Page 27 - Chiron Calling Spring 2017

minutes it took the experienced jumpers. But we quickened over the week.
I’d heard that the second was likely the hardest jump you’d ever do. You were still inexperienced but now knew what it was like. It had context. And knowing that we had packed our chutes just added to the insidious ‘what if’ thoughts. Fortunately, we buried our feelings and back to the caravan we marched!
We’d been taught about potential complications sometimes encountered with the canopy. On the ground there was a clear difference between a ‘nuisance factor’ and a major malfunction. One was common and easily recti able the other would require a good reserve drill. A couple encountered nuisance factors in the rst jump but my rst contact was on the second. We had been drilled so many times that my response seeing ‘twists’ was instant and subconscious. Only after, when I was unhooking the breaks did the little victorious buzz of having solved an aerial problem several thousand feet above the earth ltered through. It wasn’t rocket science but still I felt my con dence growing and my grin broadening. Later I learned that almost half the group had experienced something similar and morale was high with two jumps down!
By the landing of the third jump on day
four we were starting to get comfortable and a few progressed to ‘dummy pulls’. However, that’s when the weather turned. We were gearing up for lift number four, second of the day, when the wind crept up. We were grounded. De ated, thinking it might be the end of the week there was nothing for it but to return and salvage what we could of the day. For two of us that meant running down to Alexander Barracks and their water sports centre! Needless to say, some sunny kayak sur ng followed by a Cyprus sandwich lifted spirits and philosophically we went to bed hoping for calm blue skies.
Hopes answered! There was a long serenity to our looping high over the air eld. The left banking of the aeroplane tipping us towards the door and the ground, my toes sitting just beyond the fuselage in the cool air ow. The rst lift jitters were gone and when the call came to get in the door we knew it was the last time and we all wanted to make it good. ‘ LOOK UP! GO!’ Gazing at the smoothly rising plane, the familiar jolt of deployment hit and the canopy rustled open. No issues. The breeze was moderate and perfect to play with. Now that there were fewer thought processes devoted to ‘what ifs’ and taking in the scenery (which was still breath-taking) it was time to enjoy
the ride. Throwing a 360o and a vigorous correction pulled my stomach south and increased the rate of decent to an exhilarating level. Another 360o and it was already time to start the landing pattern. The gap between me and the next parachute had closed enough to be very aware of his movements and we kept well apart for the start of the downwind leg. Less dependent on the bodiless instructor the left turns were made and I sighted my landing. 15ft start aring. 6ft full are and down. It was de nitely the best jump of the week and a real high to end the course on. We nished with debrief and kit return (after of course, packing the chutes for the next students) and nally by watching the week in GoPro footage collected by the instructors.
Amazing adventure training. I‘d recommend it instantly to anyone with the slightest inclination. Even the unsure guys had a great time and were glad that they had voluntarily thrown themselves out of an aircraft over a kilometre above the ground! My thanks to all the staff at JSATW(C) for a brilliant training experience and to 101 MWD Sqn for arranging the opportunity. Even more challenging and exhilarating training in the RAVC Reserves.. . Apply!
New site showcases veterinary military history
Lorna Cahill, Archivist, RCVS Knowledge
RCVS Knowledge – the charity partner of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons – have just launched their new Digital Collections website, featuring high resolution digital images of highlights from the library and archive collections. This previously untapped source of fascinating documents and literature provides unique insight into veterinary and military history and is now available for everyone to see.
To explore the veterinary past online, visit http://www.VHdigital.org/
Highlights include letters, photographs and notebooks from the collections of army veterinarian Major General Sir Frederick Smith (1857-1929). Smith’s military career began in 1876 when he graduated from the Royal Veterinary College and joined the Royal Artillery in Woolwich. From 1877 to 1885 he was posted to the 12th Royal Lancers in India, and promoted to Captain. He returned to Britain and became Assistant Professor at the Army Veterinary School, Aldershot in 1886. During this time he published his ‘Manual of Veterinary Hygiene’ and established the Army Vaccine Institute to extract calf lymph for the Army’s smallpox vaccinations. Photographs of the School, Vaccine Institute and Smith’s laboratory are available to view on the Digital Collections site.
In 1899, Smith sailed to South Africa to join the British forces ghting in the Boer War. In his letters to his wife Mary Ann – which are now available to read on the website – Smith provides a rst- hand account of wartime conditions and the huge loss of life (both human and equine). From July 1900, Smith also keeps an of cial war diary, which relates the day to day struggle of managing a horse hospital on the veldt. After the war, Smith returns to Britain again and is promoted to Director-General of the Army Veterinary Service in 1907. He retired in 1910, but brie y returned to service during the First World War, as Assistant Director at the War Of ce. He was knighted in 1918 and nally retired the following year.
In between Smith’s military work, he was a proli c author. He authored dozens of articles on veterinary science and history, and published a four-volume work on the history of veterinary literature. His twenty year correspondence with the Secretary of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, reveals his dedication
to improving veterinary knowledge and practice. We hold over 1000 letters dating from 1910 to his death in 1929, and these are being gradually added to the site over the next year.
More material from Smith’s collections will be digitised and added to the site over the next year – including case notes from his work in India, research notes from Aldershot and his of cial diary of the Second Anglo-Boer War. In addition to Smith’s papers, the Digital Collections currently includes beautiful nineteenth century artwork of horse anatomy and treatment, and the earliest veterinary periodicals, published from 1828.
RCVS Vet History Digital Collections is part of a ve-year project supported by the Alborada Trust.
Photograph of Major-General Sir Frederick Smith’s laboratory at the Army Veterinary School, Aldershot
CHIRON CALLING 25