Tragedy Strikes

Over this past weekend, on my anniversary in fact, I took three Army co-workers on Tandem skydives. The first two soldiers I took were NCO's who worked for me in Kuwait, SSG Macias and SGT Guitierrez (formerly SGT Torres). Those skydives were a lot of fun.
Next, I took my future boss, LTC Brady (see the email here) on his skydive. We were having a great time and everything went well up until the last 15 feet before landing. There was a downdraft that caused us to fall to the ground despite my best efforts, and we landed directly on LTC Brady's right ankle. The force of our combined weight (~450 lbs) on one ankle was too much... he fractured his tibia & fibula, and grossly dislocated his foot. We called 911 and got an ambulance out to the dropzone to take him to the hospital.
Sarema and I spent the rest of the day in the Hollister emergency room with him and his two sons. It was obviously very painful and will require surgery to fix (2 screws and a plate update: 9 screws and 2 plates). He didn't get the surgery that day for two reasons: swelling from the initial trauma and the orthopedist at Hollister's hospital is widely known among skydivers for mangling broken ankles while trying to fix them.
I hope I never have to deal again with that jerk who treated LTC Brady: a lawyer who moonlights as an ER doc at hospital 2 hours away from his home in Shell Beach. All in all, I don't recommend getting hurt in Hollister.
LTC Brady will probably go in for surgery next monday, 19 June, and will be in a cast for 3 months. I wish his first tandem skydive had turned out a lot better.