bobdina
06-28-2010, 11:12 AM
Last active-duty jump for double amputee PJ
By Tom Sandford - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jun 27, 2010 8:46:15 EDT
Staff Sgt. Shaun Meadows felt the adrenaline pumping, just like his first jump oh so many years ago — before he was an airman.
This 200th-plus time would be different, though. It would be his last and one for the record book: Never before had an active-duty double amputee dropped from an Air Force plane. He hadn’t had a parachute back on since he lost his legs two years ago in Afghanistan — and he was ready.
He looked out the wide-open back of the C-17 Globemaster III, down to the field at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. Then, on titanium legs, with their hydraulic mechanisms, microchips and weight sensors, he stepped out into nothingness and made history.
Meadows, a combat controller with the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron, went into his freefall. As the earth came rushing up, he opened his chute and settled into a sitting position. Before he knew it, he touched ground and skidded gracefully to a stop.
“I wanted to do [a] stand-up landing, but I was screaming in pretty fast,” he said.
The personnel drop, which Meadows made with 39 of his fellow airmen, should have been his next-to-last jump, a dry run for a change-of-command ceremony. Rain the day of the ceremony made it the real thing.
“It worked out well; I wanted to do one more jump, one last thing with the guys, my teammates,” Meadows said in a telephone interview a few days after the June 14 jump.
Meadows doesn’t remember much about July 31, 2008, the day his Humvee ran over a pressure plate that triggered a roadside bomb.
“There were multiple people in the vehicle,” he said. “I was the only one, fortunately, that was injured, and everyone else was OK.”
What he does recall is hearing the doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., tell him they had amputated his legs about five centimeters above his knees and him asking what it would take to walk again.
In six months, Meadows wasn’t just walking — he was running.
“He exemplifies the ‘quiet professional,’ ” said Lt. Col. Mike Flatten, Meadow’s commanding officer. “Shaun’s determination to drive on and overcome the obstacles placed in front of him continues to inspire all of Special Tactics.”
Meadows is retiring for medical reasons. He said he is excited about the future but is leaving his options open.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/06/airforce_jump_062710w/
By Tom Sandford - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jun 27, 2010 8:46:15 EDT
Staff Sgt. Shaun Meadows felt the adrenaline pumping, just like his first jump oh so many years ago — before he was an airman.
This 200th-plus time would be different, though. It would be his last and one for the record book: Never before had an active-duty double amputee dropped from an Air Force plane. He hadn’t had a parachute back on since he lost his legs two years ago in Afghanistan — and he was ready.
He looked out the wide-open back of the C-17 Globemaster III, down to the field at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. Then, on titanium legs, with their hydraulic mechanisms, microchips and weight sensors, he stepped out into nothingness and made history.
Meadows, a combat controller with the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron, went into his freefall. As the earth came rushing up, he opened his chute and settled into a sitting position. Before he knew it, he touched ground and skidded gracefully to a stop.
“I wanted to do [a] stand-up landing, but I was screaming in pretty fast,” he said.
The personnel drop, which Meadows made with 39 of his fellow airmen, should have been his next-to-last jump, a dry run for a change-of-command ceremony. Rain the day of the ceremony made it the real thing.
“It worked out well; I wanted to do one more jump, one last thing with the guys, my teammates,” Meadows said in a telephone interview a few days after the June 14 jump.
Meadows doesn’t remember much about July 31, 2008, the day his Humvee ran over a pressure plate that triggered a roadside bomb.
“There were multiple people in the vehicle,” he said. “I was the only one, fortunately, that was injured, and everyone else was OK.”
What he does recall is hearing the doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., tell him they had amputated his legs about five centimeters above his knees and him asking what it would take to walk again.
In six months, Meadows wasn’t just walking — he was running.
“He exemplifies the ‘quiet professional,’ ” said Lt. Col. Mike Flatten, Meadow’s commanding officer. “Shaun’s determination to drive on and overcome the obstacles placed in front of him continues to inspire all of Special Tactics.”
Meadows is retiring for medical reasons. He said he is excited about the future but is leaving his options open.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/06/airforce_jump_062710w/