Hi Phil, I must say that I don’t miss parachuting. I think that at that time the US and UK had a vast difference in their military budget, there was no opportunity for recreational jumps only tactical training ones were carried out. The day before would be for rigging heavy equipment and synthetic ground training, no sleep, getting to the airfield, a few hours away in uncomfortable trucks, the jump would usually be below 1000ft at night so that you would be in position for first light to start a three or four day field exercise. Except for initial training my memories of jumps were of being tired, cold, hungry and generally knackered. I was deployed for much of my service so never had the opportunity to get in many jumps, only about thirty in all. For all that, being young with like minded comrades was a good time and led me to circumstances that strongly influenced the rest of a very happy life.
Me, deployed for a year in Yemen. Same place, same general conflict, 55 years apart, why do world leaders never learn.
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