Courtesy Photo | Lt. Col. George Conwill (top right), assessments chief for the 36th Infantry Division,...... read more read more
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BASRAH, Iraq— Not everyone is a fan of flying. Probably fewer people are fans of falling toward the ground at 120 miles per hour from thousands of feet in the air. Lt. Col. George Conwill is one of those few.
Conwill, assessments chief for the 36th Infantry Division, Texas Army National Guard, doesn’t just enjoy falling from planes; he’s actually won some awards doing it. He is a competitive skydiver, and with a team of fellow atmospheric enthusiasts, conquers the sky.
Conwill, currently deployed with the 36th Inf. Div. headquarters to Iraq, started jumping out of planes in 1976 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was a member of the sport parachute club. He continued his parachuting hobby and military career through the Army’s Airborne and Ranger schools.
“In my opinion, military jumping isn’t fun at all,” said Conwill, who made his last Army jump in 1980.
In 2004, his youngest daughter caught the bug, and did a tandem jump that inspired Conwill to revive his love for freefall.
After returning to skydiving through an accelerated-freefall program and a few jumps with an instructor, he started jumping for fun and competing in skydiving events in formations of teams from four to eight people.
“I like the competition aspect of skydiving,” said Conwill.
Conwill said his teammates come from all walks of life and places like Brazil, Great Britain, New Zealand, Ireland, and Russia.
“It offers camaraderie,” said Conwill. “It’s people doing the same thing.”
The teams learn over 40 different formations and spend weeks prior to competitions doing 200 to 300 practice jumps and mastering the right movements.
“We’ll do reviews after jumps and we critique ourselves,” said Conwill. “We’re always trying to do it better.”
When the day of the competition arrives, Conwill dons his black suit and silver helmet. Aboard the plane, he and his teammates grasp hands and align themselves standing in the first formation they will perform; then they jump.
While plummeting to the ground, the team maneuvers into multiple shapes before breaking away to deploy their parachutes.
Every team has an extra person who jumps with them to record their daring feats. The resulting video is used to judge the performance of the competitors.
In spite of the adrenaline rush from diving out of an aircraft, Conwill said there is clarity, not panic, in his mind.
“You’re thinking about your next move and what you’re supposed to do,” said Conwill. “You’re not thinking about going 120 miles per hour headed toward the ground.”
“The most important thing is to have fun,” he added.
Conwill has jumped all over the U.S. and in Ecuador, won medals in national competitions, and has participated in attempts to break the record for the largest skydiving formation. All together, he has performed more than 2,100 jumps and plans to join the Texas Army National Guard skydiving demonstration team when he redeploys.
He counts laughing in the face of gravity as one of his favorite hobbies; a list that also includes scuba instructing and being a private pilot. He isn’t showing signs of giving it up anytime soon.
“I’ll do it until I can’t anymore,” said Conwill.
| Date Taken: | 07.22.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 07.23.2011 08:18 |
| Story ID: | 74204 |
| Location: | BASRA, IQ |
| Web Views: | 411 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Wild blue yonder: 36th ID soldier competes in the sky, by SPC Andrew Slovensky, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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