CHAPTER 6
SECURE YOUR CHUTES
A
s we made our final preparations in the hangar and cross-checked
each other’s gear just prior to boarding the Twin Otter for our first
CIA parachute jump, jumpmaster Charlie steeled our nerves by playing
the Alabama song “The Closer You Get” over giant loudspeakers:The closer you get, the further I fall
I’ll be over the edge now in no time at all
I’m fallin’ faster and faster and faster with no time to stall
The closer you get, the further I fall.^1Funny guy.
The CIA’s army airborne–based jump school was the most fun of all
CIA training. By the time jump school began, we’d survived paramilitary
training, including the grueling SERE course. Our morale was high, as was
our sense of camaraderie, and we were in top physical condition.
Jump school was purely voluntary, and although I’d contemplated skip-
ping it after my honey bucket epiphany, a post-SERE weekend of R and
R and a great Italian meal with R. J. and our wives at the old-school Pizza
and Pasta restaurant on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington helped me to come
to my senses. I’d been looking forward to this “icing on the cake” training
from day one. I was also grateful for this unique opportunity to jump out
of an airplane and get paid for it.
Week one was devoted to ground school, where we learned the funda-
mentals of jumping and, more importantly, landing. We’d run PT twice a
day, including on full stomachs, following a frenzied food fest at midday in
the mess hall. The course instructors did not give us much time for lunch,
so we had to make it count.83