I remember a LAPES on Bragg in that timeframe. We were transported to a remote landing strip with bleachers. There was a company of infantry and a battery seated for a demo (about 300 of us).We had the bleacher closest to the strip. After a big speech on how LAPES will revolutionize combat on the battlefields of the future. The C-130 started it's approach at full speed.Wheels down barely touching the landing strip. The LAPES started a little late by my guestimate, the drogue chute deployed fine. The drogue did not immediately deploy the main chute.The main finally deploys pulling the load from the aircraft, but the risers are all twisted up. The plane passes the stand not 20 ft to my right, engines full on. The sheridan skids about 10 ft and then it starts to tumble breaking free of it's skid it veers off the landing strip and heads for our bleacher. It looked like a charging bull elephant heading right for us. The funny thing is nobody moved. At the time the 82nd was living outside on field duty 5 days a week, 8 months out of a year, w/o reprieve(20 hr days). When we were in from the field we ran 5 miles a day at an all out run and spent 14-16 hrs a day in the motor pool, or jumping 5-10 times to get caught up for jump pay. The thought of being killed by a charging tank seemed almost appealing. The tank tumbled to within 25 ft of the stand and stopped standing straight up with it's gun jammed in the ground.
We all laughed having escaped death by training another day!
