WEST CHESTER, Ohio — A solo Army Golden Knights parachutist honored a comrade’s dream by landing on the high school football field where hundreds of mourners gathered for his funeral Saturday, a week after he was involved in a deadly accident at the Chicago Air and Water Show.
The military skydiver, joined by a team of professionals, fulfilled the wish of U.S. Army Master Sgt. Corey Hood, who had long wanted to parachute on to the field where he played as a youth.
Parachutists fly over the Ohio high school football field Saturday, during the funeral of Master Sgt. Corey Hood. Hood, 32, the Army Golden Knights parachute team member who died Aug. 16 after a mid-air collission with another parachutist during a a performance at the Chicago Air and Water Show. Madison Schmidt/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP
“He was highly competitive and didn’t want to lose at anything,” Larry Cox, his high school football coach, told hundreds of mourners who gathered in the stands at Lakota West High School in the Cincinnati. suburb of West Chester, Ohio — Hood’s hometown. “I think it correlated with why he became such a great soldier.”
Hood, 32, died Aug. 16, a day after colliding with a Navy parachutist during a jump at the Chicago show.
Before joining the Golden Knights, the army’s elite parachute performance team, Hood had served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Highly decorated, he was awarded two Bronze Stars for heroism.
“Corey would run toward gunfire, not away from it,” his childhood friend Adam Price told mourners.
Hood rose quickly through the ranks and made sergeant first class at a young age. The Army on Monday posthumously promoted him to master sergeant.
Hood was buried during a private ceremony after the funeral.
Team FastTrax and a solo member of the Army Golden Knights performed a tribute jump during the funeral Saturday for Master Sgt. Corey Hood, a West Chester, Ohio, native and parachute team member who died after a skydiving accident Aug. 15 at the Chicago Air and Water Show. Photo by Greg Lynch / Journal-News
