The time President Bush went skydiving in Arizona

The first time President George H. W. Bush bailed out of a plane, it was from a Navy torpedo bomber — and it was on fire.

The second time was in Yuma, more than 50 years later, but this time, he planned it.

On Sept. 2, 1944, Bush was on a bombing raid over Japanese-occupied Chichi Jima, an island 700 miles south of Tokyo. The planes were shot down and nine airmen escaped.

Only Bush survived.

In February 1997, the former president told the story in front of 800 skydivers at a United States Parachute Association symposium in Houston. He said when he was 20, he vowed he would jump again someday.

He was 72 when he told the skydivers of the promise to himself.

The next day, USPA’s executive director Chris Needels, who had been on Bush’s National Security Council staff, put together a team of volunteers.

They would plan a jump at the Yuma Proving Ground, a parachute training base and winter home of the Golden Knights, the Army’s elite parachute squad.

Joe Jennings, an Emmy-award winning skydiving cameraman from Palos Verdes, Calif., was included. He had trained in Arizona.

In Yuma, Bush received seven hours of training over two days. He studied the curriculum and doggedly drilled emergency procedures.

At 8 a.m. on March 25, 1997, Bush spent an hour reviewing before he pulled on a jumpsuit and helmet.

Jennings shook hands with Bush. The former president wasn’t nervous, Jennings said.

He headed to the plane, stopping to kiss his wife. Jennings was touched by their regard for one another.

“This is his dream,” Barbara Bush told Jennings.