HERTZEL COLUMN: Jump helps Caskey cope

By Bob Hertzel

MORGANTOWN — We all deal with our demons in different ways, but deal with them we must.

Phil Caskey has been spending most of this year dealing with his, newly divorced and looking to regain the life he once possessed.

It has been something of a year-long celebration, filled with travel and, yes, there has been a party or two connected with it.

When the man charged with publicizing West Virginia University’s women’s basketball team was asked to be a part of the wedding of his dear friend from high school, Tony Ponton, and that the bachelor party would be in Ocean City, Md., on Friday, July 10, he figured it would just be more of the same, at least in the beginning.

They planned a night out, as you might expect, and whatever other things you normally prepare to do when you are celebrating a bachelor party. But there was another wrinkle thrown in July 10 … a chance to sky dive.

Caskey had never done it before, but this being The Year of Caskey, he figured why not? He signed up to join Ponton and best man Larry Lineberry for the experience.

The day after he agreed to go, it hit him.

“July 10 was the day my wife came home and said, ‘I’m outta here. See ya,’” Caskey remembered. “I was like, ‘All right, this is divine intervention. Someone wants me to jump.’ I had a very bad memory on that date. Now I would have a reason to celebrate that date.”

One other thing crossed Caskey’s mind when he thought about what he’d just gotten himself into.

“I never had fully grieved for the loss of my grandparents the proper way,” he said.

He reasoned that this would be a trip to bring him closer to them.

The day before the sky dive was a hectic one, racing around and picking up the group to head for Ocean City. He remembered nervousness setting in, especially as he went across the Bay Bridge and saw a little Cessna flying high in the sky.

“I’m going to be jumping out of that tomorrow morning,” he thought to himself.

They headed to the Sky Dive Ocean City office at the airport early for their scheduled 10:30 jump.

“First we had to sign our lives away,” Caskey said. “They explained that if I died, I couldn’t sue them. I told them that was for sure, if I died I couldn’t sue them.”

There was some instruction, then the gear was put on and he was hooked in with his tandem diver, John Judy, a veteran with more than 40,000 tandem jumps to his credit.

For him it was another day at the office.

For Caskey it would be what he described later as an “out-of-body experience.”

There were five people crammed into the little Cessna, Caskey and Judy, Ponton and his tandem diver and the pilot.

Caskey remembers telling Judy he was impressed with how peaceful it was.

“It won’t be peaceful when I open that door,” Judy answered.

“I just couldn’t help but think the calmness I felt going up was because I was getting closer to my grandparents,” Caskey now says.

When they reached 14,000 feet, the door was opened and Caskey understood the meaning of “Look out for that first step.”

“Once the wheels left the ground, there was no turning back,” he said.

They had warned him that there would be a strange sensation.

“They said in the training your brain won’t remember a lot of things for the first five or 10 seconds after you’re out of the plane. There’s just an informational overload going on,” he said.

And that was how it was.

“I remember a cold rush coming through. Then it wasn’t cold anymore,” Caskey said.

He now has trouble explaining the sensation of free fall, which he was in for 55 seconds.

“Next thing you know, there’s a rush of air. ‘Whoooooooooosh!’” Caskey said.

It took him about 20 seconds to get comfortable.

“It’s like lying in a water bed. All these forces are coming back at you. It’s like you’re stationary. It’s so peaceful. You’re looking down and it’s beautiful. It was heaven,” Caskey said.

After the chute opened, he and Judy’s speed was cut from about 160 miles an hour to 60, then as they neared the ground they cut it down even more so that the landing was smooth, if not exactly perfect, Caskey’s numb legs slipping as he fell on his butt.

“All I could think was if I had more money I’d go right back up there now,” he said. “I left a lot up there — a lot of that stuff from my divorce — and I got to say hi to my grandparents.”

For the next three hours, Caskey enjoyed the adrenaline rush he was still experiencing, his fingers and toes tingling.

The day ended with a few beers and a lot of memories, much of it captured on video and in still shots.

Let’s just say that $327.60 isn’t really very much to pay for peace of mind these days.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.

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