I have a cousin who was the squadron commander of the C-130 Herc squadron in the RSAF. In fact, I think if anyone was in the RSAF about 6 to 7 years ago might know of him, if was quiet a character and pretty infamous. This is one of the stories about him and his little games.
As we all know, the Herc is a transport aircraft used by the RSAF to carry big loads and also to air drop Commandos and their equipment. Although my cousin was a pilot, he incredibly has a phobia of heights. In fact, he always used to call the Commandos “Siao!” for wanting to jump out of a perfectly fine aircraft. As I am sure most of you also know, airborne jumps are always kinda risky things. If you land just wrong, you can easily break an ankle.
My cousin, being who he is, used to play this game while the commandos were out jumping. Upon hearing an ambulance driving onto the landing zone, he would move over to the squadron ready room white board, draw a line down the middle, and write a header of runway on one side and commando on the other, followed by a 1 under runway and a 0 under commando.
He would then announce “Ok runway 1, commando 0, anyone want to take bets on the final score?”
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this might have been funny if not for the fact that every one the runway "scores" is potentially a life-changing accident.
if you've ever been to hendon, you might have seen this guy, about 40+ years old, in a wheelchair. he was paralysed from waist down in a jump a long time ago and now stays in the spec mess.
i myself also personally know people who've sustained injuries which, even if not quite as serious, will nevertheless stay with them forever.
think about that the next time you laugh over this story.
people will always laugh at other people's misfortunes until it happens to them. i admit if i were in his situation i might've found it funny. kinda like giggling while reading terri schiavo's "blog".
it only takes one look at the victims to put us in our place.
He knew it could be life altering, and so do I. But going all the crap that he had gone through (He and another guy are the sole survivors of a sqd of Skyhawks that crashed into a moutain in the Philipines in the 70s/80s) you tend to take a very cynical view point on life. And basically, it was just meant as a joke, if you can't luagh about life and death, what can you laugh about then?
"if you can't luagh about life and death, what can you laugh about then?"
Alot, actually, especially when i do know of people who died because of airborne, and the humor in it continues to elude me.. :)
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