30 Feet - The Most Frightening Height

Heroes Remember

30 Feet - The Most Frightening Height

Transcript

The training undertaken was you went in, and it was very, very, very tough on some of us, or most of us. You started out and you climbed these 30 foot ropes. And first you had to climb, and there was a special way of climbing where you put the rope over the top of your foot and you put the other foot on top of the rope to hold it, and you drag yourself up and then clamp your foot on top of your foot and hold, and this sort of thing. And I can always remember one fellow who... He didn't quite make it. He'd get about five feet off the floor and he starts saying, "I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it." And they finally had to let him go because he, he didn't have enough, he didn't have the strength that was required to... Anyway, then we did an awful lot of work on the trampoline. And matter of fact, I was chosen one time, they had the visiting general, and I was pretty good on the trampoline, so I was the one chosen to give him a demonstration on the trampoline. But that was, that was a lot of fun, and so, you did this, and then you went up to the mock-up tower, which was a tower there where you, you jumped out, and you had the harness on, and there was a pulley on this cable, and it was 30 feet above the ground. And, apparently, they told us that 30 feet is the most frightening height for a person, you know. And you would have to simulate a jump. You'd, you'd have to jump out and, of course, you had to jump a certain way. And the American way, you always had to count 1000, 2000, 3000 and if your main chute didn't open by that time, you pulled your reserve, okay. And that's what you had to do. And then you'd shoot down this, down this incline to, to, until your feet hit the ground sort of thing. And then after, I think the third week, third week you were introduced to the tower, which was 250 some feet. And first you went up in the tower, and two people, and you were on a seat and you sat. You're belted in and then after you get up there, you had to lean forward as far as you could and look down on the ground, and so on. And then they would pull the, pull the seat up, and it would hit the block, and the block would trip it, and you'd come down, you'd drop about 15 or 20 feet before your seat hit the, your backside hit the, the seat. So, everyone had to do that. And then after, after that they, they hooked you up in a, where you were head down about possibly 15 or 20 degrees off the, off the horizontal, head down, and the, the hook was in about the mid-back, and they'd pull you up to the top of the tower. And here, again, you'd have to do certain exercises up there. And then they would say "ready" and then they would bring it up and it, and it would be a quick release, and you'd drop and, of course, the risers, the risers, and the... You'd drop and then you'd bounce, you see, and so on and then they'd drop you to the ground. And then, then you'd go up and, and you'd be hooked up to a parachute. And then they, they pull you up and you'd have to get into a certain position, and they would pull, pull it up and it would quick release, and you'd drift off from the tower. And then the fourth week, you'd go into the plane and start making your jumps. And it was necessary to qualify. It was necessary to make six jumps. Five, five jumps during the day and one, one night jump.

Description

Mr. Melanson discusses paratroop training in detail.

Russel C Melanson Sr.

Mr. Melanson was born in Mill Village, Nova Scotia, on August 16, 1922. He worked on a farm and in the woods, and completed his education before his first attempt to enlist. He was turned down by the navy as he was underage. Similarly, after joining the West Novies, an artillery regiment, he was discharged for being underage. He was finally accepted into the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and completed his basic training in Shilo, Manitoba. Once overseas, he was attached to the 3rd Brigade, 6th Airborne Division. Mr. Melanson's first action was at the Battle of the Bulge. His second was the Allied /Russian advance into Germany from the east. After leaving the army, Mr. Melanson became a hydrographer, and retired as the Regional Hydrographer, Bedford Institute of Oceanography.

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