Ken Dobler, a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie, celebrated his 70th birthday by skydiving at Skydive Toledo.
“The motivation is that it keeps me young. I’ve already reserved my 80th and 90th birthday so I’ve got these appointments I made with myself that I’ve got to meet. It keeps me going — that adrenaline rush,” Dobler said.
After serving in the Marine Corps on the special forces during the Vietnam War Dobler said he’s jumped out of a plane dozens of times and doesn’t have plans to stop.
“I did something similar to skydiving in my past. I was in the Marine Corps, Special Forces Recon. I didn’t jump again after I got out in 1973,” he said.
Skydiving was how he spent his 50th birthday as well, jumping in Shelton, and said he plans to continue his unique traditions on upcoming birthdays. He said his family thinks it’s crazy but they aren’t surprised that skydiving is something that he wants to do.
Dobler currently lives in Rochester but grew up in Chehalis, graduating from W.F. West High School in 1968. He also attended Centralia College and Evergreen State College. He said he was the first one in his family to go to college and earn a bachelor’s degree.
He described his experience with skydiving as exhilarating and scary. He jumped while strapped to a skydiving instructor so he didn’t have to worry about pulling the parachute. They jumped from the plane at about 15,000 feet and free fell for about 7,000 feet until the parachute was pulled.
“I thought I was going to have my eyes closed. When you’re standing in the plane looking down, you’re thinking ‘wow, that’s a long way to fall.’ After I started falling — I was so intrigued by what the Earth looked like falling from 15,000 feet,” he said.
His actual birthday was on Sept. 12 but at the time the skies were clouded with smoke from regional wildfires so he waited until Sept. 20, when the sky had cleared up.
It was partly cloudy the day Dobler jumped so he said that the next time he is going to plan is jump for earlier in the year.
“When I was younger I had really no fear. It didn’t bother me — jumping out of planes and heights — things I did in the Marine Corps. It’s exciting. I mean I didn’t even care if he pulled the chute or not — I was just having a blast,” he said.
Dobler said that after his veteran discount, it cost about $200 and he added on the video and photo package for $100.
Dobler convinced former pastor and friend from St. Mark’s Lutheran Church Alvin Borg, who is in his mid-70s, to make the jump with him. Dobler’s nephew Mason Parke also made the jump on Sunday.
He has a trip to Amsterdam planned for July of next year and said he is considering going skydiving while he’s there.
Dobler said that he wants to challenge anyone from his W.F. West graduating class of 1968 to skydive with him and that if anyone wants to skydive he will go with them.
“Once you get up momentum — once you get to the rate of descent — then it’s just a feeling of weightlessness, other than the feeling of wind in your face, of course, and the view is spectacular,” he explained.
