In a blinding flash he was sucked out and away from the transport. For several long seconds he found himself enveloped in a world of wild, violent jerks that was silent save for the rush of the wind and his own labored breathing. Falling away from the transport, Nathan strained to keep his body in the tight, chin down position he had been taught at Airborne school. Remembering to count long after he was out and away, the young officer started where he thought it should have been if he had initiated it at the door. Belatedly, he braced himself for opening shock.

That wonderful and traumatic sensation came almost as quickly as he thought about it. All over his body he could feel the stiff nylon harness, already cinched incredibly tight, squeeze him even more. This meant that things were going as they should. The static line and deployment bag, connected to the parachute by several strands of twine, had been snapped, freeing Nathan from the C-141 and allowing his canopy to fill with the trailing remains of the slipstream that the now distant transport continued to shed as it made its way slowly to the east. Though he was sorely tempted to look up and behind to see if his canopy was still deploying, Nathan kept his chin firmly planted on his chest and continued his slow, arduous count to ten.

He never finished it. Instead, when he felt his feet swing down under him, and the violent bucking ride come to an end, Nathan assumed all was well. Reaching up with his hands he grabbed the taut risers that gathered in the numerous parachute suspension cords that ran down from the skirt of his parachute and joined them to his harness. With risers firmly in hand, Nathan craned his head back and looked up. Above him he saw his fully inflated canopy illuminated by the early morning sun. How anything so ugly could look so glorious was a wonder to him. He spent a second, a most wondrous and valuable second, looking up at his parachute. “God,” he all but shouted as he silently fluttered down. “I love this.”

Reality brought this private moment of rejoicing to an abrupt end. Sounds that were familiar, yet totally unexpected, turned Nathan’s head away from the his blissful descent and back to the hard, uncompromising duty that being a soldier demands.