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Saturday 02-11
 

Massdropping

This morning, we awoke earlier than any of the others. Our Thai hosts have invited us to participate in a very special record for them in honor of their King. He is Rama IX, Bhumibol Adulyadej. The reverence the Thai people have for him reminds us that this is not a week all about skydiving and skydivers, but real life here in Southeast Asia. We, as skydivers, don’t think about such things. We escape from our urban jobs on the weekends, and we return each Monday just waiting for the next weekend and hoping for good weather.
 
         
 
 
 
 

 
 
Here in Thailand, life is much more real. There are rich and poor and good and perhaps something hard to understand. For the western members of our team, there is much to learn and understand. It is wonderful to see the people who love their king. He is a good King. He could take the money for himself and bask in richness and glory, as kings too often do. But this king is kind, benevolent, and interested in the people of Thailand and their welfare. In the homes some of us have visited, the people devoted an entire wall to images of the monarchy of Thailand’s past and the Royal Family. The country follows a philosophy of Nation-Religion-King. The King is the spiritual leader, as well as the monarch in a constitutional monarchy. And it works.
 
  
 
 
Here, life for the Thai people continues to improve. Bangkok is a teeming metropolis with capable infrastructure. We encountered growth, stability, and happiness in Udon Thani. We have gotten to know the Thai people somewhat from Udon Thani and through our teammates from the Royal Thai Air Force. We respect them. The economy is growing. The Suvarnabhumi Airport where we jumped today is incredible in size and design. It will open in six months and become respected by the world. The King is an architect, and he consulted on the design.
  
         
 
 
 
         
The King also conducts agricultural development programs within the magnificent Royal Palace. As a result of His Majesty’s programs, Thailand has gone from an importer of rice to the world’s largest exporter. Perhaps you have tried Jasimine rice. And his programs of crop replacement have encouraged legitimate agriculture in the north, traditional a region of production of poppies used for the wrong reasons.
 

It is hard for a westerner to imagine the reverence the Thai people have for their King. And our Royal Sky Diamond Jubilee Festival is to honor the King for 60 years of rule. We dedicated our freefall world record to the King, and we are humbled to participate in the auspicious occasion of a Guinness World Record at the new Airport to commemorate him. We dispatched 960 jumpers in all from seven RTAF C-130s, plus one each from Singapore and Malaysia, and three RTAF BT-67s (turbine DC-3s, converted) and a G-222 that the Alpha Team used for practice for the last ten or so days.

 
 
 
 
 
We filled the sky with parachutes before Thai military officers and dignitaries for nearly 15 minutes—hundred of parachutes for the King just like the original parachutists in Siam (Thailand’s former name) who performed for the King, as reported by the French Envoy in the year 1687. Skydiving enjoys deep roots in a land of silk and limitless imagination.
 
Now our mission is done. We hope we have promoted this wonderful country for what it has meant to us and to our endeavors, both in sport and in spirit. Where else would we find such support for our dreams to come true?

click here for today's video (33.2 MB)

         
 
 
 
         
© Photos by World Team Camera Team:

Hans Berggren, Willy Boeykens, Bruno Brokken, Gustavo Cabana, JC Colclasure, Dave Major, Gaby Meis, Craig O’Brien,
Will Pesek, Jason Peters, Daniel Ramsbott, Wendy Smith, Andrey Veselov, Gary Wainwright, Henny Wiggers, Saskia Zegwaard.