Retired Marine challenges himself with skydiving

As Col. John Bates is free-falling from an altitude of 14,000 feet, he is overcome by a sense of peace and focus that is unlike anything else he’s experienced.

“There’s so many things going on in life. You’re trying to absorb a whole lot of different things at the same time,” he said. “When you’re skydiving, that’s the one time you’re concentrating on a singular thought to make sure you do it right and survive.”

The 70-year-old Kailua skydiver has leaped about 3,000 times from death-defying altitudes since earning his basic airborne jump wings from the Marine Corps in 1988 and 10 years later — at age 53 — attending military free-fall school with colleagues in their late teens and early 20s.

“I was the oldest person in uniform to go through at that time,” Bates said. “Sure, they gave me a hard time. They would call me pappy and old man and things like that. But after I made my first jump, I thought, ‘Wow, I really want to do this.’”

He started sports jumping shortly after and has since become a member of the international organization Skydivers Over Sixty World Record Team. This year he joined Jumpers Over Seventy, a group that gathers from around the world to try to set new Guinness world records every April in Perris Valley, Calif. Bates was part of a team that set a world record in 2012, with 60 people over 60 jumping from 18,500 feet. He hopes to set another world record this year.

Bates found his passion for his country — and, ultimately, skydiving — after dropping out of college and enlisting in the Marine Corps in the mid-1960s in the heat of the Vietnam War. He was in eight major combat operations and seriously wounded in battle three times — grenade shrapnel to his left knee and leg, a punji stake wound through his left foot and a machine-gun wound through his chest, which required the removal of most of his right lung. No longer fit for the Marines, he was medically retired at 21 and went back to school to complete his undergraduate and master’s degrees in two fields.

But that wasn’t to be the end of his military career. After more than seven years in retirement and college degrees in hand, Bates appealed to the Marine Corps to allow him to compete for commissioning as an officer. At age 30 he returned to Camp Pendleton in Southern California as a platoon commander and held command at every level over the next 30 years.

“You always have to look at what your options are. I could either become a ward of the state and get something like $300 a month in disability, or I could go back to school, get a couple degrees and petition the Marine Corps to come back in as an officer,” Bates said. “I had to train really, really hard to prove to them that I would not be a physical liability. I can’t imagine what I’d be doing now if it weren’t for the Marines. Whatever it is, it wouldn’t have been anywhere as rewarding.”

Determined to return to active duty and compete with his much younger counterparts, Bates worked to get into the best shape of his life, running competitively in long-distance races and becoming co-holder in 1985 of the American record for running 146 miles from Bad Water, Calif., the lowest point on the mainland, to the crest of Mount Whitney, the nation’s highest summit with an elevation of more than 14,000 feet.

The avid skydiver has since completed 52 marathons and 11 ultramarathons (which are longer than the standard 26.2 miles) and finished in the top third of Ironman Hawaii in 1982.

Bates was required to retire from the military in 2005 when he turned 60, but his passion for skydiving, which was part of his duties as a Marine, remained. He eventually became a tandem skydiving and free-fall instructor and now shoots skydiving videos.

Following his military service, Bates also was chief operating officer of the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center and, later, executive director of the Honolulu Armed Services YMCA.

Today he spends much of his free time working with wounded warriors and parachuting into NASCAR races, rodeos, golf tournaments and other events. His team, called the Flying Leathernecks, is scheduled to skydive to Kailua beach on the Fourth of July.

“It’s just been my lifestyle for so long. Pushing the limits is what I’ve always done,” Bates said. “As long as I’m physically able, I will continue to do so. If I had a choice, I would’ve stayed on active duty. I’m having far more fun than most kids my age.”