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Marian and Jules H. "Skeets" Powers, both 77, pose in the hallway outside their room at the Naval Home in Gulfport, Miss. Photo by Rudi Williams

Marian Ditzler Powers realized her life-long dream when she parachuted from an airplane on her 80th birthday. The Navy parachute rigger had been hankering to skydive since World War II. Photo courtesy the Palatka Florida Skydiving Club.

World War II Veteran Marian Ditzler Powers
Great-Grandmother Jumps From Airplane on 80th

By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service

GULFPORT, Miss., Dec. 11, 2002 — Some people's wildest life-long dreams never become reality. By her count, Marian Ditzler Powers' dream took 20,984 days to come true. She finally did what she'd been hankering to do since World War II — jump out of an airplane!

"I did it on my 80th birthday, Nov. 3, 2002," exclaimed the mother of two, grandmother of three and great-grandmother of four. She jumped tandem with an instructor of the Palatka (Fla.) Skydivers Club. She and her husband, retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Jules "Skeets" Powers, are residents here at the Armed Forces Retirement Home, formerly the U.S. Naval Home.

Skeets said he was "a nervous wreck" as he watched his wife of more than 57 years prepare for the jump. He anxiously watched as she donned a lavender and hot pink jump suit, put on the harness, stepped into the straps and secured them snugly at her thighs.

"My arms went into two more loops; each was tightened to a snug fit," the great-grandmother recalled. "The four buckles that would keep Ralph (Nichols, her instructor) and me together would be secured in place when we were on the plane."

"My oldest grandson, Chris (Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Anderson), was there to watch granny jump, but made a last-minute decision to go along and jump, too," she said. "He did his tandem jump with an instructor first." Anderson is a drug and alcohol counselor at the hospital at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla.

Noting that she doesn't know how she made it to the aircraft's doorway, Powers said, "Over the cold, brisk wind blowing in my face, I heard, 'One … two … three … Go! Jump!' I'd done it — at 13,500 feet! After free-falling for about 9,000 feet, I felt a sudden jolt. The chute opened, just as I knew it would. We did a spin. One was enough of that!"

Powers said she wasn't far behind when her grandson landed. "I bent my knees and stuck my feet out in front of me," she recalled. "We had landed! Wheels-up landing? No wheels. Belly landing? Not quite that, either. I guess you would have to call it a two-butt landing."

The 80-year-old skydiver said her dream of skydiving blossomed during World War II when she was a Navy parachute rigger. At that time, the Navy wouldn't allow women riggers to jump.

She enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 27, 1942, a few weeks after her 20th birthday, and reported for active duty on Dec. 22. After boot camp in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Powers and 26 other women reported to parachute rigging school at Lakehurst, N.J. Hers was the second class at Lakehurst to accept women.

There's no room for error in parachute rigging. "A twisted shroud line, an undetected rip or tear could ultimately mean the difference between life and death," Powers pointed out. The students, men and women, were taught upkeep and maintenance of all aerial lifesaving equipment, including repair of flight clothing, chute packing and a practical knowledge of chute construction. They also studied all phases of lifesaving work connected with aviation plus the theory of parachutes.

Training for men and women riggers was the same, except the men were required to jump using their handiwork, but the women were not. That was the disappointing part of the course for Powers. She'd wanted to jump, too.

She never got to jump, but became the first female chief parachute rigger on Jan. 11, 1946. She and Skeets married on Feb. 21, 1946, in the chapel at Naval Auxiliary Air Station Kingsville, Texas. They were the first two Navy chiefs on active duty to be married. She became pregnant, however, and was discharged on June 12.

Could this mean he love for parachutes was over? "Not really, just put on hold," Powers said. "My dream of jumping someday never went away. Skeets decided to make the Navy a career, and being a Navy wife with two children to care for made the dream unthinkable then."

Skeets retired from the Navy in 1961, and he and Marian obtained civil service jobs. They retired in 1985 at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., and traveled throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia before settling down in May 1997 at the Naval Home. A member of the Parachute Riggers' Association, Powers attended the 2001 reunion in Pensacola, Fla., where she met riggers she had known long ago. Her dream was aroused.

She saw some skydivers while she and Skeets were visiting their daughter Beti and her husband, Mike Anderson, in Palatka last August. That rekindled the fire to finally go skydiving. They went to the airport and arranged for her to jump on her 80th birthday.

"When an 80-year-old person has a dream to fulfill, it's time to get really serious," Powers said.

Staff Sgt. William Vaughan (left) helps Spc. Rob Bibbie (bottom) and Spc. Christian Normandy hoist a flotation bag into their Zodiac rubber boat. The flotation bags are used to move the concrete piers. (photo by Stephanie Carl)

7th Dive Detachment removes hazards in Hawaii

by Spc. Stephanie L. Carl

SCHOEFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii (Army News Service, Dec. 10, 2002) -- Six months of planning came to fruition last week as soldiers from the 7th Engineer Detachment (Heavy Dive) collapsed the last of 23 hazardous finger piers in the Wai'anae Small Boat Harbor.

The project, which is known as innovative readiness training, allowed the detachment to fulfill part of its Mission Essential Task List that has been nearly impossible in the past, unit leaders said, while benefitting the Wai'anae community.

"This project falls under port construction and demolition using non-explosive means," said Master Sgt. Rodney Heikkinen, the master diver and first sergeant for the dive detachment.

"To my knowledge, this is the first time a project like this has ever come up for our unit," he said.

Heikkinen added that the project helped soldiers to brush up on skills that are imperative during real-world deployments.

"Each finger pier weighs approximately five and a half tons," he said. "The guys are going to sink the piers, then raise them, move them to another location and re-sink them. This is going to teach them weight-handling."

What Heikkinen meant is that each pier is secured with two thick ropes. Using a chipper and sledgehammer, the divers chop away at the concrete the pier is made of, exposing the long metal rods that gave it support.

Unfortunately, according to William Aila, a Wai'anae native and the harbormaster, many of these supports have either broken or bowed, creating long cracks in the outer surface of the piers.

"Some of the piers collapsed into the water on their own, others are at risk to fall at any time," Aila explained.

For the supports that hadn't snapped, the divers used a blowtorch to cut through the metal.

Each pier has six supports. After each support is cut, the pier simply collapses. On some of the piers, the soldiers preferred to use another method. They placed several large metal canisters in the center of the pier, using rubber tires to keep the cans floating after the pier collapsed. They then filled the canisters with water, which exceeded the weight that the already-weakened piers could handle.

Once the divers collapsed the piers, they attached flotation bags to the piers, then towed the piers to the opposite side of the harbor, where they will be picked up by a civilian contractor and hauled out to sea and re-sank as part of the artificial reef program.

"We don't have any crane support for completing this mission," Heikkinen said. "When we deploy we won't have it, so we need to be able to do this without logistical support.

"We're not always going to have that support, so this project teaches everyone to think outside the box."

The project gave soldiers of the dive detachment an opportunity to interact with the Wai'anae community.

"Many people didn't even know the Army had divers," Heikkinen said. "But now that they know, everyone seems glad we're here.

"In fact," he said, "we were invited to a fishing tournament that is coming up, and many of the fishermen brought us some of the fish they caught and taught us how to cook it."

Spc. Rob Bibbie, a diver with the detachment, said the unit doesn't usually get this kind of training.

"We're working on techniques to partially demolish and recover a pier, both tasks that are common on real-world missions," he said. "Not only that, but it's great that we're helping out the community and training at the same time."

"The Army has saved the state of Hawaii tens of thousands of dollars by coming out and removing these piers," said Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources Oahu District Manager Steve Thompson . "We're lucky to have them out here. All the piers that were removed were stressed and unstable; they needed to be replaced. Now, the money the Army saved can be used toward another part of the project, building a new dock."

Aila said that these new piers will be constructed of different materials, which can withstand more weathering than the old piers were able to, making them hold up better.

"Those piers were built about 20 years ago," Aila said. "We've learned a lot in 20 years and can make the new piers last longer."

(Editor's note: Spc. Stephanie L. Carl is a staff member of the Hawaiian Army Weekly newspaper.)