Hey guys! Today Mary want to tell you her story about parachute jumping with a lack of weight.
"Comparing me to my two older brothers, I was not of anything special. Everyone in my family is tall and large. Even my mom! Being the most delicate and fragile, she is still 6 feet tall and a weighs about 140 pounds. But she looks pretty. My dad and my brothers are more like rocks with their body shapes. They match each other very well - they are 7 feet tall and 7 feet in shoulders. They got cubes on their tummies. However, they don’t practice sport. Well, except for dad, who likes cycling very much.
Since I was a kid, I wanted to grow a little and gain some physical shape. I was very angry that in any dispute my family just moved my body somewhere. One day they just put me on the closet. And I couldn’t say anything in response.
So, that was my background when I went to the parachute club. In fact, it was a teenage parachuting club at Military Academy. There were other girls there, but they had another purpose - to find some handsome boys, future marines. My purpose was different.
But I stayed. And I endured everything that the instructor required – I learned how to pull-up and to do push-ups on one fist. That was «all a brave soldier needed». Soon the boys ceased to treat me like a girl. I was their fellow, because I did not fall down on ruck marches. Sometimes I even helped to carry the weakest guys.
Of course, we endured all of this for a reason. Ahead, for the most persistent ones was a PRIZE – a parachute jump! And that's what everyone was looking forward to. That was the reason we passed all the standards, sometimes even beyond our capabilities. For me, it was still a chance to prove my brothers I was really worth something.
And here we were, standing on the field in front of the plane, looking at the parachutes lying around and coming in the medical tent one by one for the control examination. I was so beautiful in the uniform three sizes larger (because no one makes it of my size)… I shook from a strong wind and excitement… but suddenly I began to fear I wouldn’t pass the final weight-in.
And I couldn't help jumping! I already told everyone, especially my brothers, that I'd be a cool paratrooper. So I couldn’t screw up.
I think even the guys who were in the sky that time heard me crying. I'm sure that people heard my crying even in the city. As a result, I still made my first jump. Because everyone wanted to stop that sound attack. They strapped unloading weights to me as the instructor suggested. And I jumped.
Despite the predictions of the nurse that I would be anywhere, except the place of landing, I flew clearly in the center of the field. I didn’t even have any problems when flying, only once I had to slightly adjust the direction. And here was the landing…
For those who do not know - on the parachute landing, first, you need to extinguish the parachute, i.e. pull the slings in a particular way, so that the dome could collapse on itself. At this stage I had some serious problems.
I became sort of a legend among local paratroopers after I was jumping across the field, and everyone was trying to catch me and my parachute. No one will forget it. Fortunately, it all ended up just with a scratched back and a wrenched leg – I bent my leg improperly at the landing. They strictly forbade me to jump with a parachute again! At least, only when I would weight 110 pounds".
