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6 I Was On My Own 9
THE BATTALION
Thursday, March 6, 1969
College Station, Texas
Page 5
Reporter Makes First Jump
By STEVE BROWN
Battalion Staff Writer
How does it feel to fall 3,000
feet?
“It’s like being suspended above
a water painting with a fan blow
ing in your face,” Bill Oncken,
an air-borne sophomore political
science major told me.
This question kept gnawing at
the back of my mind after I was
assigned to xio a story on the
Parachute Club.
Two weeks ago I would have
told anyone that told me to jump
out of an airplane that he was
crazy, but now I have done it and,
as parachutists say, “the bug has
bitten.”
I started Friday afternoon by
talking to Tom Clasor, president
of the club and a senior wildlife
science major. Glasor has made
300 sport jumps and as a ser
geant in the 101st Airborne made
35 jumps. He filled me in on just
about everything I would need
to know.
THE CLUB consists of about
40 members. The initial cost to
start jumping is $40, which cov
ers training, equipment costs and
the first five jumps. After that
it costs $3 a jump.
“The club doesn’t make a profit
on that $40 fee,” Glasor said.
“When we figure in equipment
costs, fuel consumption by the
airplane, etc., $40 is just enough,”
he noted.
Now the only thing left to do
was to jump.
I had gotten little sleep the
night before. Every time I drop
ped off to sleep, my eyelids would
come to a screaming halt about
three-quarters of the way down
and my brain would ask—
“WHY ME?”
Saturday morning I drove to
Hearne Airfield and waited for
the jumpers to show up. I put
that brave smile on my face just
like a little kid does when the
class bully is going to hit him iin
the mouth but when the kid isn’t
going to let him know he’s
chicken.
I had always wondered what
kind of training the club was giv
ing to new students. These guys,
especially Tom Glasor, go through
every aspect of the sport.
They started by teaching me
how to put on the chute correctly.
Next they drilled me in getting
away from the plane successfully.
Then I learned how to guide the
chute, pack it and how to land
properly.
Everything you have to know
to be safe is taught to you. This
is why major accidents in this
sport are extremely rare.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON my
turn came.
I climbed into the plane and we
started up. Glasor, the jump
master, asked me if I wanted to
jump first or second.
Of course, I wanted to be the
second to die. I was in no mood
to be labeled a martyr.
My biggest problem was get
ting out on that wheel. You have
to stand outside the door on the
wheel and dive when the jump-
master slaps your leg.
I stood out on that wheel for
what seemed an eternity, looking
down at the ground 2,800 feet
below, with nothing between me
and it but air. Then I felt a slap
on my leg.
BIS®
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11
1 |iii p I 1
GOING FOR TARGET
Bill Oncken lands near tar
get while jumping in Hearne
Airport last weekend.
Oncken was jumping with
the A&M parachute club.
(Photo by Steve Brown)
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Fear completely blocked all
thought from my mind and I
kicked up and pushed away.
THE NEXT FIVE seconds are
the hardest to explain. In this
time the line plays out automati
cally to open your chute.
I felt as if I were just lying
there, suspended between heaven
and earth. I wanted to lie there
and soak up the free feeling enve
loping me.
I thought, “Hey, this is my
own experience.” No people to
interfere, I was on my own.
The chute opened and I looked
up and breathed a sigh of relief
because this worried me most.
The view from this position is
enough to take your breath away.
Again the feeling of complete
solitude struck me. I could sing,
scream, whistle, cry or anything
else I wanted. I stood on a plat
form 2,000 feet up with someone
spreading various views out in
front of me for my approval.
BY THE TIME I came back to
reality, I had drifted to only
about 200 feet off the ground and
way to the left of the target area.
I tugged hard on the left riser,
the ropes that help guide the
chute to the right or left, and
started gliding over. But I had
waited too long.
I returned to earth about 300
yards off target.
I hit the ground, twisted my
knees in the direction of the fall,
threw my upper body away from
the fall and rolled. I didn’t even
feel it! The landing felt like I
had hopped off a platform only
four feet high.
When I got back to the jump
area, everyone patted me on the
back and congratulated me and
the president of the club came up
and shook my hand. I was king
for a day.
I felt as though I had more
guts than anyone in the world.
WHEN PARACHUTISTS talk
on why they jump, they give a
variety of answers. The best I
heard was, “so if anything goes
wrong with the airplane, I’ll be
ready.” But this only scrapes the
surface.
Adventure, in its purest form,
breathes through the sport. It is
one of the few ways to find real
adventure today.
For anyone with an adventure
some spirit, this is it. The chal
lenge beckons.
Visitors To Mexico Tell
Of ‘Carnival’ Atmosphere
March Boardsmanship Workshop
Planned By Area School Heads
School board members of an
11-eounty area will conduct a
March 26 workshop here.
Speakers and discussion of 100
participants will center on keys
to constructive boardsmanship in
the one-day workshop sponsored
by the Education Department.
E. L. Galyean, Texas State
Teachers Association official,
will be the dinner speaker an
nounced Dr. Frank Hubert, de
partment head. Galyean directs
TSTA’s membership and member
services division.
Discussion sessions will fea
ture Cecil E. Rush, Texas Asso
ciation of School Boards execu
tive director, and Richard L.
Hooker, assistant director. Aft
ernoon sessions and dinner will
be in the Memorial Student Cen
ter.
School board members of Area
10 will chair sessions. Calvin
Guest, Bryan board president
and TASB vice president, will
preside over the opening general
assembly. Four discussion ses
sions will be conducted by James
B. Hervey, Region 6 Service
Center board; Horace R. Willard
of Giddings, TASB executive
committee member; Bill Terrell,
Navasota, and Hilliard S. Thom
as, Cameron.
It could have been a typical
American park at the turn of the
century.
“It was almost a carnival at
mosphere,” said senior Ray Ar
mour of Houston, describing city
parks he discovered in Mexico
City on a tour with other Parks
and Recreation Department stu
dents from here.
“There were popcorn and ice
cream vendors, too,” he continued,
recalling shoeshine boys abounded
everywhere.
Graduate student George Dar
ker of Cleveland, Ohio, hailed the
experience as “an exposure to a
new culture ... a different way
of life with new dimensions.”
He added he was “most im
pressed, especially with their
museums.”
ARMOUR AND Barker were
among several A&M students who
visited Mexico City to compare
cultures and found the tour “fas
cinating.”
“I’m only sorry we didn’t see
it before the Olympics,” added
Armour. “Still, Mexico City is a
showplace.”
The students’ trip started some
what less than glamorous, how
ever, when they boarded the
fabled Eagle train in Nuevo La
redo for their 26 hour ride to
Mexico’s capitol.
Among other things they en
countered traveling with them
were turkeys and fleas on what
one jokingly described as a “post
Civil War train.”
“It was a milk run,” chorused
another student. “It stopped ev
erywhere.”
Women came on board at each
stop selling wares, Armour noted.
THE STUDENTS gained “ex
periences as a tourist” not avail
able in the classroom, he said.
Among the principal parks vis
ited were Chapultepec and Al-
meda.
North of Mexico City, the Ag
gies turned their attention to the
town of Teotihuacan which dates
to 200 B. C. and predates the
famous Aztec culture. While
there, they studied the early pyra
mids built to the sun and moon.
Armour and Harker felt goals
differ between city and national
park operations, with city parks
aimed at the local popLilace and
national parks catering to tour
ists.
IN ADDITION to train rides
and touring the parks, the Aggies
had occasion for one more ex
perience — riding in a Mexican
taxi.
Armour related it as “a rare
experience” with 10 or 12 Aggies
riding in one cab.
“Everybody pays one peso to
ride up and down the main
street,” he said, noting the driver
“really packed them in.”
“Everybody has the right of
way,” added Harker, who saw a
“70-year-old woman scrambling
for her life.”
The Aggies felt the trip was
worth every cent. They paid their
own fare.
More than a million kangaroos
are slaughtered every year. The
meat, most of it gamy and coarse,
is eaten by people in some coun
tries and by pets in others. The
hides make fine glove and boot
leather.
perma-crease
Westbury Slacks
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329 University Drive 7^3 /846-3706
College Station, Texas 7 7840
PIZZA INN
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11 a. m. - 2 p. m. Fri. &, Sat.
1 p. m. - 12 p. m. Sun.
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For Orders To Go Or Eat In
413 Hwy. 6, So. Across from the Ramada Inn
i
Chemist Institute
Cites Whitehouse
Dr. U. Grant Whitehouse, di
rector of A&M’s Electron Micro
scopy Center, will be formally
recognized as a Fellow in The
American Institute of Chemists
March 24.
Emerson Venable, AIC nomi
nating committee chairman, said
Whitehouse will be officially re
ceived at a banquet when the In
stitute meets in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Venable said the Institute re
stricts Fellowship awards to sci
entists who have adhered to high
standards of professional integri
ty throughout their careers while
making “original and distin
guished contributions” to the ad
vancement of chemistry.
The committee cited the bio
chemistry professor’s early con
tributions to molecular spectra
and isotope separation investiga-
tionfe and recent achievements in
alumino-silicate chemistry, ma
rine sedimentation and electron
optics.
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