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Glitch

Who was the first

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That would be Jay Thompson; B12198, C17009, D9538, Pro90, Pops 1839, Falcon 413, SCS 7109, SCR 21479, and probably a few others I've lost track of during the years. He made his 1st of 50 logged military jumps on 6 May 1957, and his first civilian jump on 16 Nov 1982 at Keystone Fla under 27' Paracommander, and his last one (logged that I can find) on 21 Oct 1990 under a 375' MT1-X. He earned his D on 30 Apr 1985.

None of this may seem remarkable, but this, as every award he earned, was earned with no waivers or special considerations given aside from perhaps a door seat in the plane and the occasional push out the door. As you can see in the attached pic, he lost his right leg at the hip. We had to get a custom harness built and TSO'd prior to his first jump. There was an inherent stability issue and an inbuilt right hand turn that he had to learn to deal with... which was over come by the use of a scuba flipper of all things (modified with leather straps and removed after deployment).

The attached pic is actually a family portrait of the very first 3 way between my little bro, my dad, and myself. The camera guy was just practicing and learning to shoot pics... so was using black and white film and just happened to get this right as I docked.... *snap*

As far as USPA having the info.... how would they "know" if there's no waivers involved?

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Randomly f'n thingies up since before I was born...

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What do you consider 100% disabled? Captain Hook led his team to US and world competition. Pirate was on the James gang. There was a team of gimps called Pieces of Eight or Pieces of Shit. I can't remember which. There was also an APT member that lost both legs in the delta track and came back to the team. These people were all from the 70's.
U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

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What do you consider 100% disabled?


Someone considered or rated with a 100% physical disability from a recognized medical perspective or government agency such as the VA.

Please understand, I'm honestly just interested in finding out who was the first 100% disabled skydiver who earned his D license without any waivers, or their Pro rating without waivers. For 20 years, I've not really given it much thought and just assumed it was my dad. This being said, I've been asked to perhaps consider submitting him (log books, stories, photos, etc) to the USPA for posterity and historical sake. I'm not trying to disrespect or take away from the accomplishments of anyone... on the contrary I think those who deal with and overcome challenges not only in their daily lives but in a sport like skydiving should absoluly be respected and admired.

This being said, Dana Bowman lost his legs performing a delta track in 1994 and had his D license prior to his injuries. I don't know about anyone else you've mentioned, but all of the Pieces of Eight folks I've heard about were not 100% disabled prior to earning a non-waivered D license.
Randomly f'n thingies up since before I was born...

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Someone considered or rated with a 100% physical disability from a recognized medical perspective or government agency such as the VA.



Different agencies have different criteria. I've met people with 100% VA disability ratings that have no outward physical signs of being anything other than able-bodied.

Whether or not your Dad was "the first" has nothing to do with his accomplishments.

- Dan G

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jackwallace

What do you consider 100% disabled? Captain Hook led his team to US and world competition. Pirate was on the James gang. There was a team of gimps called Pieces of Eight or Pieces of Shit. I can't remember which. There was also an APT member that lost both legs in the delta track and came back to the team. These people were all from the 70's.



POE - Of which Bob Clark was a member was the first leg amputee I met in '81 when I started and had been a skydiver for a bit; although I can't say definitely if it extended back into the 70s.

APT - is Dana Bowman... He started skydiving in the Mid -late 80's I believe.
Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

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One of the big reasons many people are turned down the first time they apply is that they don’t learn about the process like you are doing now so they don’t understand what Social Security is looking for. Once you know the process, it’s much easier to present your condition in a manner that they are more likely to accept.
http://insuranceadviseronline.com/

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