European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 18, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page b the stars and stripes sunday october in 1987 Parachute rigger gets the jump on her dear old dad by Daryl Green kaisers Nuich Bureau following in a father s footsteps May Lead to an unexpected and lofty fall. Especially when the pal la leads 1o parachutes. He Hinks i m nuts 5gl. Saundra l. Birr null said of Kcf father s reaction to her becoming a Parachute rigger and jumping out of air planes. He just can t understand me doing Barren grew up hearing stories from her father of the time he was an air borne Soldier. He always Lold me when i was going through jump school if you Don t want to do in you can quit.11 always thought in was a strange thing to say to a girl who was just getting into her tra especially a girl who was trying in her own Way to follow in her father s footsteps. Then one Day while speaking to her Mother after a rough Day in jump school in All became very Clear to Barren. I told her i was killing myself. But. If dad could do it. I could do it. And she starts to the humor escaped Young Burnett and she asked her Mother to let her in on the joke. So she says Well i Don t think i should Tell you this and i m like what and she said we a he went to jump school but he quit before he Ever jumped " and then like jumping without a Chute it All hit her. And i was like that dog i kill my self to prove that i m As Good As him and he did t even do in. Now i can really prove that i m better than him. I never told my father that i meeting a Challenge to be As Good As or better than her father was one Good thing about being a rigger for Barnett who is now assigned to the 21 is sup port come s 5th quartermaster Del. But it s in addition to the obvious Challenge to ensure that each Chute that she opens when it s supposed to i m not worried about it opening because being a rigger you know it s going to open Barnell said you know everybody who s doing it and you know they do a Good Job. So you know it s going to open. You be got nothing to worry about that s easy for her to say. The 24 year old rigger has been packing parachutes and jumping out of air planes and helicopters since Slie joined the army in 1983, Parachute riggers must remain jump qualified because he army does not want anyone rigging a Chute who is Noi prepared to jump with thai same Chute. Although she s never packed a Parachute Ilia i did t open when in was supposed to and has never seen the results of a bad packing she has heard stories. You Hrar about things like that. You could pack one that s not in proper layout. That would be bad she said shaking her head As though considering the consequences. The St pm packs an average of 23.1 cargo parachutes Iso personnel parachutes and 12 Martin Baker ejection scat parachutes a month. We pack the chutes for personnel we pack Supply loads. Anything that Falls out of Floc sky we do Barnell said. There Are Only three rigger Compa Nies and 1,247 riggers in the army. There is Only one other air drop Supply detachment in Korea. Just As with most people who do the same Job Day in and Day out Barnett said that rigging a Chute is As easy As one two three. It s really basically easy. You Lav it out. You fold in up and you just stick in in the but a series of inspections on each Chute makes sure the routine does t become careless. Through the whole thing you be 501 an Al final inspector and an in in process inspector. The in he runs around and he s watching everything. It s a constant process of Check Check through this process Barnell keeps one thing Foremost on her mind. I think about of i might end up with this one. And if i m going to pack one 1 want Illo be the Best thai 1 ran do. I Don t pack really fast. We be got some people Here dial could Knock your socks Oft. Because they re really fast. We re talking like eight minutes to pack Parachute rigger sgt. Sandra l. Barmett picks a personnel Chute. One Chute. And they do it the average time to pack a personnel Chute is 15 minutes Barnett said. But she clocks in at about 30. Barnell volunteered to be a rigger to be something most people Aren so the recruiters started going through the list and they said Well How would you like to be a rigger and i had no idea what a rigger was i a like Well what is it she was Lold it was an exciting Job and thai she would get the Chance to jump out Sofai Ophnes and helicopter. But the Best thing about being a Rig Ger is being Able to jump Barnett said. And come Down safely. Forecasters admit they underestimated storm London a government weather forecaster were accused of incompetence saturday after England suffered its worst storm in centuries in a Boul of bad weather that whipped parti of Western Europe and left at least 22 dead Britain s male run Central electricity generating Board said More than 750,000 Homes in Southern eng land were still without electricity saturday because of downed Power lines Why weren t we warned Why did t they warn us Why did t they know demanded headlines in the daily mail the daily Mirror and inc Sun new spa pen As cleaning up continued after Friday s before Dawn storm loot Southern England by Surprise. At least 13 people were killed in England during four hours of Hurricane Forre winds that knocked Down buildings Power lines and Trees. Power outages blacked out most of London and Southern England Tor several hours and brought chaos to Road and rail traffic. I admit we weren t forecasting Hurricane Force wind and that what we got Laid meteorologist Ian Mcc Sirrill of the London Wear her Center. That s what we Wilt 1 maybe once every 50 years maybe once a Mccaskill said winds were trapped Between cold air from the North and unusually warm moist air from the South. He said a similar storm was recorded in London in 1703. Winds dusting to 110 Mph raged from the county of Cornwall in the West to Essex county about 200 Miles to the East and to a depth of 50 mites Inland from the Southern coastline on the English Channel. Hurricane strength winds Are at least 74 Mph. The Norwich Union one of Britain s biggest insurance groups estimated total damage at s-49s million. The government s meteorological office admitted it failed to anticipate the strength of the storm As it swept in from the Atlantic and up the Channel. In France violent winds thursday night and Friday morning hit the Atlantic and Channel coasts cutting Power supplies ripping off roofs Felling res Sod wrenching boats from their anchors. At least four deaths were attributed to the storm. In Portugal a severe storm with torrential rain killed four people injured nine others and hooded Large areas. One death thursday night in Spain was blamed on the storm. A dutch Navy helicopter rescued the four Man Crew of the 491-Ion swedish coaster Siljan on Friday after the Crew sent a distress Call that the vessel was sinking in the Channel off the Netherlands. The times of London accused the meteorological office of failing to Alert britons to the strength of the approaching winds and the path they would take. The newspaper said it had Learned thai the meteorological office was warned tuesday of the risk of very High winds by the european Center for medium Range weather forecasting at Reading West of London. The French meteorological department acting on the Center s warning carried out its own checks and issued an Alert on French radio and to on thursday afternoon the times said. It quoted unnamed government sources As saying that British emergency services were not warned of the fast approaching storm until Midnight thursday. The storm hit London about 3 30 am. Friday. The meteorological office admitted in a statement that in failed to appreciate the strength of the storms and tuts begun an inquiry. Home Secretary Douglas Hurd. A Cabinet member Lold a news conference the storm look a different course from if one zip voted. ,. And it had that Emra 15 to 20 Mph on the wind Speed hich caused much of the
