and the center for all paratrooper training throughout the military, as it has been since WW II. Afterwards, Gabe had weekend leave. Just after the graduation ceremony, Gabe, Georgia and Tom enjoyed a celebratory lunch at the Cannon Brew Pub in Columbus, GA. Over lunch, Gabe shared with us the stunning revelation that on his second jump his primary parachute failed to open, something that almost never happens. The primary chute is supposed to automatically open six seconds after jumping from the plane and, finally, after his primary failed he pulled his reserve chute at ten seconds which opened 200 hundred feet from the deck, floating him safely down to earth. A group of Rangers who had just completed a high altitude jump into the same landing zone were shouting at Gabe to deploy his reserve. The Rangers witnessed the entire episode and filed a report indicating that Gabe had followed his training and had properly executed the emergency procedure. When we asked Gabe if he was freaking out by the chute's failure he nonchalantly replied, "No big deal, I just followed my training".