Plummeting to the ground at 120 mph, Ernie Herrera pulled the cord and his parachute unraveled. Instantly, he felt a weight off his back as the stress and noise surrounding him quickly dissipated into the thin air.
Herrera, a 75-year-old Navy veteran from Douglas, was checking off a longtime bucket-list item with his first skydiving jump.
He was struck by the intense quiet and a sense of freedom he had been seeking for so many years.
“It’s serene and so much peace there,” he said about floating thousands of feet above the ground. “It’s just so peaceful and quiet. You’ve never experienced such a calm, serene feeling as when you’re looking around and taking it easy going down.”
Herrera spends more time at his home in Arizona these days, but returns home to the central Wyoming town each summer.
Fighting post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is another war Herrera has been fighting — and winning — most of his adult life, and he still receives treatment for it. A Vietnam War veteran, Herrera sometimes has mood swings, but few would know them because he’s universally described as the nicest person they know.
The Jump
Herrera made his first skydive plunge about an hour southeast of Phoenix in March.
Video from the plane ride leading up to the drop shows Herrera looking cool as a cucumber compared to the other jumpers in his group, who waited nervously. Perhaps it was because of what he’s already experienced.
In the war, Herrera would pass ammunition down the gun line or directly into the gun mount on his Navy destroyer. Hearing protection was not employed.
“Once a firing mission began, you were just consistently firing,” Herrera said. “Over 7,000 rounds went through our guns in toward Vietnam while the Marines were in there.”
Herrera would usually work 12-hour shifts, falling into bed like a log when relieved.
Duty To Serve
Herrera said many in his battalion didn’t really understand the reasons that led to the United States becoming involved in the Vietnam War. What they were united on was a love for their country and duty to serve.
“This is our country and we were fighting for one another,” he said of their mentality. “Even though we left there and came home, you take a look at that in a different way. You’re doing a common thing, raising your kids, a job, everything you do together.”
This sense of self-sacrifice and obligation to community continued for Herrera when he came home and began his professional career and community service.
For 25 years, he volunteered as a jail chaplain in Douglas.
“Serving for others instead of yourself just becomes a part of you,” he said.
Coping With PTSD
Ernie’s wife Doris Herrera said making the skydive was hugely beneficial for her husband.
“It’s really a good thing for him to be able to do the jump,” she said. “It was like a feeling of letting go, the freedom and letting go of a lot of that hurt and pain.”
Within two weeks of returning home from the war, Herrera went into a blind rage when his dog growled and nipped at his daughter.
“You have no control, everything is black from both sides closing in,” Herrera recalled feeling. “I was hyperventilating. I wanted to get a hold of that dog and rip its limbs off.”
He’s had other internal struggles like this over the years. When the World Trade Center towers fell on 9/11, Herrera slipped into what’s known as the “thousand-yard stare,” a phrase often used to describe the blank, unfocused gaze of military combatants who have become emotionally detached from the psychological trauma around them.
“You don’t really think about specific issues, you’re just gone,” Herrera said. “You’re watching what happened there, but you’re in the past.”
Although Converse County only lost three Vietnam service members, Herrera said he knows countless veterans who returned from the war experiencing serious PTSD.
“Everybody came back so messed up,” he said. “You can’t go through hell without getting affected some way,”
Following the war, Herrera said Wyoming’s Veterans Affairs clinics would only treat PTSD if the veterans barraged staff for treatment multiple times.
“Tons of PTSD guys just slipped through the cracks,” he said. “That’s the real tragedy.”
Ernie Herrera makes his first skydiving jump. (Adventures Skydiving) 
Ernie Herrera pulls his parachute during his first skydiving jump. (Adventures Skydiving) 
Ernie Herrera was all smiles after making his first skydiving jump. (Adventures Skydiving)
New Love
Now Herrera is officially hooked on skydiving.
He made his second jump less than three months later on Memorial Day.
Herrera made both his jumps in honor of fellow veterans who didn’t make it home, physically or mentally, from the Vietnam War to experience the luxuries of life that he has.
“That was the perfect day for it,” he said. “I did it for the veterans who didn’t come home, and we’re able to pursue something like that.”
“I’m 75 years old,” he said. “If someone wants to go I’m not going to shy off of that. I really would like to do that.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
