BUSH'S FINAL SALUTE

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Last Monday he was strapped into a simulator at the Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, with a dozen private jumpers and members of the Army's elite Golden Knights parachute team taking him through six hours of training. He learned a new lingo--"arch, look, reach, pull"--and missed the entire aircraft carrier on a simulator run ("A little wet," joked Glenn Bangs, USPA director of safety and training); laughed when Larry Pennington, a 4,600-jump expert, said, "Mr. President, remember, landings are mandatory"; and learned the parachutists' handshake from Golden Knight Andy Serrano (doubled fists touching, forefingers pointed--the signal to pull the cord). "Probably come back and see Dana Carvey imitating me, 'Wouldn't be prudent, wouldn't be prudent,'" said Bush.

But Tuesday he was up in a Skyvan dive plane at 12,500 ft. "The only time I had any butterflies was when I stood up and backed toward the open door and looked down," Bush insisted. "Then I was out and busy." For 8,000 ft. there was the rush of air, then practicing the reach for the rip cord, as Bangs and Serrano held him at the sides, grinning, and half a dozen other jumpers with cameras and radios circling in the air. "Free fall went faster than I thought," declared Bush. "First thing I knew, I looked at my altimeter and I was at 5,000 ft. Time to pull. I forgot to give the wave-off, but not to pull. The jolt of the chute opening was more than I thought it would be. But I was happy to feel it." And then there was quiet, the desert beautiful below, his legs swinging as Pennington on the ground talked him down through turns and flares, Bush pulling the control cords, his old aviator's instincts being rekindled, thinking of the wonder of it all.

"The ground moved up fast the last 1,000 ft.," Bush said. "I thought I might have too much speed." Then Pennington boomed, "Flare! Flare!" Bush pulled the cords. The chute tipped, slowed, and with a tiny jar, Bush made it safely to the ground. "If I had really been worried," said landbound Barbara, "I wouldn't have been here. But I want to see the video reruns. They probably had to throw him out of the plane."