About Mike Milts... Shortly after my return from Viet Nam and separating from the US Army (with 10 jumps under my belt) I started skydiving at Elsinore, early in 1969. There were, of course, the well established Elsinore skygods, who were easy to identify by their swagger, and most were jumping the new Security Piggybacks, which were very controversial (considered dangerous) rigs at the time... which seemed of no concern to their devil may care boldness. Said skygods were not particularly respectful or cognizant of novices, and definitely demanded that you earned their hard respect, one jump at a time. These early sky gods included the likes of Garth Taggert, Russ Benefiel, Jay Gifford, Dave Thompson, Jerry Roillard, Mike Milts, and of course, Carl Boenish, the men who did all the stunt work for the film, Gypsy Moths. This video provides an introduction of the men, beginning at the 2:15 mark... https://youtube/watch?v=KeeQAetUWAY They were my original skydiving heroes, whom I was determined to someday emulate. If you jumped at Elsinore in the late 60s or early 70s, no doubt you knew them, or knew of them. Mike Milts was an interesting one, usually seen at the drop zone wearing his Crocodile Dundee hat (long before Crocodile Dundee), and often with his monkey sitting on his shoulder... which eventually pissed him off enough for Mike to shoot him. Mike disappeared from Elsinore and skydiving in the early 70s, but I have had the pleasure of having maintained a close friendship with his former wife, Nancy, to this day... a wonderful lady who made about 1000 jumps back then. I am sad to say, Nancy informed me that Mike passed away on November 16th, at his home in Tennessee, after a long struggle with cancer. May you rest in peace, my friend...
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 22:50:56 +0000
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