GREEN ON - GO
GREEN ON - GO is the title of a book that I am compiling on the history of military parachuting in Rhodesia from 1961 to 1980.
Many books have been written on the Rhodesian Security Forces but there has never been a book written on No 1 Parachute Training School, Rhodesian Air Force or the lives of the people who made up the PTS.
Theirs is a story that has taken too long to tell and will now be told 31 years after the end of the Rhodesian Bush War.
Without them, Fireforces involving paratroopers would not have been possible; neither would the many reconnaissance missions with the SAS and Selous Scouts soldier’s freefalling into places like Mozambique. Without the concept of Fireforce there is little doubt that the war would have gone as long as it did.
The Rhodesian PJI’s were quite unique in that they were a mixture of both the Air Force and the Army due to the critical shortage of manpower experienced, particularly in the latter years of the war.
There were more parachute descents into contacts by the Rhodesian Security Forces during the Bush War than by any other military in history, yet the injury rate remained below 0.7%. This says an enormous amount about the professionalism and the training techniques of the Parachute Jump Instructors of No 1 Parachute Training School, New Sarum.
Release date: By the end of 2011.
Update: 29 December 2011. I will be travelling to South Africa early next year to finish the book. I have had a generous offer of help by an accomplished author which I have accepted.