Parascuba and Helicopter Deployment--the Ultimate in Solo Diving

[John C. Ratliff]

Thanks very much for posting. The NASA stuff is always interesting but so is the Pararescue. Difficult to imagine wearing a parachute on top of tanks and getting through a narrow doorway while buffeted by the airflow.
Then the aspect of landing and there is simply no one left to jump and help you.
Gemini VIII was an early re-entry, iirc after a malfunction of the reaction control system. Armstrong activated the re-entry system to regain control, and that required a premature end to the mission.

Yes, and they were seconds from blacking out from the very high rotation rate when Armstrong activated that system. They landed in the Pacific, rather than their planned landing in the. Atlantic Ocean, which is why there were no Navy ships nearby.
SeaRar

 

[KevinG58]

Yes, and they were seconds from blacking out from the very high rotation rate when Armstrong activated that system. They landed in the Pacific, rather than their planned landing in the. Atlantic Ocean, which is why there were no Navy ships nearby.
SeaRar

swingin' under a T10...does it get any better? OO-RAH!

So whats the technique for avoiding the suspension lines?

 

[Stoo]

Total bad-assery John. Thanks for sharing...

 

[John C. Ratliff]

So whats the technique for avoiding the suspension lines?

Well, it depends upon when the PJ is during the jump. It starts with good body position going out the plane's (or helicopter's) door. If my body position was poor, we could twist under the 'chute, and not be able steer until I was had untwisted. Or, with a really poor body position, as the parachute was opening we could flip through the risers, and have twists we could not get out of, or worst, have the risers catch beneath our SCUBA tanks, and come down head-first (I actually saw that happen on a jump off Okinawa).

When we got into the water, we needed to swim away from the suspension lines and keep them taunt until the parachute was picked up by the recovery boat, or during a mission, untill we had gotten out of the parachute harness and ditched it.

On one training jump while going through Pararescue Transition School, I had some of those problems, which I will detail with a quote from my memoir's manuscript.

October 15, 1967, Eglin AFB, Florida


Dear Mom and Dad:

Mountain school was a blast. We had so much fun there and so many exciting things happened that I can't even begin to tell you. I tried to call home last Tuesday and talked to Bill.

Then we went on our stretcher safari, better known as the litter land-basher. This was our tactical land mission. We parachuted into the area, found our patient and proceeded to patch him together. Really it was a little ridiculous. Our "victim" had been in a plane crash; his right leg was completely severed below the knee, he had a part of his intestines protruding from an abdominal wound and he had 2nd degree burns of the face. In this condition he had waited three hours for his rescue. We dressed his wounds and put a tourniquet on his leg and carried him in a stretcher 6 miles in two and a half days. Our food was parachuted to us.

When I called Friday night I was able to talk to Skip--for about a minute and a half. Then somehow we were cut completely off in the middle of the sentence. About 6-10 minutes later I was able to reach Ken and Bill again. My apologies; the circuits around here aren't too good.

Yesterday we had Mock door and water training for our scuba jumps. We're scheduled for one tomorrow. We should also have a night scuba jump Tuesday night.

Well, we're supposed to graduate on the 28th, or shortly thereafter. I'll go back to Orlando soon after that for a short time to pick up records and get pay straightened out, etc. After that I should get a leave.


Love, John

October 26, 1967, Eglin AFB, Florida


Dear Mom & Dad:

No, the jump didn't come off as planned. We got completely suited up and were ready to board the aircraft when it was scrubbed. The winds on the range were between 20 and 28 knots, and rising.

Tentatively, my schedule is a 1500 yd underwater swim tomorrow, the open sea tactical jump Saturday and the raft trip Sunday & Monday. They still hope to graduate us Wednesday. So do I!

Love, John

We finally completed the last jump, a night water jump which turned into a disaster for me. We jumped into Eglin Bay from a HC-130. It was a very dark night, and I was leery about the jump for some reason. Usually I liked jumping by now, but this was a full scuba jump, with the tanks, the reserve parachute, a medical kit, and a butt-boat (one-man survival raft). Looking out the door, I could see almost nothing as we were not dark-adapted for the jump (the lights in the plane had not been dimmed).

I jumped, felt a good opening, and was relieved to be out of the heat of the plane. The water was less than a minute below me. After checking the ‘chute, my next task was to pull the pins of the risers so I could steer. But something was not right with my right riser group. Rather than going up at an angle, these two risers went straight up. I looked up, and there was a wrap of parachute line from the rear of the skirt down to the risers, which had been looped over the other riser, forming a half hitch around both risers. This kept the two risers together, and made it impossible to use this riser group for steering. We were still using the slip-riser method of steering the canopy by distortion of the rear steering oval in the ‘chute. With only one riser group to steer with, I made a poor, down-wind landing into the water. I hit hard on my fins, then dove face-first into the inky black, salty bay. Coughing and sputtering, I got to the surface just in time for the canopy to start pulling me through the water. Still face-down, I grabbed another breath, and released the left Capwell Quick-release. The risers flung away, and I was at last free on the surface, or so I thought.

While I rested, the current in the bay and the wind carried me into the unseen parachute shroud lines, and they began tangling around my diving tank and regulator. When I was pulled from the water, I had these lines all over my tank and my leg. It took a few minutes to clear up the mess. Then I was asked by one of the instructors, “What would you have done if this was a mission?” The implication was that I would have needed rescuing rather than being the rescuer.

I had a good reply, and pulled out my diving knife with its seven-inch long blade, the orange-handled Sportsways dive knife with the Soligen stainless steel I had gotten from my parents several years prior for my birthday. Unlike the military-issue knives, with Japanese “stainless” steel that rusted and which would not hold an edge (and rarely were sharpened), this knife was razor sharp. I told them that I simply would have cut those lines off me like I did the fishing line that was a perpetual problem for divers in the Pacific Northwest. But in a training situation, I couldn’t do that as it would destroy a valuable parachute. On a mission, the parachute was expendable, and they usually were allowed simply to sink.

I then told them of my problem with the riser, and the half-hitch over the group which precluded my using it for steering. I’m not sure that they believed me, but this allowed me to get through the jump. To this day I don’t know if that was purposely done in packing the chute, or accidentally happened either in the packing or the deployment.

Whatever the cause, this jump cost me the “outstanding student” ranking. That went to another. Without this incident, it would have been mine, but that did not matter and I did not even know I was in that position until after graduation. What mattered was graduating, and I had completed the last requirements of Pararescue Transition School.
Copyright 2016, John C. Ratliff
From my unpublished manuscript, Between Air and Water, the Memoir of an USAF Pararescueman

As I said, this is the ultimate in solo diving/swimming. A PJ has to have confidence in his ability to handle just about any type of situation, sometimes alone. The photo below shows Bill Davison's jump off Okinawa in 1968, where he has just released one side of his risers (there was much more to this jump, but I'll leave that to my book). These suspension lines (half of them) are in the process of being flung over the canopy, and out of his way. The trick is to put tension on the suspension lines by swimming away from the canopy.

SeaRat

 

[KevinG58]

As I said, this is the ultimate in solo diving/swimming. A PJ has to have confidence in his ability to handle just about any type of situation, sometimes alone. The photo below shows Bill Davison's jump off Okinawa in 1968, where he has just released one side of his risers (there was much more to this jump, but I'll leave that to my book). These suspension lines (half of them) are in the process of being flung over the canopy, and out of his way. The trick is to put tension on the suspension lines by swimming away from the canopy.​

SeaRat

I begin to see. Thanks!

 

[FiddlerOnTheRoof]

Thanks for sharing John. Impressive life that you had

Well, I think he still has a great life with many more great years and adventures to come! Great photos John, Happy New Year and thank you for sharing the great adventures you've had so far. Keep sharing them with us!

 

[Adam Grose]

This is an AWESOME thread!!! Thanks!!!

Adam

 

[BIGJACK]

I'm officially on the list to buy your book! What an incredibly interesting career. Please post some more tidbits until the book is available. I also enjoy another video of yours diving a double hose in the river. Had no idea snails eat lead. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Jack Brown