As Thanksgiving arrives in a few weeks, I thought I would talk turkey and Share a little unknown story about myself. This, my friends and family, is what I am thankful for.
Life (the gift given to me) Family (those who have been through this story a million times) SG (Yes, YOU LADIES! You support the troops and you don't even know it!) and Weed (just because)
It was once taken from me October 27th, 2007. I was doing a parachute operation in a joint training exercise with a recon unit when things went awry. Upon exit of the aircraft, I felt this gut feeling, this is not going to end well. Approaching about 250-300ft, I find true wind and turn towards it to get ready from landing. I turn and gained tremendous lift, almost as if I hit a thermal pocket. I hear a tearing noise and start falling. My control gore surface (the thingy that makes me turn) ripped and was spinning me out of control. the control vent holes in these chutes are huge, and I'm burning in. People on the ground started yelling at me to quit being stupid and land for real. Little did they know, their comrade is in trouble. Upon seeing the torn chute, their yells became silent. All I remember was hitting the ground and blacking out.
I came to, I saw everything was really light and somewhat white. upon the glimpse into reality, I am pulled into it by my chute. I try to detach but it hurts to lift my arm. Using my other hand, I reinforced it and pulled the quick release. I tried to get up and fell over. I couldn't feel anything. Slowly I got up, and ran to the drop zone rally point. Started talking to people there, They thought for sure they were gonna be burying me 6ft watching this unfold. No evaluation done on the field because injuries suffered weren't external and I thought "Hey, I'm fine, Just a hard landing, that's all" A few months later I go in for an EEG EKG or one of those things due to behavior health. They found that I had suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury and many more injuries. Within Days after this, I get sent to a new shop, never to jump again.
Its 9 years since this all happened. It still affects me in many ways. And that's why I'm thankful for those things (Life, Family, Friends, Cats, Weed) They give me a purpose to move forward. To rise above this all. And I will Never take them for granted
