Thursday, August 24, 2006

To the Jumpers past and Present


Jumping with a T 10 Parachute CJATC, Rivers, Manitoba



Dropping in DZ at CJATC, Rivers, Manitoba one of 5 jumps to qualify for Para



Hook up Green Light Prepare to Jump
Airborne School CJATC, Rivers, Manitoba



Boys loading up in the C119 at CJATC Rivers for a Jump 1950's





Preparing for the jump from the C119, CJATC, Rivers, Man



Awaiting the word to board the aircraft for another jump



Preparing for the landing from the Mock Tower

This photo shows the parachutist at the time of contact with the ground. Notice how he has already started to bend his legs and is preparing to let his body go limp and roll in a manner that he will not accidentally sprain his ankle or hurt himself in any other way. When being dropped into action an injured paratrooper is of no use to his comrades. Many experienced parachutists would do what is called a "stand up" when they landed, it wasn't difficult to land and do a stand up but that wasn't considered to be the method that all parachutist were taught. Trainee's that attempted to do stand ups on their landings if caught would have the luxury of walking back to Camp from the DZ (Drop Zone) usually about 5 miles from the main Camp.

High Tower Camp Shilo, Manitoba

This photo gives a view of the parachutist being pulled to the top of the tower which was 256 Ft. It also shows how the outer edges of the canopy are attached to the large ring keeping the canopy fully opened during descend.

Release of the Parachutist From 256 Ft

The Parachutist has been released from the top of the tower and is now completely on his own. During the new 30 seconds to a minute he will have a true understanding of how it feels coming down with an opened parachute.

Welcome to the High Tower 256 Ft - Camp Shilo, Manitoba

Note: The Parachute being attached to the cable at the High Tower in Shilo, Man. A cast iron male cone shaped object was inserted into a female clamping device at the end of the steel cable, the outer edge of the canopy or parachute was hooked onto a large round ring keeping the parachute fully opened, the parachutist was pulled to the top of the tower the cone shaped object was released and fell down towards the parachutists as it fell past the outer large ring it released the already opened canopy and the parachute would come to the ground completely free of any controls. This taught the parachutist how to control the parachute, and how to land properly when hitting the ground.



This is the Mock Tower at 34 Ft CJATC, Rivers.

The next stage was Camp Shilo and then the actual jumps. Many didn't get past this stage. A cable was hooked up to the tower, you hooked on to it, jumped and slid down the cable to give the effect of jumping out of the C119.




Airborne Platoon which was part of Air Supply School at Rivers.
This photo was taken around 1956


Airborne Signal Platoon CJATC Rivers Manitoba

CJATC had a lot to offer with it different Training schools (1959)
Front Row L to R Cpl RJ McNeil, Sgt Armstrong, WO 2 Tibby, Capt Tex Neighbour, Sgt Skipper, Cpl Rooney, Gerry Watt.
2nd row - ? 1sr one ? AJ MacNeil Third ? Fourth ? Skip Duffie, Reginald Jennex, Stephen Black, Sig Patiquin Last one ?
Back Row L to R 5th from the left Bob Conroy, Need help to fill in the blanks!!




The Instructors at the Airborne Training School CJATC, Rivers, Manitoba (1955).
I arrived in 1957 and some were still there.

Back Row: Dryland, Chimko, Taylor, Gammon, Mennie, Jensen,
4th Row: Dingman, McIsaac, Brown, Quik, Allen, Villeneuve, Theriault, LaFrance, Rhodes, Blondeau, Tasse, Lebouthillier,
3rd Row: Marsden, Wishart, Dore, McLean, Confiant, Sherman, Godin, Woodall, Massengale, Preston, Sarsdhal, Allaway, McGillivray,
2nd Row: Thibodeau, Desroches, Beaulne, Debney, Swan, Lewinsky, Austin, Foster, Riddel, Bisonette, Paquette, Vermaat & Schoular
Front Row: Carriere, Wasilewski, Dixon, Romanson, Henry, Pelletier, Bisonette, Bricker, Robertson, Clark, Schofield & Cormier

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Posted by Norm Van T at 11:28

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