National Airborne Day holds special resonance at Fort Benning, birthplace of the Airborne

Hilarious, SGT Robert Pryor! I never, ever saw a jump refusal.
BTW, I wonder if the trolley trooper had this song in mind?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe0q8Lq3L2Q

LTC Stephen C. - I definitely remember that song. As I recall, on the 34' tower there were four of us to a stick. Two sticks, one on either side of the tower. I think there were two black hats in the tower, one for each stick. The jumpmaster handed us each a double riser to hook up ourselves as he walked the stick handing them out. Then he walked the stick a second time hooking up the other risers. Then said, "Stand in the door." Mr. leg was still fumbling with his by time the "Stand in the door" command was given and he panicked. As you know, just one of those risers would have supported a '54 Buick, so the leg was not in any danger at all. Hey, if I have it screwed up on how it worked on the '34 tower, please enlighten me. I am definitely unsure about the size of the stick. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and mine's a total wasteland.

I remember little about the 34’ tower, SGT Robert Pryor, except that later I realized that the “opening shock” on the tower was much worse than any jump I ever made! I don’t remember being super scared in any event.
On the other hand, I was terrified of the 250’ tower. I think I was was more scared of that than I was jumping from a plane! I only did the 250’ tower once. That was enough!

LTC Stephen C. - I think I only did the 250' tower once myself. There were too many in our jump school class to give us more than one jump each. The only time I remember being truly scared about a jump was when I was nine years old and jumping off the roof of our barn with a parachute of my creation. It turned out my fear was for good reason. I till remember my father saying to me as I lay there crying, "If you're gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough." I learned from that experience and all my future jumps from the roof of the barn went off without incident. Jump school was a piece of cake.