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BY LT COL ADRIAN Ó MURCHÚ AND COMDT GARY GARTLAND PHOTOGRAPHS BY DF PHOTOGRAPHERS OR AS ACCREDITED
Parachuting Defence Forces 40 Years of
workhorse of parachute training for the following 30 years. American military surplus parachutes were purchased, and by December of that year parachuting had received official recognition as a DF adventure training activity, under the umbrella of ARCAT (now DFCAT). While some early jumps were done at a private airfield in Co Wicklow, the club's first proper drop-zone was set up
name of Con McNamara, better known then, and now, as 'Connie Mac'. Instructors included Capt Tom Hodson (now Colonel, retired) and a number of civilian instructors drafted in to help run the early courses. Fortuitously, 1972 also saw the delivery to the Air Corps of the Cessna 'Reims Rockets', which were to become the
on the northern Curragh plains in the area of the grass runway (now sadly defunct). By 1980, with the establishment of the Army Ranger Wing, PCM started conducting twice-yearly courses in Gor- manston Camp - one for Rangers and one for the DF.
www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE
n May 29th 1972 in the Cadet School, a small group of officers, NCOs and cadets founded An Para-Chumann Míleata (PCM), the Defence Forces Parachute Club under the chairmanship of Comdt Des Travers (now Colo- nel, retired). The club secretary, and main driving force, was a young platoon commander in the School by the
