Near death experence ???
A few , the one that stands out the most was once when we were Helo-repelling ( USMC ) My LT ( who was a CERTIFED repel master ) tied us in to the rope to make sure we didn't mess up , I backed up to the edge of the helo , jumped and heard this metalic "CLICK !!"
,
I looked down and relised i was no longer tied in to the rope
, I burned up a perfectly good pair of gloves getting my self stopped .
Thankfully my LT had shown us how to switch ropes while repelling ( just in case we ever had to ) , I tied off and got rigged in correctly , poped loose the slip knot , spun around and looked up , the LT was looking over the edge with eyes as big as dinner plates as the helo was slowly going down , i repeled the rest of the way down . The LT and I had a short disscusion after that . I NEVER used Government issue carabeiners or harnesses after that , oh i would put them on , but when it came time to tie in to the rope i would unbutton my fly and use my own harness and rigging( no i didn't use THAT to tie on to the rope i had a rock climbing harness, LOCKING carabiener , and figuer 8 under my cammies ) .