An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir May / June 2023 www.military.ie/magazine 16 | BY COL TOM HODSON (RETD) PHOTOS PROVIDED BY SGT J ROSSITER Introduction The f irst Defence Forces (DF ) freefall parachute jump took place over Casement Aerodrome on a sunny af ternoon on Friday the 9th of June 1972. The aircraf t was an Alouette III, the pilot was Capt Frank Russell, and I was the parachutist. It is impor tant to emphasise 'freefall' as the f irst DF parachute descent was by Cadet Ronald McPar tland af ter ejecting from a Vampire T55 on the 5th of May 1961 (See An Cosantóir of October 2011). My intention in this ar ticle is to record the background, the jump and the four subsequent jumps at Baldonnel which led to the f irst DF parachute display in Mallow Racecourse on the 25th of June 1972. Background I had been freefall parachuting since 1966 with the Irish Sk ydiving Club (ISC). Following customar y Irish practice, the ISC was a breakaway club from the Irish Parachute Club (IPC) formed in 1956 at Weston by Freddie Bond, a former British army parachute instructor. By 1966 some members of the IPC had become frustrated with what they considered the slow progression rates at the club and formed the ISC. Weston, under the enthusiastic ownership and operations of the legendar y Capt Darby Kennedy, was ver y impor tant to Irish parachuting because as well as hosting the IPC and later the ISC, freefall jumps were made there in 1955 and 1956 by French army of f icers. I remember watching IPC activities during the early 1960s which included a freefall jump by the future QMG, Maj Gen Jack Gallagher. There may well have been other DF personnel who jumped with the IPC but by 1966, when I joined the ISC, I was then the only member of the DF actively making freefall jumps. I jumped regularly during weekends in 1966, weather and aircraf t permitting, at both Weston and Coonagh air f ields. In 1967 I was posted with the 8th Infantr y Group to the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFIC YP), and with the approval of the CQMS I managed somewhat optimistically to inser t my parachuting equipment into the company stores before we depar ted. Optimism paid of f, and I spent several ver y enjoyable periods of weekend leave jumping at Nicosia airpor t with the Cyprus Combined Ser vices Parachute Club. In 1968, following the obligator y path for Irish freefall jumpers who wished to circumvent the vagaries of Irish weather in order to progress in their spor t, I spent three weeks at the Centre de Parachutisme at Chalons sur Saone near Dijon. French freefall parachuting was at the beginning the international gold standard but was soon over taken by the United States. By 1969 I had logged well over a hundred jumps – not negligible by prevailing Irish standards – and had been awarded a Depar tment of Transpor t and Power 'B' Licence. The 'B' Licence authorised independent and display freefall jumping, including such esoteric delights as night and water jumps, which we carried out at Weston, Powerscour t and How th Harbour. From Pioneering Leap to Soaring Heights A LOOK BACK ON THE FIRST DEFENCE FORCES FREEFALL PARACHUTE JUMP Early freefall jump Landing after the jump

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