Project ManHigh (Nothing to do with Drugs)

15 Oct 2009

Air Force: We want you to jump out of a balloon in outer space. Soldier: Yes sir, let me just get my boots.

There was a time when you didn’t need health insurance because you never got ill. And if you did, it usually involved death.

Back in those days, the Air Force didn’t need permission from the UN to bomb someone. They could also make a man skydive from outer space for no other reason than ‘to see what would happen.’

Col. Joe Kittinger got this call and didn’t question his orders to jump from over a hundred thousand feet above the earth.

He then became the first person to travel at the speed of sound without an aircraft. Notice that he doesn’t even get a paramedic putting a blanket around him on the ground. Nowadays they would have him on a respirator, on a stretcher, and in a neck brace to avoid lawsuits. No, instead Joe had a quick slash on a nearby cactus, and then headed off to Vietnam, where he was shot down and became a POW for his troubles. Old school.

By the way, this is the third parachute-related post I’ve made in a row. There is no explanation for it.

I shouldn't have eaten that breakfast burrito.