Helmets

[BEAR]

I've been on many a police call on the DZs of Fort Bragg and was always amazed how much stuff we found. Entrenching tools stick in my mind, folded in the cases. The real amazing part is that more people weren't clobbered and killed by them falling! If it did happen, I never heard about it.

In 1973 we had a particularly bad CH47 jump in Alaska where half the company lost equipment, M16s, helmets and other gear (including a set of PVSs). We also had a serious mid-air entanglement which was touch-and-go for a while. The Company Commander was so mad at us that he called us together on the drop zone and proceeded to chew our collective 4th points of contact for an hour. He ended his tirade by calling us a "bunch of bums". From that point on, we referred to ourselves as "Charlie AirBUM". I will say, though, we recovered an M16 that was bent like a "Coma", a truly amazing sight to behold (wish I had a picture).

BEAR