(IJCH) Of Parachute Jumps and Frozen Vegetables...

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IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head (Meaning: My Warped, Personal Opinions and Musings)

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From the Author:

Salutations.

I am JaiChai.

And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.

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I invite you to interact with everyone, learn, and have as much fun as possible!

For my returning online friends, "It's always great to see you again!"

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Of Parachute Jumps and Frozen Vegetables...

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Many years ago, when I was on active duty, I was slated to go to Fort Benning, but 4 months out, op tempo superceded (cancelled) those orders.

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I went straight to free-fall training at the USAF Academy, Colorado Springs, CO, as a "special" AM-490/491 "exchange student"; meaning, I went from a ground-pounder to free-fall parachutist by doing double the required USAF free-fall jumps in half the time!

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BTW, this was a little-known, used only when needed, fast-track way to get team members qualified expeditiously to meet operational commitments.

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Up to this point in my life, because of an early traumatic experience on top of the Empire State building, I was deathly afraid of heights.

What happened?

A gust of wind knocked me down and immediately had a frightened little me rolling towards the edge walls of the tourist platform!

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Damn! I was freakin' scared during that first jump!

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But then I actually got addicted to it and found that I had an exceptional proprioceptor response to the aerodynamics of relative work (acrobatic maneuvers while free-falling).

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All my classmates thought the Marine Corps had sent in a wringer to embarrass the USAF students.

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Nevertheless, there was lots of free beer at the end of each jump evolution!

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Although I logged a butt-load of jumps during my career, I don't consider my aerial antics anything special; mainly because I've jumped with some REAL MASTERS.

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I shit you not, some of those guys could "thread the needle" and fly their bat-suits in between the crevasses of mountains!

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About the Frozen Peas...

Anyway, all who've graduated from jump training know this:

After all the trauma from PLF practice and running (actually, shufffling) around with packs and in boots, most students have to make a trip to the commissary and buy up all the frozen vegetables from the commissary to ice down swollen knees at night!

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By JaiChai

Mighty Kind of You for stopping by.

Truly hope to see you again!

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About the Author

Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.

In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.

After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.

Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).

He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.