Parachute lands on Japanese school
According to Stars & Stripes, a US military parachutist was forced to cut away from his main canopy yesterday. He landed safely with his reserve parachute, but the discarded canopy landed on a civilian high school near Yokota Air Base;
A piece of parachute equipment was found off base at Hamura No. 3 High School, and there were no reported injuries or damage,” the statement said.
The incident follows protests by Japanese residents over U.S. military aircraft parts falling onto schools on Okinawa and the arrival of CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft at Yokota last week.
“Yokota Air Base takes matters of this nature seriously and the incident is under investigation,” the statement said.
I don’t know how the incident could be investigated. I’ve been trying to contact Isaac Newton all morning to get his take on gravity, to no avail.
Category: Air Force
The Japs need to pipe down. Many of us haven’t forgotten WW II or our sudden and brutal forced entrance into it, not to mentions execution of some US POWs, enslavement of others, and Japan’s inexcusable murderous rampages in China. Screw them. Thank you.
Oh, No!!! A military assault parachute fell on a school! What if the children got their hands on it and tried to jump out of a plane like the military! They could have killed hundreds!
What massacres and rampages could be wrought with this military-grade…NYLON SHEET!!!
Lets bill the Japanese for services rendered. Maybe it is time they pay their fair share of their defense costs.
The Japanese actually do spend a lot of money on things to benefit the US presence there. For example, they fund the public works at our bases there, every single building, road, and sidewalk on the US bases there was paid for by the Japanese Government. They build and maintain family housing, barracks, and other living quarters as well.
I remember at CFA Sasebo, when they were building a new housing tower, everything was contingent on the Japanese budget for it.
Maintaining those bases, docks, etc. does cost a pretty penny. Also, I do know, at least for the Navy and MC side (CTF 76) if we were on a mission that was directly supporting the Japanese Gov or Defense Forces, they coughed up money there.
So they do pay for things to a great extent. I’m not sure how equal it is, that’s beyond my paygrade, but they do pay.
By all means, let’s go to General Quarters over some fabric and a few legnths of 550 cord.
Glad the parachutist landed safely.
What the hell was a guy doing jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at Yokota? I didn’t see any reports of a plane crash?
Probably training. If there had been an aircraft emergency, it’s unlikely a reserve parachute would have been available.
Does anyone know if there is a drop zone on Yokota? In general jumping out of airplanes isn’t done at the same location as take offs and landings. I realize Joint Base Pope Bragg exists. How close is the nearest drop zone to the aerodrome at Pope?
I’d have thought someplace like Camp Zama would have drop zones.
USAF Retired,
Look at the AZAR. Many DZs are at USAF Air Bases/Airfields, you leg.
https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/virtual_disk_library/index.cgi/821003/FID577/pubs/af/13/afi13-217/afi13-217.pdf
http://www.macdill.af.mil/News/Features/Display/Article/1254339/jump-qualified-airborne-ready/
http://dzgone.com/dropzones/macdill.html
John W
I’ve been to both Yokota and Camp Zama, although it was a long time ago. They were relatively near each other on the outskirts of Tokyo, but there was a difference in size and surroundings. Camp Zama was much smaller and located in a densely-populated residential neighborhood. You could easily walk to a subway station.
Yokota had a lot more open space. Namura High School #3, where the main canopy recently landed, is apparently about a half-mile west of the north end of the main 10,000 ft. runway.
Roger that USAFRetired. I remember the chutes we had to wear every time we flew as PAX on a bird back in the day, particularly the 8+ hours spent wearing one on a KB50 watching aerial refueling on a day off.
Okay, so the military parachutes aren’t as maneuverable as sport parachutes. There’s a simple answer to that: give them the sport rigs to use, and make them all pretty with stars and planets and stuff like that.
Add some cool music to the jump exercise, and let the locals have the popcoron and hot dogs and sushi concessions.
Or just close the base and move back to the Philippines.
Guam is unavailable. It might tip over.
How about the Marshall Islands?
I’m sure the locals could use the income and a better medical facility.
lmao, I haven’t forgotten that asshat either
Smoke flares!
And have them drop candy.
I’m sure the Japanese school children would have been more upset had this guy streamered into the schoolyard during recess.
I thought the Japanese were tougher than this.
No country has suffered post war pussification than Japan. In 3 generations they have gone from Banzai charges and Kamakazi, to, kawaii Hello Kitty shit and manga obsessed, makeip wearing ‘Herbivore Men’ with no interest in sex or dating.
Sheesh, you’re telling me! I was stationed there for 5 years, worked with excellent “manly-men” swordsmen, and had a good time with the JGSDF — who were not pussies. I return about every year or two for a month or so, mostly on family business AND … hot springs!
oops … I mean:
But the rest of today’s Japanese culture? All the boy-bands and tv hosts, etc. … they all look like sissy-boys.
I.Do.NOT.Understand
mumble-mumble-mumble-mumble.
Thankfully they still have their SDF. You will always find tough men and women in the military.
( I happen to be a huge fan of the T99 Arisaka. Handloading is a breeze. Full length size a 7.92×57 case in a 7.7 Die, and seat a .303 bullet)
From one extreme to the other. They gave up the sword part of being Samurai and doubled down on the Haiku, flower arranging, and tea ceremony part.
Not to mention blurred porn.
Facepalm*
And hear I was, thinking that Japanese girls have a mass of pixels instead of genitals and an anus!!! 😉
When I was a kid we played with a parachute in gym class. Next to those little finger-crushing scooters on casters, it was probably the most fun in gym.
Our Jungle Jim in the schoolyard doubled as Submarines conning tower. Hell, once a Bell 47 helicopter landed in the playground at the Kokura elementary school. Such was the life of an Army Brat. When we played Army we used real guns. Dewated of course.
for some reason the seem to forget that the only reason we are there is because of the war they started…
Bless my Japanese mother-in-law. When she hears complaints about the atomic bombings, and “how terrible …” she tells them, “Well … WE started the war.”
She was a teen who had been taught the “green bamboo spear” techniques of spearing US paratroopers in the groin; this in addition to her traditional naginata training (2nd dan ranking).
Not her, but similar:
http://i.imgur.com/XQjdXvT.jpg
http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/723785-2/J_B-276_Japanese-home-defense-training_1945
Naginata? Damn, I sure wouldn’t want to piss her off!
Well, it’s okay now … she’s 91 and no longer has a naginata.
(^__^)
When I was stationed in Sasebo, my mom and dad flew out to visit us and one of the things we did (besides appeasing the kids and going to Hello Kitty Land) was going on a day trip to Nagasaki.
So we’re at the bomb memorial, and I’m looking around with my fresh high and tight, and my wife pulls me aside and tells me she is really uncomfortable here and that we need to go. I look around and I see several Japanese and other tourists giving me this evil glare, like how dare a US service member visit here of all places.
So we left, went to a KFC, and promptly lost our appetite because the keep the chicken feet on the drumsticks in Japan, lol.
Lots of Japanese tourists visit Pearl Harbor HI so I say piss on ’em if they didn’t like you visiting there, they started that war!
While I think the Okinawan Japanese are too noisy about the US presence in Okinawa/Japan … there have been some recent incidents that do merit worry for the densley populated country. Today’s report is the third incident since December in which military parts landed on schools:
1. Glass cylinder with the red label “Remove Before Flight”
2. A Shithook window
3. Cut-away main parachute
Also, in February a part fell from an F-15 jet; though, no one knows where it landed.
“third incident since December in which military parts landed on schools”
Schools are magnets for everything from shootings to falling aircraft parts.
Same thing for RR crossings. It’s almost always a school bus that gets stuck.
Yep. Just like double-wides and tornadoes. Makes you wonder if there’s a building code that requires double-wides to have tornado homing devices…
Emergency/non emergency vehicles parked on shoulders are also magnets for other vehicles to home into like moths to a light.
So true, the overhead lights are beacons, forcing drivers to zero in on the vehicle displaying the flashing/stobe lights.
I policed one accident on the freeway where a college student, on his way home from “studying” at 0200, ran smack into the back end of a full sized pumper from the local FD, at an accident scene. We really appreciated having the FD at scenes like that, doing the blocking for us.
His BAC was only .23, not bad for a Wednesday morning.
Like my dad says about his Harley; if it’s still running, whatever fell off wasn’t needed.
How else are we going to learn what’s essential and what’s not to aircraft flight? /sarc
Interesting story concerning Misawa AFB. About 1967 a Russian Bear bomber and two Mig-21s flew over Hokkido. The JSDF launched fighters from the station in Chitose, but before they could get on station two F-4s from Misawa arrived to chase the Ruskies away. The f-4s had flown 300 miles at mach 2 in the time it took the Japanese fighters to scramble and get air born. Funny thing was that the Reds were over the Chitose airfield the whole time.
Hey, Chitose!! Hokkaido’s my territory! I love it.
My wife has memories of the Ruskies flying overhead a few times — they all are afraid of the Russians.
“1. Glass cylinder with the red label…”
Someone lost a bottle of Johnnie Walker? That’s alcohol abuse!
LoL
Lol. At a civilian drop zone I used to skydive at, there were several various incidents where cutaway main canopies would land in a back yard and residents called 911…
“A skydiver died in my backyard send an ambulance” and such.
“Isaac Newton”
Im afraid Isaac has now defied gravity.
Great backstory around which to create a fun anime (any rating thereof which you may find appropriate)
The parachutist hit the “silk” but did not have a 100% silky landing with the loss of his main chute.
Japan and history – especially WW2 – don’t mean a damn thing here.
If I were a parent and a Chinook window came slicing down into my kid’s playground/athletic field/etc., I’d be fucking POd and rightly so.
I completely concur with your analysis here. Some of the Japanese protests are ridiculous, but protesting things that could put kids lives in danger is a very natural response. I wouldn’t want a Chinook window hitting my kids school either.