SKYDIVE WITH THE U.S. ARMY GOLDEN KNIGHTS

I met LTC David Yebra, US Army, while volunteering for the Armed Forces Day at the Houston Rodeo in 2012. We were staying in the same hotel right outside the Rodeo grounds and just struck up a conversation (shocking, I know) while in the lobby one day. LTC Yebra works at Sam Houston State University and had a ton of questions about my work with military, media career and family.

About a month after meeting and multiple exchanged emails, LTC Yebra called me one day and asked me if I’d be interested in skydiving with the U.S. Army Golden Knights…….

I told him I’d think about it – just kidding, I’m pretty sure I screamed (not in his ear). It was a somewhat lengthy selection process and I impatiently waited for the call that I’d been chosen!

The morning of the skydive, I drove over to the field location in Lake Jackson and was greeting by a bunch of people in yellow and black flight suits as well as some very nervous civilians. I was so excited and about to check off a big bucket list item!

We all had to attend a brief that lasted about an hour (has any brief ever been shorter than an hour… be honest) and informed us about the history of the Golden Knights, the dangers of skydiving and procedures we’d follow. After that, we were assigned an order (mine was right in the middle) and then suited up! The jump suites were pretty awesome and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel “official”.

Fortunately, John, my tandem instructor was hilarious and we discovered early on that we both had a passion for…. Anchorman quotes. While waiting our turn we had deep, meaningful conversations about rich mahogany and wheels of cheese.

As our jump got closer, I noticed the other participants were getting nervous. Not me, I was so ready.

We loaded up in the plane after a quick pre-interview on the ground(yes, the GK’s video tape everything for you!) and we were on our way!

I did another interview while we were climbing up in the plane and all of the tandem instructors (especially John and Noah) continued to harass me- “You aren’t nervous? Are you sure?” and another would say, “you’re only about to jump out of a perfectly good airplane”. It was SOOOO amusing….

But I was just as confident as ever.

When it was time to jump out (insert alt), I was the third and final to jump and the young lady in front of me froze. She had an ice grip on the handles and wouldn’t let go… so her instructor put his hands over hers, rocked once, twice……gone! Whew, my turn. I’d gone over the instructions in my head 27 times before my legs and hands were in place. The wind was rushing in the plane but no time to think or even look down. Rock one, Rock two, jump….. WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE?!? (that last part lasted about 3.4 seconds and then I caught my breath and remembered I was on camera lol!)

It Was Awesome. I had absolutely no sense of time but know we were free fallin for a while then pulled the cord and caught under canopy. It was SUCH a rush. Once the chute was open John showed me some of the pulley system and how to steer. I could have stayed up there forever. It was such an incredible experience. The landing was great and they had a photographer right there to capture that moment as well. I don’t think I’ve showed but a handful of people the actual video (cheeks puffed out and mouth wide open from wind=not attractive). HUGE thanks to this wonderful group of service members. After my experience, one of the CPTs coined me with the U.S. Army Golden Knight’s coin because of my family’s military service history. It’s one of my favorites I’ve received and sits at the top of my display case.

Army Strong!