[SMGFan]

R.I.P. , what a horrible accident.

[trisham]

God bless him. His family must be devastated.

[smokingfrog]

I wonder why he didn’t use his reserve chute? Too low?

[Jane Long]

RIP and prayers.

[Fiddlstix]

Requiescat in pace

[EDINVA]

The Navy won’t reach the family before they figure it out. The surviving members of the team will be checking in with their families, and those people with a loved one on that team who don’t get a call will know it’s their son/husband/brother/father.

[connyankee]

Oh my Lord. Heartbreaking ...prayers and love to his family.

[Bigg Red]

Prayers up.

[NoKoolAidforMe]

God rest his soul. Why are our military having accidents like this? I can’t help but think that Obama’s regime did severe damage to our military.

[DoughtyOne]

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[DoughtyOne]

Not good. Very sorry this took place.

Prayers up for the family, friends, and associates...

[Magnum44]

I used to jump with the Leap Frogs back in the 80s. I was not a SEAL, rather a ‘guest’ as I was a HALO trained junior naval officer with more skydiving experience than most of the team members. Only a small percentage of military jumpers acquire experience on the level of thousands of jumps. Most have just the basic training and maybe a hundred jumps with minimal relative work experience when they get offered the chance to jump with the demo team. The training is focused more on the tactical applications of military free fall.

One of the most dangerous demo team maneuvers is when two jumpers (with smoke on) track away from each other then turn 180 and track past each other, forming a smoke ‘diamond’ for the spectators on the ground. When they are crossing the relative speeds can be between 60 and 120 mph. If one loses sight or misjudged, a collision can be fatal.

Not sure what may have happened on this jump. But pretty much all military jumpers today use an automatic opening device on the reserve if they fail to deploy a main before a minimum altitude, about 1200 feet. If no chute was open, some failure has occurred.

[JimRed]

Prayers that God comfort his family and friends.