12 killed in skydiving plane crash near Butler Memorial Airport

[GReedDiamond]

17. Back around 1975 or so, I...

...met an "older" guy who lived in the same apartment building as me in a Chicago suburb.

In the 60s, he had been an Alabama State Trooper, but got drafted or enlisted (not sure which) in the army and sent to Viet Nam, where he started smoking weed.

He was still an army reservist, but in his spare time, he was in a skydiving team called "The Roachpile."

As they were in the plane approaching the jump site, they would sit in a line and take bong hits before jumping, passing the bong down the line and back.

As they plummeted toward earth, they would form an "8-man star," joining hands in a big circle before breaking up and deploying their parachutes.

He told me one time they dropped acid before the plane took off!

Again, this guy had been an Alabama State Trooper in a previous phase of his life, but Viet Nam took care of that.

I moved to Hollywood CA in early '76, and never heard from him again.

Always wondered what happened to him...

RIP to the skydivers, too sad.