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Thanks! I enjoyed recalling those memories, and sharing them. I have tried several different ways to contact some of the guys that jumped out of that blimp, but to no avail.

I enjoyed watching the video. It brought back lots of memories from the early 60's in the States. A lot of what we did then was "Trial and ERROR."

Thanks for posting it. I enjoyed it. That TU was a hot modification in those early days of sport jumping.

Around the mid 60's I was on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Skydiving Club. Someone from a small town called me to request 3 skydivers exit over their Labor Day event. On that Labor Day, I sent one of our members to that town to lay out an "X" so we could identify the landing area. That part worked well. From the air we could easily see the "X." The major problem was we couldn't see any people on the ground waiting for us to jump. Well, what the heck, we knew where we were, and we were in an airplane with no way to contact anyone (cell phones had not been invented yet), so we jumped into the empty field. It turned out the town celebrated their Labor Day event on Sunday, so everyone in town could spend the actual holiday at home with their families. We couldn't decide if we were a day late or 364 days early for next year's event (which never came to happened). I do remember a lot of finger pointing on both sides. That part was too bad.

I found this site by accident, and I am glad I did because I am enjoying the various threads. My first jump was at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in 1960. I made 60 jumps into that sand pit that was surrounded by trees. My 31st jump was out of one of those blimps, June 28, 1961. In those days we tried various modifications to the old type parachutes. Some worked well while some -- not so well. I started 6 threads under the Skydiving History & Trivia section: 1960 Trials & ERRORS 1961 Blimp Jump 1961 Blimp Jumper's Names

The other key in the story was he would be 25 when he graduated. If memory serves me correctly, they couldn't draft you when you were 25. I know the story to be true because I was there when it happened.

You know how some days you can be on the ground, and hear the sound of skydivers falling through the air? Well, the next time your kids are at the DZ, and the wind is right, tell them to listen carefully when you exit the plane at 12,500. A couple of seconds after you exit the plane, yell something to them like, HI TOM or JEANNIE LOOK AT TOM, or whatever. When you land, they should be able to tell you what you yelled to them from 2 miles up. My grown kids still remember some of the things I yelled to them.

Great story.

I don't remember Mcgraw, but I do remember Ted Taylor although at the time he signed log books as T.O. Taylor, CSO #411 - B616. We all called him T O. I remember the first time he was jumpmaster out of a Navy SNB-5. He was on his hands and knees to the rear of the door. He stuck his head out the door to see where the exit point was. He quickly brought his head back into the plane, and all wild eyed said, "You can't breath out there!" One of the guys said, "Hold your breath and try it again." That worked. No, I didn't get to jump at MEPA. My last jump at Lakehurst, #60, was on Oct. 7, 1961. The Navy had decomissioned my blimp squadron, and everyone was shipped out at that time.

Wow! That jumpmaster without wearing a chute brings to memory some of the scary stories I used to hear from former paratroopers that I used to jump with. They claimed that on occasion, when they exiting the aircraft with full battle gear, someone would grab the jumpmaster on their way out the door, and all of a sudden he was unexpectedly airborne. The other story I remember was: One of two guys would put a small amount of split pea soup in a barf bag, then roll it up, and take it on the plane. On the way up to jump altitude, this guy would fake being air sick. Eventually he would grab the bag, and fake throwing up in it. When he pulled the bag away from his face he had split pea soup around his lips - except no one though it was soup. The other guy, that was in on the joke, would take the bag out of his hand, and pretend to drink the contents. This would cause the guy next to him to actually throw up, which would cause the guy next to him to throw up, which would cause.... It wasn't long before most of the guys on the flight had thrown up. I felt sorry for the ground crew when that plane landed.

The lottery came well after I was discharged from the Navy, but I do have a story that may be of interest. I have a relative that was 24 years old, married, a senior in college, with good grades when the Draft Board in Illinois called him in again. The Draft Board informed him that they had received a letter from his wife, stating that he and his wife were in the process of a divorce. The Draft Board yanked him out of college, and sent him to Nam.

That was my 23rd jump. Yes, the guy did jump again. After a night of 10 cent beers, we were all laughing about it. In fact, for quite some time, when we would see him walking towards us, we would stop, bend forward at the waist, and move our arms in big circles. We didn't say a word, we didn't have to, he even laughed. You asked if there was any video? WHAT??? At a salary of $86 per month, high tech. for me was my Kodak Brownie Camera, that I owned before I went into the Navy.

On May 13, 1961, Lakehurst Naval Air Station, NJ, was celebrating it own Armed Forces Day. We were scheduled to jump out of a HRS helicopter. Again, none of us had ever jumped out of a helicopter of any kind. Before the jump we looked over the HRS to try an figure out the best way to exit the aircraft. We couldn't sit in the doorway and tumble out because we would hit the wheel. The wheel was too far out of reach to climb out on. The door was too short for a standing exit. So, we decided we needed to crouch down and dive out over the wheel. Okay, everyone agreed! The first guy to go out didn't crouch down enough. As he dove out the door, his backpack got caught on the top of the doorway. The heels of his boots were caught on the edge of the bottom of the doorway. His body was hanging out side the aircraft. His arms were waving all over the place trying to grab anything, but to no avail. We couldn't push his feet out the door because he would have dropped down and hit the wheel. Two of us grabbed his backpack, and tried pulling him back into the helicopter. That was not an easy task. And, he banged his helmet on the outside of the helicopter because he was not crouched down low enough - again. When we got him inside, he was wild eyed, and said he wasn't going through that again. The jumpmaster told him he had two choices, 1) exit the aircraft on his own, and we would make sure he was crouched low enough this time, or 2) exit the aircraft with the jumpmaster's boot in his butt. He took option 1). The rest of us made darn sure we crouched low enough.

It was Armed Forces Day in Atlantic City, NJ on May 21, 1961. The Lakehurst Skydiving Club participated in the event by dropping 7 of us out of a Navy R4D on several passes. The Coast Guard provided 3 boats to pick us out of the water. We all landed in the ocean between The Steel Pier and the Million Dollar Pier. (I doubt if those piers even exist now.) None of us had ever made a water jump, and we didn't know anyone that had. We knew that we could breath under a wet canopy, but we were concerned about someone getting tangled in 28 lines if the canopy should come down directly on the jumper. We were more concerned about how to deal with sharks. No problem -- one of the members found out the Base had "a lot" of shark chaser in storage. Since we were officially representing the Navy at this event, we were allowed to carry some of that shark chaser on our person. Some time after that jump, we found out that the reason the Base had "a lot" of shark chaser in storage was because the Navy found out that that particular product had the opposite effect on sharks. The Navy was currently using a different product for their pilots. Oh well, more trial and ERROR jumps. After we arrived on shore we were pretty proud of ourselves for all our preplanning, i.e. items needed in the water, boats to pick us out of the water, a de-boating area, dry clothes to change into back on the pier, and transportation back to the Base. Oh, there was one thing we forgot -- none of the guys that were going to drive us back to the Base were too keen on stuffing 7 main chutes, 7 reserves, 7 helmets, 7 jumpsuits, 7 pairs of boots, and 7 sets of underwear, all salt water soaked, into their cars.

As promised in a previous thread, here are the names of the 10 skydivers that jumped out of a blimp on June 28, 1961, at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in NJ. These are presented in the order that appeared in the newspaper that covered the event, not in the order we exited the airship. Anybody know where any of these guys are today? 1. 1st Lt. E. E. Bajer, Fort Dix 2. F. R. Ehrlich, SN, NATTU 3. D. R. Cox, SN, NATTU 4. Bob Kellen, SN, ZW-1 5. Lt. Cdr. Tom Pugh, ZW-1 6. 1st. Lt. R. H. Goetz, Fort Dix 7. Chuck Clifford, ADE3, ZW-1 8. Don Shoop, AEC, ZW-1 9. Chuck Seymour, PR1, NATTU 10. Ed Kruse, PR1, NATTU Two years ago, I heard that Don Shoop was building and flying planes somewhere in Minn. In 1962, Chuck Clifford and D. R. Cox were jumping with the Navy Shooting Stars Parachute Team, but I lost touch after that.

Your story about learning to sew brought back lots of memories. The Navy Base Parachute Riggers taught us how to sew. They taught us how to cut the nylon, then sew a strip of cloth over the remaining cut nylon. They had us put a piece of paper on top and on the bottom of the nylon, then sew. After the sewing was complete, we tore off the paper. I wouldn't worry about jumping the rig you sewed. The Riggers told us the piping we were sewing around the modifications was only for looks, and that the rip stop nylon would support you all the way to the ground. Come to think of it, none of them ever cut into a parachute, then jumped it without sewing the piping on. Hmmm! Don't worry about the "D", I'm not. But, you did get me thinking about my "B" and "C" License numbers. I had to go look them up. B673 and C735. You know what those low numbers mean? I've got more wrinkles than you. lol (Actually, I'm so old the first time a guy sent me an email and ended it with lol, I thought it meant lot of love. I even asked my wife if I was sending off the wrong message to the guy.)

We were modifying and jumping any thing we could get our hands on. We found several deactivated 32' and/or 36' cargo chutes in storage. We cut 7-TU's in them and jumped them. We also had to modify the back packs to get them to fit. I was making $86 per month in the Navy, so I didn't care if the pack was larger, and more uncomfortable. After all I was skydiving! The cargo chutes worked alright. They let you land softer than the twenty-eight footers, but were harder to control in higher winds. Our chute of choice was the 28'.

Interesting point of view. Here I am trying to justify to myself why I would want to put in writing some of the dumb things we tried in our attempt to learn how to do things the proper way. Like when we were modifying our main chutes. We started with a "T" then went to a "Double L." Good gosh, then someone connected the "Double L" and we had a "TU." Then one of the guys went to a "W." DON'T TRY THE "W." You have to remember, Wing Parachutes weren't invented yet. Some of you may not even know what modifications I am talking about above.

FYI: Putting size to different types of blimps: If you can visualize the size of the old type hydrogen blimps being scaled down to the size of a Greyhound Bus, then the helium blimp that I jumped out of would be the size of a VW Bug. Now, if you compare the size of the ZPG-2 (helium blimp) to the size of the blimp at the Oshkosh Air Show, you need to do the following: The ZPG-2 is now the size of the Greyhound Bus, and the blimp at the air show is the size of a VW Bug. My guess is that the blimp at the air show would not take an hour to get to 3000'. However, in a once in a life time experience -- savor the moment.

On 6-28-61, for my 31st jump, I was treated to the thrill of exiting a Navy Blimp (ZPG-2) There were 10 of us enjoying that experience that day. (I will list their names in another post.) The blimp was 403' long and 117' high. It did not turn on a dime, but it did climb like a snail. The thrill of this jump was not how fast we could get to and exit over the DZ, it was the hour it took to climb to 3000'. Normally when the Blimp was on duty, it carried a crew of 21 (7 on duty, 7 sleeping, and 7 in reserve). So with the small flight crew we had for that day, the 10 of us had plenty of room to move around the 2 story gondola. We were able to enjoy coffee in the galley, relax in a bunk, sight see from the cockpit, some of us (me included) were able to sit in the co-pilot's chair, and take control of the flight for five minutes each. What a thrill! We made 4 separate passes over the DZ, so for fun, we tried different ways of exiting the aircraft. We all did exit out of the cargo doors in the aft of the Blimp. I was jumpmaster for three of us on our run. This is how I did it: The aft section of the Blimp was on about a 45 degree angle, hence with the cargo doors open, the exit opening was on a 45 degree angle. I faced aft, placed my feet at the edge of the opening, leaned forward and placed my hands on each side of the door opening. I was leaning over the opening on a 45 degree angle with only 4 points of contact, The heals of my boots and my hands. I had to yell out course changes to one of the other jumpers, who radioed them to the pilot. Since I was facing backwards to the direction of flight, I had to see where I wanted the airship to go, but reverse the directions as I yelled them out. Oh ya, then wait for a year as the Blimp tried to turn to that direction. When we were over the exit point, I simply brought my hands together, and let gravity take over. That was too cool! The other 2 jumpers went out like diving off a high diving board. The last pass saw 2 jumpers step lightly backwards out the aft station, rendering a mid-air salute to the great airship that we would never jump from again.

I've got more, I just wasn't sure anyone would be interested.

You have to realize that a lot of what we did in 1960 was trial and error, with a big emphasis on error. I was in the Navy stationed at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in NJ. I was in a blimp squadron. The Base also had a parachute rigger school. A couple of the instructors decided to start a skydiving club. Word about it got around and I decided to join. To my knowledge those guys had only jumped out of military aircraft. The Navy called those two engine planes R4D's. Everyone else called them DC3's. Any way that is what we were expecting to jump out of. We were trained to sit on the seat racks until jump time, get up, walk to the door, pivot on our right foot, and out the door into the slip stream. For some reason, I can't remember why, we couldn't jump on the Navy Base for about a month. So we called a skydiving club in Asbury Park, NJ. They said come on up. So we went for it. They had a Cessna 170. None of us had ever jumped out of a Cessna. When it was my turn for a static line jump, our jumpmaster said to climb out on the step, hang on to the strut, then let go. We found out after that jump, that we should have "pushed off" because by letting go, I went into a spin causing my lines to be twisted. They taught us, "When in doubt -- use the reserve" so I did. On the day of my fourth jump, we still couldn't get an R4D, so we got a Navy SNB-5 (a smaller twin engine plane). The problem was that none of us had ever jumped out of one. We took the four passenger seats out, and six of us climbed in. They were going to drop me out at 2500 feet, then continue up. The jumpmaster told me to sit in the door, lean forward and tumble out. Bad idea for a static line jump. "When in doubt -- pull the reserve." My eleventh jump was a 5 second delay out of an R4D. Somehow my chute opened with a Mae West, so out came the reserve. It was right after that the club decided we needed to get harnesses with a quick disconnect for the main chute.

In 1960, the Lakehurst Skydiving Club required 5 sport static lines. Since I had to use my reserve on my second jump (out of a Cessna 170) and my fourth jump (out of a Navy SNB-5) Ed Kruse B-417 (at that time) recommended I make a total of 6 static lines. We were trying different ways of exiting aircraft in those days. Some worked, some not so well.

Hi Ed. Add one more jumper to the list of guys jumping out of the blimp on 6-28-61. In fact if you are the Ed I think you are, you signed my log book - C-339 (at that time). It was my 31st jump. Bob Kellen D358

Man, does this bring back memories. My first jump was at Lakehurst in 1960. I made 60 jumps into that sand pit that was surrounded by trees. My 31st jump was out of one of those blimps, June 28, 1961. In those days we tried various modifications to the old type parachutes. Some worked well while some -- not so well.