US Ex-President Bush makes birthday skydive

Former President George H.W. Bush celebrated his 80th birthday with a 13,000-foot parachute jump over his presidential library Sunday, and said he felt the same thrill of prior jumps even though his hopes of skydiving solo were dashed.

He made a tandem jump - harnessed to a member of an Army's Golden Knights parachute team - after officials decided the wind conditions and low clouds made it too dangerous for the 41st president to jump alone, which he did when he turned 75.

With Staff Sgt. Bryan Schnell on his back and a black-and-gold parachute ballooning above them, the former president waved his arms to some 4,000 spectators as he neared the drop zone - a painted logo of "41 at 80" in the center of a football-field-sized area on the grounds of his presidential library at Texas A&M University.

The crowd included his wife, Barbara, his son Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev gave Bush flowers and a bottle of vodka.

The jump, Bush's fifth, earned him parachutist's wings that were pinned on him after he landed. The wings include a small bronze star, indicating he'd made a combat jump in a hostile area.

Bush made his first parachute jump as a 20-year-old Navy pilot shot down over the Pacific during World War II. In 1992, he bailed out over Yuma, Ariz., fulfilling a wartime promise he made to himself that some day he'd jump from a plane for fun.

Bush said Sunday he hoped his stunt sent a message to people that "at 80 years old, you've still got a life."

"For me, I like speed. I like the thrill of it," he said. But the jump also "sets an example for older people, here and abroad, that just because you're 80 years old, it doesn't mean you're out of it."

The skydive capped two days of birthday festivities for Bush.

Source: Agencies