Idaho National Guardsman Sets A Record

Now this is impressive:

Every six minutes and 20 seconds for just under 21 hours, Air National Guard Capt. Dan Schilling parachuted 486 feet from the rusted steel of Twin Falls' Perrine Bridge into the depths of the Snake River Gorge.
With a 60-ton crane lifting him from the gorge floor and a team of sleepless parachute packers outfitting him for each jump, Schilling jumped 201 times between 8:10 p.m. Friday and just after 6 p.m. Saturday.
His effort set a new world record for the most BASE jumps in 24 hours. BASE is an acronym for the buildings, antennae, spans and earth used as a platform for daredevils in this extreme sport.
Schilling, who commands the Oregon-based 125th Special Tactics Squadron, took on this challenge to raise $20,000 for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, an organization that awards full college scholarships to the children of special operations soldiers who have died in battle.

Schilling, a veteran of Somalia in 1993, described the weekend BASE-jumping feat as his "most daunting challenge". The Special Operations Warrior Foundation's website is here for those who'd like to see who he was raising money for. Some pictures of the Captain in action, like the one below, can be found here.


Bell-ringer 2356 11 July 2006: Alan, who really is an Idaho National Guardsman, points out that Captain Shilling commands an Oregon Air Guard unit. (I should have figured that out myself when I went to the Idaho Air National Guard homepage last night to look for biographical information, and found that the number of the unit was one off.) Oh, well, he still did it in Idaho, so at least I got that part of the story right.