Army’s first airborne fish: Paratrooper brings ‘Willy Makeit’ on final jump

An Army paratrooper’s selfie of his last jump — made while holding his pet fish — is making waves on social media.

Spc. Matthew Tattersall, 23, whose enlistment ends next month, wanted to make his last jump memorable, so he took a friend Saturday along for a photo op: his pet beta fish named Willy MakeIt, Army Times reported.

“The picture got way more popular than I thought it would,” Spc. Tattersall told the Times. “I figured it’d get some likes, but I didn’t think it would be as big as it did.”

The night before the jump, Spc. Tattersall went to Wal-Mart and bought the fish, putting it in water bottle with a few holes poked through the top “so he could breathe.”

On the day of the jump, he kept the fish in his pocket until the right moment, making the jump from the C-17 and taking the selfie as he fell to the ground under the canopy of his parachute.

The photo quickly went viral on “U.S. Army W.T.F.! Moments,” a Facebook page popular with service members, garnering over 15,000 likes and nearly 4,000 shares.

But his commanders at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, weren’t nearly as impressed.

Spc. Tattersall said he is still waiting for the final outcome of his actions but has already written a 1,000-word essay on the importance of airborne safety and professionalism in the Army, the Times reported.

He admitted that the stunt wasn’t “all that safe or professional” but said he has no regrets.

“It was worth it,” he told the Times. “I’m fully willing to embrace any consequences that come of it, and I hope they’re lenient. I hope they can look past the negative aspects to taking the picture in terms of safety and professionalism.”