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Antelope Island by Jack Romney The Story |
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| I was abreast of the door, so I turned and pulled the emergency hinge pins out. When I pushed the door it wouldn't budge, so I leaned over and slammed my shoulder against it. It popped out and fell free and I almost went with it. I managed to pull myself back into the plane and then I realized that by pulling myself back I had simply postponed the jump and scared myself at the same time. I jumped and when I looked back and saw the tail of the plane I pulled the rip cord. My chute opened smoothly and I looked up and there was Collins suspended by his chute. We were close enough together that we conversed in a normal tone of voice all the way down. He said he looked out of his window and saw a flame about three feel long blowtorching out of the inspection panel in the wing by the main fuel tank. That was when we knew we had to go. |
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| We were now below the clouds and could see the water and a rugged shoreline. It appeared that we would land on shore, but that it probably would be a rough landing on rough terrain. There was a full moon shining between the clouds, so the visibility was excellent. It was a little chilly and there was a fairly strong onshore breeze. |
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| It appeared that we were landing on a coast several hundred yards wide rising gradually to a mountain. The coast was roughly north-south in orientation, the mountain was to the east.
Because it was such a short flight and we could see the beacon of Hill AFB we had been careless about maintaining our position on the map. We didn't know exactly where we were, but we were thankful that we hadn't landed in the water. The drill when you parachute over water, especially at night, is to unbuckle your seat harness belt and then lock your arms around the shoulder straps and to stay in the harness until you touch water (At night it is impossible to estimate your height above water). Then you get out of your harness and duck beneath the canopy and swim out from under your chute. In the Great Salt Lake this can't be done. The buoyancy of the extremely salty water makes it impossible. It is said that the best thing to give a drowning person is not a life preserver but a 10 lb. weight for stability so he can float with his head upright and avoid strangling on the salt water. |
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| Once we landed we folded up our chutes and stuffed them back in their packs and then put them on again. It seemed likely that we had landed on the eastern shore of the lake and, if so, by walking north we would arrive at the outskirts of Ogden. After we had walked north of the shore for a while we could see a beacon ahead of us which we hoped would be near a highway. When we arrived at the beacon we could see that there was water all around us, that we were on a promontory.
By then we were tired, we had walked over five miles in rugged terrain and it was getting cold and dark. Moreover, we were now sure we didn't know where we were. |
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Cover Page — Introduction and Foreword Table of Contents —The Protagonists The Story —A Night on Antelope Island Or you may go to Home - Contact Us - Cold War Hist. - 91st SRS Hist. - Stardust 40 Mission Story |
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