The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, did his first-ever tandem parachute jump on Monday 8th September with the Red Devils in aid of injured servicemen and women. He jumped at Netheravon Airfield in Wiltshire with his 19-year-old daughter Richenda and daughter-in-law Emma, and has raised nearly £10,000 for the charity Help for Heroes.

Gen Danatt Gives The Thumbs Up

"I was asked months ago if I would do this," he explained, "And of course the only answer I could give was ‘yes'. It is all very well asking other people to give money so I thought I would raise some myself. I have always been in the front seat of planes before as the pilot and had never thought it necessary to jump out of one before now. Help for Heroes is a very worthwhile charity and it is critical that we do everything we can for our injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan."

The experienced soldier admitted to a few nerves beforehand, but he was in the safe hands of Sergeant Jay Webster, the team leader of the Red Devils who has jumped over 1,500 times. After a full briefing and dressed in his Army Air Corps flying suit, he and the girls boarded ‘Foxy Lady', the Cessna Caravan aircraft, and took off soaring to 13,000 feet for the jump - two and a half miles high.

Gen Dannatt Coming Back Down to Earth

His wife Pippa and sons Bertie and Ollie, along with other family members and friends, clapped and cheered as he landed safely, closely followed by the rest of the team. Clearly relieved to be back on the ground he described the experience as "great - quite extraordinary."

"It was like flying at first when we were freefalling, and then I had fun flying the parachute and guiding it with the handles. I'm very glad I did it, but it's good to be on the ground again."