We were visited by a VXE-6 aeromedical rescue team that decided to leave the airplane before it landed..

Anyway, they had to get picked up by one means or another

This was not the first parachute jump at Pole...earlier ones by VXE-6 happened on Christmas Eve 1973, and in 1966. The very first jump was by SGT Richard J. Patton, USAF of the 1710th Aerial Port Squadron on November 22, 1956.

All these guys were serious professionals and knew what they were doing. Other NGA parachute jumpers at Pole more recently have not been in the same category. On December 7, 1997 (Pole time) six participants in a private expedition jumped out of a plane over the station. Two of these were Norwegians, and they did a "tandem jump" meaning they stayed together and used only one chute. The other four were an Austrian and three Americans. The Austrian and two Americans died from impact with the ice, one of them was former ASA carpenter Steve Mulholland who had worked at Pole. When the bodies were examined, two of the three jumpers were still in a state of free fall and had made no attempt to open their chutes. The reserve chute on the third jumper had just started to deploy; whether by his efforts or by ground impact, could not be determined.

The fourth jumper survived, but he didn't deploy his main chute either. He lived because was the only person carrying an AAD (altitude device which automatically deployed his reserve chute when he got too low). He survived and had to stumble into the station for help, commiseration, and body bags, as his plane landed. The sad story (from one of the surviving Norwegians) is here.