Sun City

Submitted by Pat Moore D-1814

Sun City southeast of Tampa was primarily a military drop zone but also used by the Macdill AFB parachute club. Sadly the only photos I have are of the military operations. I'm the guy on the far left of the picture of jumpers.

The military club was run by Sergeant Gene Ritchie and he was assisted by Jerry Ryburn. Since the jumps were free to military personnel, it was a popular destination for members of the Guard and Reserves as well.

I will share one jump story with you. I was jumpmastering a load of a half dozen static line jumpers and was having them exit the left side of the Huey. The pilot, Captain Travis, sat in the right seat. I believe the left seat was occupied by Lt. Theresa Warniment but I could be wrong. In the waistgunner seat behind me was Bob Branch, a civilian we had smuggled on board. The first student was named Enrique Romero and it was his second jump. As I gave him the exit command he kept balking. I signaled for the pilot to go around and asked Romero what the problem was. He said he thought we were past the exit point. I told him that was my responisbility and to exit on command. I discovered later that he was really having second thoughts. On the next pass, the same thing happened but this time his left foot slipped and he fell out. He tried to keep from falling but his reserve hit the chopper's skid and opened. The vortices caused the balled reserve to spin around the skid a few times before deploying. All but a handful of suspension lines snapped tying him securely upside down to the skid. The loose lines were dangerously close to the tail rotor. His arm was dislocated and he was bleeding from the neck. Bob and I climbed out on the skid but couldn't dislodge him as the lines were knotted tightly. I climbed back in and got a switchblade from the pilot who has have a very difficult time keeping the the chopper flying. I distinctly remember hearing him yell, "Get that boy off my helicopter". We were losing altitude rapidly. I climbed back down on the skid and began sawing away the suspension lines. When the last one was severed Romero fell away and the static line deployed the main. At that point I was standing one footed on the skid of chopper at 800 feet. I climbed back inside and we landed next to the injured Romero. We put him back in the chopper and flew him directly to the base hospital at MacDill where he fully recovered. You know the military - they wanted a full report and wanted to the thank the "airman" who had helped me. I had to convince another airman who wasn't there that day to fill out the incident form.