COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 13 (UPI) -- As 3,000 people stared into the Texas sky, George H.W. Bush, America's only skydiving president, jumped out of an airplane in celebration of his 80th birthday.
Bush left the plane at 13,500 feet but people in the crowd without binoculars didn't see him until he appeared as a small black dot between clouds near the end of his free fall.
Due to low clouds and wind turbulence, Bush was not able to make the Sunday jump solo, as he wanted to. So he made a tandem jump, harnessed to Staff Sgt. Bryan Schnell, a member of the Army's Golden Knights parachute team.
And Bush did it twice -- a practice jump in the morning and then the public jump several hours later with his wife, Barbara, and former world leaders among the spectators.
At 5,000 feet on the second jump, the white nylon chute opened and splayed out against the rich blue of the East Texas sky. Bush, wearing a black and gold jumpsuit, waved as he near the drop zone. The former president and Schnell were greeted by a roar from the crowd as they touched down on target near the Bush Presidential Library on the campus of Texas A&M University.
Bush was greeted with a bouquet of flowers from former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and an embrace from Carlos Salinas, the former president of Mexico.
Bush told the gathering he hopes the jump can set an example for older people.
"Just because you're 80 doesn't mean you're out of it," he said. "You don't have to jump out of airplanes. Just get out and do something."
He said he and his wife were blessed to be happier than anybody had a right to be, applying an aviators' acronym, CAVU (ceiling and visibility unlimited), to his personal situation: "That's where my life is today."
Bush's weekend celebration -- part birthday party and part charity fundraiser -- was called "41 at 80" (for the 41st president at 80 years old). It exceeded expectations for donations to help the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Points of Light Foundation in Washington, D.C. and the Bush library. A hoped-for $41 million raised turned out to be $55 million, said Robert Goodwin, Points of Light CEO.
Bush has now made five jumps. The first was as a Navy pilot forced to jump out over the Pacific in World War II when his torpedo bomber was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He always promised himself he would jump again someday, for fun. That day came in March 1997 at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Barbara Bush remarked at the time: "I haven't seen a free fall like that since the '92 elections."
Bush jumped again two years later, on his 75th birthday, just to get it out of his system, many hoped, although he was already lobbying for permission from Mrs. Bush for another jump at 80. Aside from undergoing hip replacement surgery four years ago, his health has been good, something he credits to an active life.
But even so, "This will be his last jump one way or the other," Mrs. Bush quipped earlier in the week. And while Bush's post-presidential jumps have been in the company of the Army's best parachutists, the dangers involved are not trivial. He tumbled in the sky for a few thousand feet during his 75th birthday jump before he straightened himself out. He called it "exhilarating."
Other events of the 41 at 80 celebration included his official birthday party Saturday night at Houston's Minute Maid Park baseball stadium. The event was a harvest of testimonials from friends, celebrities and world leaders, including an affectionate roasting from his eldest son, the current president, George W. Bush, who said, "He gives us plenty of material (for ribbing him) because of his weird taste in clothes."
The Saturday night entertainment was emceed by Larry King and included Wynona Judd, Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Randy Travis and the former president's longtime favorites, The Oak Ridge Boys, who are sometimes house guests at his Kennebunkport, Maine, home and crank up "Elvira" in the living room.
Did anybody try to talk him out of making this jump?
"Some tried," Bush said, smiling, "but they failed."
For a man who began his career drilling wildcat oil wells in the mesquite deserts around Midland, Texas, and who more than once in his life has had to put it all on one roll of the dice, taking two skydives in one day, with 80-year-old bones and a store-bought hip, is not inconsistent.
