Bill Bruce on Forest Patrol

by Henry Harley Arnold

That drop of a thousand feet had taken scarcely any time at all, and Bill did not realize that he had fallen so far. He began to search for the other ring with one hand. At the time he was falling head downwards. He instinctively raised his hand toward his head to reach the ring, but it took what seemed to him to be hours before he found it. He gave the ring a pull, and kept on pulling until the wire was clear.

The pilot chute came out with a snap and then Bill felt his speed slacken with a distinct jerk. He looked up and saw that the second chute was open. The first was still in the form of a streamer. With the opening of the chute, Bill started a pendulum motion, his body swung in a large arc below the chute. The length of the arc gradually decreased until he was hanging suspended directly under the center of the silk umbrella-shaped chute. He looked up at it with astonishment, for he had no idea that it could possibly be so large.

While he was still looking upward the first chute opened, and each one forced the other out at an angle. Bill was hanging down between the two. Bill looked down at the ground. It seemed as if he was hardly falling at all, the drop was so slow. He found it rather a pleasant sensation—after the chutes had opened.

Bill had been too busy fighting for his life when he was about to leave the plane to think of anything else but clearing the chute from the elevator horn. He could not make up his mind whether or not he would have been a little afraid to jump under normal conditions. One thing certain, the thought of fear of jumping had not entered his mind after he had inadvertently opened the first chute.

The wind was drifting him across the aviation field. Evidently all the maneuvering in the air had taken but a very short time, although it seemed that hours had passed.

Bill watched the ground come closer and closer. He was aware of the fact that Smith was circling around in his plane, but Bill never looked at the airplane. Smith drew away as Bill came down close to the airdrome. Bill bent his knees slightly as he neared the ground and then he hit. It was not a violent jar, but the wind carried the chutes along while Bill was on the ground.

Two twenty-four foot parachutes afford a large surface for the wind to catch, and had the wind been much stronger, Bill would undoubtedly have been dragged along the ground. Ruhs arrived alongside almost as soon as Bill hit. He grabbed the top shroud lines and pulled them down. The chutes immediately became deflated and dropped to the ground.

Bill got up on his feet and the crowd cheered when they saw that he was not hurt. It had been a terrible ordeal, but both Bill and Smith had come off unscathed. Bill’s hands were cut from climbing along the cable, but that was not worth considering when there were so many worse things which might have happened.

Ruhs untangled Bill from the shoulder braces and said, “You can ride back in the ambulance if you want to.”

“Not for mine,” replied Bill. “It looked for a while as if I would be in no fit condition even for an ambulance, but I am all whole. I will walk.”