Double Amputee Vet Dares To Freefall

Monday, July 11, 2022 at 03:41 PM ET

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Sgt. Jonathon Blank of U.S. Marine Corps 1st Force Reconnaissance Company lost both his legs in an improvised explosive device blast while deployed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. [Photo: AXIS Flight instructor Niklas Daniel]

Key Takeaways:

Sgt. Jonathon Blank, a double amputee Marine veteran, successfully obtained his Skydiving A License, allowing him to jump without supervision.
His achievement was facilitated by a specialized program from Operation Enduring Warrior and AXIS Flight School, which included custom parachute modifications and extensive training in wind tunnels and ground school.
Skydiving provides Blank a vital connection to his military past, a sense of accomplishment, and significant mental health benefits, driving him to set goals and overcome physical challenges.
As a double amputee, Blank developed a unique "airplane-like" slide landing technique to ensure safe and impact-free descents.

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Editor’s Note: In October 2010, Sgt. Jonathon Blank of U.S. Marine Corps 1^st Force Reconnaissance Company lost both his legs in an improvised explosive device blast while deployed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Blank recently obtained his Skydiving A License, the certification required for jumping without supervision, through a program offered by non-profit Operation Enduring Warrior in partnership with AXIS Flight School in Eloy, Arizona. FLYING recently spoke with him about his skydive training and how he’s adapted to jumping out of airplanes as a double amputee. Here are excerpts from that conversation, edited for space and clarity.

I was in the U.S. Marine Corps. I was a Force Reconnaissance Marine, which is Special Operations, and so a lot of our training is specialty schools in certain platforms, like freefall. So I’d been trained to jump before. It was something I really wanted to get back into, kind of as a tie to what I used to do.