ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997              TAG: 9703260064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZ.
SOURCE: ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS

THIS TIME, BUSH'S JUMP WAS ALL FOR FUN GUESS IT WAS A PRUDENT STEP AT THIS JUNCTURE

The first time the former president made the big leap was in 1944, and he was bailing out of a torpedo bomber.

George Bush took a flying leap Tuesday.

In doing so, the former president fulfilled a wartime promise to himself, jumping from a plane over the Arizona desert under a rainbow-colored parachute - a serene, Technicolor repeat of his leap to safety from a disabled Navy bomber half a century ago.

``It was wonderful. I'm a new man - and I go home exhilarated,'' the 72-year-old former chief executive said.

It was his second parachute jump, but his first planned one. Bush was forced to bail out of his Navy bomber in the Pacific during World War II, and he promised himself that one day he would make a jump for fun.

He had a little help, with two jump masters holding onto his harness until he opened his chute safely, and half a dozen people - including wife Barbara - running to help cushion his landing.

Asked how he felt, Bush gave a thumbs up and said: ``Like that.''

He landed about 40 yards from his target at the Army's Yuma Proving Ground.

Bush leaped from a civilian twin-engine airplane at 12,500 feet, accompanied by eight Gold Knights and a civilian from the U.S. Parachute Association, then fell freely until he deployed his parachute at 4,500 feet.

He was in the air for a total of nine minutes.

His World War II jump had already made him the only president to bail out of an airplane.

``I am mightily impressed,'' President Clinton, still using crutches after falling on a flight of steps, said in Washington.

Spokesman Jim McGrath said Bush had wanted to make the jump for personal reasons, after receiving an invitation at the Parachute Industry Association convention last month in Houston.

Bush's first jump from an airplane came Sept. 2, 1944, after his torpedo bomber was shot up by Japanese naval forces. His two crewmates were killed.

He said his chute was damaged, and after he landed in the ocean he began swimming toward the nearest land, which was held by the Japanese.

He was picked up by a U.S. submarine and eventually was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

LENGTH: Medium:   54 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ASSOCIATED PRESS. Former President Bush drifts gently to
          Earth on Tuesday at Yuma (Ariz.) Proving Ground. color.