For only the second time in his entire career as a pilot Garret found himself having to eject from a fighter. The canopy tore itself away from the fuselage as the explosive bolts that held it in place blew away and then with a loud bang his seat was catapulted from the top of the jet at a 45 degree angle. The seat's rocket engines kicked to life and rudely threw the man into the lowest reaches of the stratosphere as the aircraft he had been piloting plummeted toward the ground below and once the rockets lost their fuel source he too found himself free falling but only for a split second before the drogue chute deployed and the pilot and chair were forced into an upright position with such force that Jones lost consciousness.
It could have only been a few seconds since he had lost consciousness but after blinking himself back into awareness from the fog he realized he was in a predicament. The main chute had deployed but the seat's separator had failed to initialize, there was too much weight and while the nylon fabric was holding up it was unable to slow the descent of both man and chair and sea level was approaching quickly. He needed to act or die. Garret did the first thing he could think of, it was probably the worst idea possible aside from saying a prayer and trusting Jesus to save him but Garret carried a folding survival knife clipped to his suit in case of emergency and this counted as one for sure; he opened the knife and slashed the strap around his waste that held him too the chair. Next his the strap around his left leg, he held his breath and tried to be as steady as he could as he quickly but gingerly slipped the blade between his flight suit and the strap without cutting himself and then sawing through to free his leg. Suddenly the seat fell away from the pilot but his right leg was still attached by the other strap and the whole weight of the 130 pound ejection seat was being held up by it- Garret felt a tug and heard something pop but the adrenaline was already pumping so hard he didn't feel a thing.
Reaching down against the force of the wind rushing up and the weight on his leg pulling him apart Garret tried to slash at the strap still clinging too him. In a desperate and panicked act he tried to get the knife between his thigh and the strap once again but misjudged, the knife penetrated the flight suit and the flesh below and this time he felt pain. With an agonized scream Garret did the first thing he could think of and did what under most circumstances was unthinkable - pulled the knife up through his own flesh and then sawing through the strap, the seat was finally freed and began to freefall while Garret rapidly descended before drifting 'gently' to the ground below. He chose to lay where he landed after he detached the suit and wait for help.
