What was your worst Jump?

Yakima, Wa. Night jump. I'm almost positive that the DZ was called Jackhammer DZ, and there's a nice, brisk wind that nobody mentioned. Coming down, there was little to no horizon on which to base movement and I hit hard & did an "Egyptian PLF" (feet, knees, face) and hit the ground dragging at what felt like about 20MPH. By the time I got my hand on my canopy release, I had been dragged probably 50', my face was scraped, nose bleeding, and the camo cover on my kevlar was shredded on the front edge. Another guy on the jump had the hook on his lowering line fail (the rest of us think he didn't hook it) and his ruck burned in with an M60 strapped to it...the 60 was destroyed.

I can't complain because I have never has a terrible jump. However, my younger brother SGT Jeremy Slaughter had a pretty bad one that he may or may not care to share.

On my 8th jump, I was issued a MC1-1B, without being told it would seek the wind. All previous jumps had been with the T-10. I took a camera up with me. I was enjoying the ride and snapping pictures when I finally heard someone yelling, "You're going to wrong way!" Grabbed a toggle, yanked it to my knee, and hit almost immediately. Woke up and noticed the ground was moving. Checked the other side and it was moving there to, so I cut away one of my capewells. Broke my camera and my glasses.

Two guys came over and helped me pack up and stagger off the drop zone, but left when I promised I would see the medic. As soon as they were gone, I went back for another 'chute.

Does the term "wind dummy" sound familiar? IMO, any jump that is successful (live) is a good jump. But, to be honest, I never understood why anyone would jump out of a perfectly good plane.

My only problems were at Benning, only 2 of the 5 were what I’d call clean. First jump is difficult because duh , you've never done it before. I had a real hard time judging height, as I was close to landing I was looking at the horizon, then at the ground, just back and fourth until I hit looking down, I was sure I broke my leg. I was so slow getting out of the LZ the black hat had me beating my boots. 3d jump I was undercut by another Marine using the old T10, I just lifted my legs and my ass hit the top of his canopy and I bounced across and off the other side, another foot I’m into his risers and trouble. Last jump C130 I was first stick first man in the door, my best exit ever, it was windy and swirling I was unsure which way the wind was blowing so instead of facing it I inadvertently hit running with it, I wasn’t knocked out, but I bet I had a concussion I hit so hard. Again kinda staggered off the LZ. Other than nothing weird at all, it’s tough being new.

Should have lost his JM status. You hit trees or power lines it’s on the JM to get it right and keep you safe.

I’ve seen it all. From a guy landing on the hood of an FLA, to a high level SGM breaking his leg on his retirement jump. Most I’ve had, knock on wood, was a big limestone rock on the tank trail behind my knee. I don’t count 13+ knot DZ drags. That’s just too common.

Twisted shoulder jumping from a WW 2 blemp in England.

Fort Bragg, 2008. I had just come back from a 15 month tour in Iraq and needed to get current. It was a hollywood, daytime jump on Sicily DZ. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? Hell no.

I exited the aircraft, my T-10 opened perfectly, and there were no other jumpers in my vicinity, or so I thought. Out of nowhere, this jumper comes darting towards me and swoops just underneath my feet. My chute immediately collapsed and I found myself buried dead center of his chute. The best way to describe it is being in the middle of a half full air mattress or water bed. He's screaming for me to get off his chute, as if I really enjoyed not having a parachute of my own. The more he yells, the angrier I get. As I'm butt scooting to the edge I tell him him to "F off, what do you think I'm doing?!"

As soon as I get off his chute, I drop like a rock and my chute inflates right underneath him. He ends up in the same position I was in. I was a lot nicer and said "Its not that easy, is it jacka**."

This goes on, all the way to the ground, at least twice I found myself on his or him on mine. And he was screaming at me the entire time. We finally land, and of course, I was the last one to be on his chute so I hit hard. Luckily nothing broke, but I got the wind knocked out of me pretty good. As I recover and started packing up my kit bag, I see this burly dude come walking at me like he was going to kill me. Its the guy that stole my air! And he's an E-7. So of course he gets in my little scrawny E-5 face, telling me he's going to Article 15 me back to the stone age and blah blah blah. I was never one to yell back at seniors, so I tried to explain that I didn't know what rank he was and that it was an accident. He wants to know my unit and chain of command and at this point, I'm over this conversation, so I just walked away and told him to look me up on the internet, if he could remember how to spell my last name.

On a jump way back when I was an LT, My HPT lowering line got caught on a ladder tied down in a C130. As I went out the door it caught momentarily and flipped me upside down, partially wrapping the static line around my biceps. For about 2-3 seconds I was being towed and hit the side of the aircraft before breaking free of it all. Fortunately my chute opened because it knocked me senseless. I landed uneventfully with rucksack still attached to me and all twisted up. My bicep was in a ball with a nice contusion. My CO threatened to send me to jump refresher until he got the full story!