For one of my English assignments we had to do an interview on someone from the military. I decided to interview my grandpa, James Hopkins, who was in the US Army from 1961-1963. He was trained as an airborne (jumped out of airplanes) and then went into the Army Reserves for two years after. Although he was in the Army during peacetime and never actually went into war, he had very interesting stories to tell.

Why?

             My first question to him was why he joined. He answered back, “I joined because I wanted to jump out of airplanes and serve my country.” I thought this was both humorous and brave.

Jumping

            He primarily trained to be an Army airborne. He said that the first time he jumped, he had butterflies in his stomach and was very nervous but it was a huge rush. Every time it got a little less scary but for him, he never completely got over the nerves. His highest jump was 1250feet. Since normal combat jumps were 600 feet they had to prepare to jump at least double the normal height. After graduating from this you receive parachute wings, which is a pin that has wings and a parachute in the middle. It is an award for making it through.

           Once, when they were finishing a jump, a guy behind my grandpa malfunctioned. During one of these jumps if you have a problem the person behind you is supposed to help you to safety and to do this they have to land at the same time. The two guys failed at landing at the same time and one of the guys broke his leg. I figured he was lucky considering he could have died.

Life

          Adjusting to the army life wasn’t that hard for him. He said it was very repetitive and got boring (he never actually got to test his training in real combat). Something that came to a shock to me was that there were frequent fist fights between soldiers.

           When he was stationed in Korea he got a taste of the culture and life. When he was all done there he could understand basic Korean. I thought this was cool considering he didn’t join expecting to experience other cultures. Other places he got to see were Japan, Hawaii and other places of the US he otherwise wouldn’t have seen.

Stories

           I asked him about something hard he had to do. He answered with a story I thought was very interesting. First off, when you are in airborne training if you say you quit, you quit, there is no going back on that statement. Well, a soldier that was doing the training with my grandpas said that he quit but then went back on his statement. The people in charge ran him day and night in the heat. My grandpa, having been trained as a medic, treated the man for heat exhaustion. Eventually he was taken to the hospital but my grandpa still doesn’t know it the man survived.

          Overall, I am glad that I did this interview on my grandpa. I learned things about him I wouldn’t have ever known if I didn’t have this project. It was an eye-opening experience that I will remember for years to come.