Spc. Matthew Hutcheson shows how he was towed behind a Casa 212 plane during a training jump last week. Inside the training replica of the aircraft are Sgt. 1st Class David Poindexter and Staff Sgt. James Illes.


Hutcheson felt a jolt and looked up, but he did not see a canopy.

Instead of falling, he was traveling backward.

It was then that he realized his parachute had not opened at all, and he was being dragged behind the Casa 212 airplane by a 15-foot static line at more than 100 mph.

''You're towed,'' Hutcheson said to himself.

''I just hung on for the ride,'' he said.

He could see Staff Sgt. James Illes, the primary jumpmaster, looking out the back of the airplane.

''I was having a two-way conversation, but he weren't really involved,'' Hutcheson said. ''It was me and the Lord talking.''

Hutcheson, 28, is from Dahlonega, Ga. The 6-foot-4, 222-pound paratrooper is a truck driver for Company C of the 528th Special Operations Support Battalion.

Hutcheson did as he was trained to do if he were ever towed - protect the ripcord grip to avoid opening the parachute and keep a tight body position to keep from spinning.

''I was telling the Lord, 'Hey, you always took care of me before,''' Hutcheson said. '''If you want to save me, right here's the time I need you.'''

Hutcheson kept his eyes open, his chin on his chest, elbows at his side, his feet and knees together and his fingers spread across his reserve parachute to keep it from coming open and jerking his body in the other direction from which the airplane was flying.

''He was trying to make sure his body position allowed him to stay steady facing one direction with the flight of the aircraft,'' said Sgt. 1st Class David Poindexter, the aircraft safety officer. ''If he didn't and started spinning, it could get pretty bad.''

Hutcheson fought to shift his weight and avoid flipping over as the airplane headed back to the St. Mere Eglise Drop Zone, where he could be cut loose to land on the drop zone instead of a highway.
Hutcheson

Jumpmasters say that as long as a jumper remains conscious it's actually more dangerous to try to pull him back into the aircraft.

Below him were the farmlands south of Fort Bragg between Plank and Raeford roads.

Meanwhile, Illes kept the static line in one hand and a diver's knife ready to cut in case the parachute came open.

The towed jumper moved closer to the ramp as the aircraft would bank or catch a drift of air.

''Along with him trying to keep stable, I was trying to keep him in just one position instead of drifting left and right,'' Illes said.

''You can just feel the pull, feel the tension the way he was being drug, almost like a party favor, behind the aircraft.''

''Spc. Hutcheson seemed very confident and calm, as cool a customer as I could picture ever being hung outside of an aircraft while it's flying,'' Poindexter said. ''He actually looked like he was having quite a ride.''

First chute late

After five or 10 minutes, recollections vary, Illes cut Hutcheson loose over the drop zone.

Hutcheson felt himself fall free, pulled the ripcord and nothing happened, so he slipped his flat right palm up and over the reserve chute as he had been trained to do.

''Reserve parachute went out, caught air, got nice and pretty,'' he said. ''Thirty seconds later, my main canopy deployed, too. I had two canopies, one to my left and one straight above me.''

He landed with no injuries.

''I hit the ground, tossed my helmet in the air, jumped up, was happy to be alive,'' Hutcheson said.

The Army is investigating why his parachute did not open.

People asked, '''Are you all right?'''

Hutcheson said he was able to walk off the drop zone, and that's all that mattered to him.

''Don't panic over nothing,'' Hutcheson said. ''Never have.'' It could have been worse, he added. The parachute might not have opened. He could have been towed from a gigantic C-5 cargo jet and banged on the side of the aircraft. His wife could have collected several hundred thousand dollars of life insurance.

Hutcheson has made 48 officially recorded parachute jumps and is scheduled to make another Thursday.

''Of course, I'd jump again,'' he said. ''It proves the reserve parachute works. It really, really works.

"I'm actually more confident now than I was before.''

nice, kool guy. lol id panic like hell if i was ever towed.