Four generations of family sky-dive

SHELTON – Monty Montgomery looked puzzled as his daughter helped slip his feet into a dark purple jump suit.

The suit wasn’t necessary the last time the 87-year-old Tacoma man jumped out of an airplane.

“If I would have known this, I wouldn’t have put my long johns on,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery was one of four generations of his family who arrived at Skydive Kapowsin in Shelton on Friday morning to suit up and jump from a Cessna Caravan cruising at 13,000 feet.

Plagued by macular degeneration, Montgomery is losing his sight, and he wanted to experience the thrill of sky-diving one last time.

His first jump was seven years ago with his grandson, Buddy Haskins, of Lacey, who was stationed with the Army in Hawaii. After working 28 years in the tugboat business in Tacoma, Montgomery decided to take to the skies for a new adventure.

“He just had a blast – it was all he could talk about for the longest time,” Haskins said of the Hawaii jump. “He might have even lost his dentures on the way down.”

Montgomery did the tandem jump alone in Hawaii, but this time he wanted family by his side.

“There are four generations and it all started with me,” he said.

He was joined by his daughter, Donna Haskins, 60, of Wenatchee; grandson Buddy Haskins, who is slated to be deployed to Afghanistan next year; and great-granddaughter Samera Ramey, 19, of Wenatchee.