Posted on 04/17/2015 6:38:41 AM PDT by Gamecock
A paratrooper who was preparing to leave the US army decided that he would make his last parachute jump more memorable by taking along a fish.
The day before his final jump on April 11, Spc. Matthew Tattersall went out and purchased a Siamese fighter, which he called 'Willy Makeit'. He placed the fish in a water bottle and poked a few holes into it to allow air to get in. Then he hid the bottle in his pocket as he knew he wouldn't be allowed to jump from the plane with the fish.
"That's my pet fish named Willy MakeIt... It was born a Japanese Fighter Fish but today it has become an American Paratrooper Fish"Airborne!82nd Airborne Division#82nd #Airborne #Fishborne #NemoWasaLegPosted by U.S Army W.T.F! moments on Sunday, April 12, 2015
23-year-old Tattersall, who described himself as '23 years stupid' is assigned to 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. He says he's still waiting for the final outcome of his actions, but he has no regrets, although he's sorry for upsetting his chain of command.
He told Military Times: "I wanted to make it awesome, and I did just that.
The fish has been re-named 'Willy Did Makeit
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According to Army Times, which can only be excerted here,:
-Robbins had already turned in most of his gear and this was considered a "Hollywood Jump."
-For doing this Robinson had to write a 1,000 word paper on the importance of safety when conducting Airborne ops.
-He will be going to college when he gets out next month.
I remember seeing a photo of a WWII British paratrooper (REd Devils?) jumping with his pet hen.
Sounds like fishful thinking.
“What’s a henway?”
“About 2 pounds!”
I can’t tell you what I did in the Army. It’s classified.
What’s a Grecian urn?
Not very much.
The famous author of "Dashing to the Outhouse". His girlfriend Betty Dont did the illustrations.
Yep!
I wonder how he typed with those little fins?
He dictated to the cat.
Active Duty ping.
Wasn’t the 505th the Pathfinders who jumped into Normandy before D-Day?
What do you recommend? Firing squad? It was harmless fun. I think the essay is too much, personally, but the 82d notoriously has no sense of humor.
Yup.
Meanwhile, back at the barracks shower, unit LBGTQ Officers SGT Rock and SPC Bruce are conducting hands on training with newly assigned PVT Smith. No small animals were used in the training scenario. Safety First.
What I take exception to is that any offense in the military carries the punishment of writing an essay about safety. I read that you now get a medal for emailing your superiors if you see or hear sexually inappropriate jokes or behavior. Drill instructors aren't even supposed to cuss at recruits these days. The ongoing pussification of our military continues.
Making a paratrooper write a paper about safety is just plain GOOFY.
A female 1SG received an ARCOM for that, yes. And she’s an Army-wide joke because of it.
Drill Sergeants were technically never allowed to swear, but they did anyway. Some drill sergeants, even when I joined in the late ‘90s assigned essays as punishment—drove the dumb kids nuts. That’s the Army that took down Iraq in three weeks, so we’re doing something right.
I fail to see why he needs an essay or a couple hundred push-ups at all, but I guess the Army will always be better “back in my day” than it is now.
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