The sky dive was an adventure Bush had promised himself in 1944 when, as a young U.S. Navy aviator, he bailed out of his torpedo bomber when it was shot down by Japanese gunners over the Pacific. His two fellow crew members were killed, and Bush sustained serious cuts and bruises when he pulled his rip cord prematurely and banged his head on the burning plane’s fuselage.
This time the old soldier was determined to jump without glitches. Instructors at the U.S. Parachute Association and the army’s elite aerialists, the Golden Knights, gave the ex-prez a one-day refresher course. They said many other men and women in their 70s have taken the quickie training session and made successful dives.
Although Bush’s Secret Service detail remained on the ground, he wasn’t alone in the clear blue sky over the army’s Yuma Proving Ground. Two jumpmasters accompanied him, holding on to his harness and guiding his one-minute free fall. At 4,500 feet, Bush pulled the rip cord of his 288-square-foot rectangular nylon chute-which, unlike the circular ones used in World War II, can be steered. In a seven-minute descent under its rainbow umbrella, the former president floated gently down to the desert floor. Was it a transcendent experience? “I’m a new man,” he declared. “I go home exhilarated.”
