Skydive The Point-West
Point, VA
We shut down normal jumping at 6:30 and had a short service led by Carol Clay and Oscar Oczkowski. Anyone was invited to speak and quite a few people shared stories. Mary Jones recalled how Sandy had bought a parrot and was so proud of the job she was doing teaching it phrases and words. She began bringing the bird to West Point on week-ends and when Sandy wasn't looking the bird would get introduced to a few off-color words and phrases! With that Mary said that Sandy deserved a good old-fashioned "Her". Which we did.
The service was concluded and we did a few final dirt dives for our 3 King Air 37 way, with video by Oscar Oczkowski and Brian O'Neal. The planes took off at 7:40 P.M. and climbed to 8 P.M. which put us at 13,500 ft. The jump run was a little long and we exited a few minutes after 8(Damn!). The left trail plane stalled on exit putting that group hundreds of feet below the base. Thankfully everyone was OK. I was out of the right trail plane and had a beautiful view of the sunset as I flew to my slot and watched the group from the left plane float up to the base. At the 4500 ft. break-off all but 1 had made it into the formation. I turned and tracked away. Under canopy I watched the sun drop below the horizon as I had a talk with Sandy. I'm sure she was watching everyone with a big smile.
Submitted by Jim Crouch. Photos by Oscar Oczkowski.