SASless,
now there is a thought ! I bet more than one trooper has dreamed of doing such a thing. By my experience and reckoning the Colonel ,if he went out early, could at the very maximum, have left two minutes early if he departed as soon as the para door was open.. Given a drop speed of around 120kts this at most would put him four miles from the DZ impact point. Nowhere near the twenty miles quoted.
If the incident did occur it is far more likely he went out at 'Red On' about five seconds before the 'Green On'. This has happened as the troops are so keen to get out of the a/c. You really have to hold on to them once the para door is open and any relaxation of grip and they are gone.
Never happened on my watch thankfully as the paperwork involved in these things would decimate a forest.