Sky diving at 96, a special tour and too much fun

   What a month it has been with Dad here. We had more fun that a human has a right to have, but before I bury the lead to this story let me just say that my 96-year-old father accomplished a 70-year dream to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. On Saturday, January 15, after several back and forth messages with Sky Dive Marana and communications with Dad’s cardiologist it was a go for the jump.     My father was not nervous at all, but me and the owner of the Sky Dive business were a little nervous. This dive had been in the works for many years. For a long time I thought he was kidding or being silly about wanting to do this dive. In recent months it became clear he was not kidding and really wanted to do this. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of why: 

Waiting to jump

    During World War II Dad trained for an emergency parachute jump as part of his training to be a B-17 crewmember. Although he did the ground training he never got the opportunity to actually do a test jump. Thus the 70-year delayed jump. 

    One of the things the owner told me when I first contacted him about this unique tandem sky dive was whether Dad was able to lift his legs high enough so that the skydiver accompanying him could get his legs under Dad and slide into a safe landing. Dad spent a week exercising and making sure that when the time came he would be able to pull up his knees and avoid a bone-breaking, gravity induced tumble on earth. 

    Two of our resort friends, Bob and Jean, asked if they could accompany us and watch and Dad said that would be fine. We arrived about ½ hour early for the 11 a.m. scheduled flight but when we arrived the owner said he wanted to move Dad’s jump back an hour so a skilled (and by that I mean tall, lean and mean) skydiver named Steve could be the one to bring Dad back to earth. 

    Once I saw Steve almost all of my worries evaporated as Steve was taller than Dad, built like a brick house and with a great positive and enthusiastic attitude. Steve serves in the Navy (another great asset for me) and is a parajumper in the service. He assured me that everything was going to be fine. 

Falling to earth with Steve

    They put a harness on Dad and then it was time to fly. Steve grabbed ahold of Dads harness and walked him to the twin engine jump plane and off they flew. There was a 20-minute wait while the plane climbed to 10,500-feet and then we watched as these tiny specks began dropping from the airplane. The first speck was Dad and Steve. Just about six minutes later Steve and Dad came into a sliding, but safe landing in front of us. 

   Dad was a little winded but very excited about his achievement. Two men from Iran, who jumped at 10 a.m., waited around to see Dad jump as they were impressed with this old guy who wanted to jump from a plane. 

   As it turned out Dad was the oldest person to jump at Sky Dive Marana exceeding by four years the previous oldest jumper who was 92. We called my sister, who knew there was going to be an attempt at a jump but didn’t know what day it was going to happen, as soon as we got back to the resort and let her know that the feat was accomplished and that Dad was safe and sound. 

    At the resort chapel the next day the pastor had Dad stand and explained to the 250 people there what Dad had done the day before and he became an instant celebrity at the resort. In fact, Dad left for his Louisville home on Tuesday, January 25, but people are still talking about “The Sky Dive.”

Getting close to the ground

 

    Now you would think it would be hard to top that, but we almost did. As soon as we arrived here I made contact with the public affairs officer at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to see if there was any way I could get Dad on the base for a tour. 

    In a number of back-and-forth emails the public affairs officer and I discussed dates and ideas. She finally offered a Friday, January 21 tour of the 47th Fighter Squadron based at Davis-Monthan. The 47th Fighter Squadron is now an A-10 Thunderbolt, known more affectionately as a Warthog, reserve unit. The reflects the affectionate name of the squadron "Termites."

    The 47th traces its lineage to the attack on Pearl Harbor when two of its pilots were the only airmen that got airborne during the Japanese attack scoring 7 “kills.” 

   It has been in almost constant service since, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. I avoided telling Dad about the plans until they finally came together about 3 days before the scheduled tour. He was beyond elated about the prospect. The tour was scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. 

Dad getting cockpit tour of the A-10

   We arrived at the gate a few minutes early and were met by a sergeant who escorted us to Hangar 8 where the 47th had pulled an A-10 into a hangar with a floor so clean you could have eaten off it. 

   We were met by a Chief Master Sgt. who met us in the hangar along with several other members of the A-10 squadron. The crew took turns welcoming Dad to the hangar and then raised up some mechanical steps so Dad could get a close up view of the cockpit interior. 

   Another enlisted man sat in the cockpit and gave Dad a tour of the cockpit. Sometime during all this Dad boldly asked if they had a two-seat version of the plane (the meaning of that was not lost on anyone) and they regretfully said that while three two-seat versions were built, none are currently in service. 

    Another crew member showed Dad the 30mm gatling cannon that the plane is built around. They had opened up the access door to the weapon so Dad could get a good look inside the weapon. Before the tour continued with an A-10 pilot, the crew members presented Dad with two posters and a 30mm dummy shell that they had engraved Dad’s World War II Army Air Force rank and name on it. It left Dad speechless, but the tour was just starting. 

    Major James Buchanan, a 2006 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy took over the tour from the hangar. Next Dad was taken to the recreation room (bar) used by the A-10 air crews. 

   The interior of the room is a testament to the history of the 47th Fighter Squadron. A photo of the two hero pilots from Hawaii hang on the wall along with a squadron sign that came home from its place on Iwo Jima after the war. The 47th Fighter Squadron was based at Iwo Jima and escorted B-29s on bombing raids to Japan. 

Dad and his 47th FS friends

    At some point while Dad and Major Buchanan were talking “shop” the Major pulled out several squadron patches and a challenge coin and presented them to Dad. There was more speechlessness.           Major Buchanan finished a detailed tour of the recreation room and then we followed him to a large Air Force training building where they had set up the high tech A-10 simulator for Dad to use.  

        Unfortunately, the tightness of the space left Dad concerned he could never get out of the simulator cockpit so Joan was quickly substituted as the A-10 pilot in training. With some help from Major Buchanan Joan was able to take off and began flying around the Tucson area which with the help of computer graphics was somehow filled with enemy aircraft and Russian tanks on the ground. 

    Using missiles and cannons Joan had the privilege of destroying a Russian made tank on the ground and shot a MIG 29 out of the sky. Not an ace yet but then it came time to land the A-10. I guess the best thing we can say about the landing is that she walked away from it. But it didn’t actually land on the runway. But, hey, it was her first combat flight so there’s that. 

    Our two-hour tour had turned into an almost three-hour tour an it was time to leave, but with many happy memories and some great souvenirs soon to be applied to a new jacked for Dad.

Dad and engraved 30mm shell

    It seemed as much as Dad was honored by the tour, the members of the 47th Fighter Squadron were honored to meet a member of the Greatest Generation close up.

    In between skydiving and air force base touring, Dad went to two more concerts at the resort, one was a Paul Simon tribute show and the other was William Florian, a former lead singer of the New Christy Minstrels who gave a really fun concert. 

     Also highlighting Dad’s visit was some research Dad and I did at the county clerk’s office where we found the address from Dad’s late mother-in-law (my step grandmother) who once lived in Tucson. No one remembered her address, but I was able to pull up some old deed records and found her former address (she left in 1990). 

     I visited her once there back in the mid-1980s and Dad and my sister had been there previously too. Those old investigative reporter skills still come in handy once in a while. 

    After we got the address we drove to the house and after finding it I decided we should go to the door and see if anyone was home. A very nice lady was there and invited us into the house. A lot of changes had been made, but it was still pretty much as we remembered it. She had some questions for us about what the house had looked like when we saw it and then it was time to leave. 

    It’s hard to remember all the things we did while Dad was here, but here is a quick list: 

    A second visit to downtown Tucson and Meet Me at Maynard’s. 

    Two trips to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. The first time we went was on a Wednesday which is the only day they don’t have the “Raptor Free Flight” show, so I took Dad back the day before he left for home so we could see the show. 

     A car tour of Saguaro East National Park. 

Dad and Major Buchanan and coin

    A car tour of Madera Canyon where we stopped and paid our respects to “Michael’s Mountain,” which is actually Mt. Wrightson, but the place at the summit where I took my brother’s ashes a number of years ago. On the way home from there we stopped and had a picnic lunch at the Titan Missile Museum. 

   We had both toured it previously so we skipped the tour. 

    We made one more trip to the Pima Air and Space Museum so we could finish touring all the buildings there. We stopped in and visited with the B-17 pilot again on a Thursday. 

    We took a car trip up the road to Mt. Lemmon. Dad and I rode the guided tram tour up Sabino Canyon. 

    We went and saw another movie – King Richard – the story of Serena and Venus Williams and their father, Richard Williams. Very good movie by the way. 

    Dad attended resort chapel with us each Sunday.  

    Joan, Dad an I went to the Friday dinner show at the resort. The entertainment was a program called “Back to the Fifties,” and we enjoyed it very much. 

    We had dinner out at Chuy’s a Mexican Restaurant we had never eaten at before. 

    Dad was kind enough to go on several chore runs with me to get the car washed, gassed and pick up odds and ends, including filling our large propane tanks for the trailer. 

"Termites" sign from Iwo Jima

    So soon the visit was over and we drove Dad to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix for his flight home to Louisville. It was kind of a letdown to get up the next day and know that he was not here in Tucson anymore. 

    Wednesday night Joan and I went to the resort concert which was “Chicago Experience” which was a really good tribute to the band with the same name. At the previous concerts Dad had used my ticket and sat with Joan at the shows so this was the first time I was back in my “assigned” seat. 

    More fun to come.