Phil Mayfield, D-2629, first joined USPA in 1969. He made his first jump on March 9 of that year with four of his teenage buddies in Cedar Hill, Texas, and never stopped. Exactly 50 years later, he made a 2-way formation skydive with his son, Aaron, at Skydive Spaceland-Dallas in Whitewright, Texas, to celebrate the occasion. In the past, he’s also had the opportunity to jump with his other son, Jake.

Mayfield, who now has 1,620 jumps (and about 50 BASE jumps) and is an AFF instructor, made more than 1,000 jumps under round canopies before switching to ram-air designs in 1977. Over the years, Mayfield became an accomplished formation skydiver and competitor. In 1971, he was on the first 8-way skydive in Texas, and in 1972, his team V-Mills Texans took the bronze in the first 10-way competition at Nationals. Mayfield was also a member of the teams who set the 36-way and 45-way world records for largest formation skydive.