![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635658465896866041-fish2jpeg.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nTattersall’s fish, “Willie Did MakeIt,” survived his first jump. It will probably be the fish’s last.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Spc. Matthew Tattersall<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n He and his friends had long talked about doing something special or unique for their last jump, but “no one actually went through with it,” he said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So when his turn came, “I wanted to make it awesome, and I did just that,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the day of the jump, no one knew what Tattersall was planning, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As he jumped from the C-17 and fell to the ground under the canopy of his parachute, Tattersall took a quick selfie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was careful to make sure no other jumpers were nearby, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tattersall and Willy MakeIt made it safely to the ground, and the hardy fish earned a middle name. He’s now Willy Did MakeIt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tattersall, who will spend his evenings and weekends through May 9 doing everything from cleaning hallways to moving boxes, said he is relieved that he will be able to transition out of the Army as scheduled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tattersall is expected to start his transition leave on May 20, and he has a job lined up to begin May 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I’m just relieved I’ll be able to go home on the 21st,” he said. “That’s really all I was worried about in the first place.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also wishes Willy had been punished as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “He thinks that this is the funniest thing in the world, and it’s not,” Tattersall said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The paratrooper who jumped with his pet fish has received an Article 15 and 12 days of extra duty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[505],"class_list":["post-15985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"TOVAPBIPEJC5FB4IZLNYYJVEOQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2015\/04\/28\/more-punishment-for-paratrooper-who-jumped-with-fish\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n