jhungary
MILITARY PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2012
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0149 - Somewhere over Georgia
A single ship of C-5 laden with 45 jumper, a stick they called, it was pitch dark over the south-eastern skyline, with a few light to be seen reflecting the pitch black skies. I sat on the seat furthest away of the tailgate.
It was a night jump, with TOE load, also known as full combat jump. I sat on the jump seat glazing around, people are talking, joking, some are smoking to calm the nerve. While you can look at their faces with the dimmed lighting on board the C-5, but you can't hear what they are saying. The 4 Jet engines outside drown any dialogue, it was like looking at the TV muting the sound.
Looking down, my feet was shaking, trying to hide this by tapping my feet into beats. I try to smoothen my backpack, my rugsack and my chute, to no avail, as the 75 pound tandem load would just push down every time i push them up. Press the mag release on my rifle, rack the charging handle so make sure the weapon was cold before i jump, then jam the mag back into the rifle, looking satisfied.
"Lieutenant" The jump master yelled. "Are you scare?"
"I can hardly hear him, but then I quirkily replied "No, are you?"
"I am not the one jumping out you know." He lean closer and yell at my ear.
"I know, lucky bastard" I smiled at him.
0156 - 3 minutes to drop zone.
At this point, the light inside the cabin came on. You know the drill, you try your best trying to stand up, with 95 pounds gear and weighting 180 pound myself, it's hardly an easy task. Plus the turbulence does not help one bit.
Eventually someone on your aisle would be able to stand up, then they will bend down as best that they can and offer you a hand, after a few second of struggle, i manage to get up.
"3 minutes to drop zone" Jump master yelled out, putting out 3 fingers out of his hand signalling there are 3 minutes to jump.
"Hook up" He yelled, at this point, you slice your D ring on the static line on top of the C5. When you move, the line move with you.
"Equipment Check" - That is the time you play grab *** with the fella in front of you, only this time the person sit next to me, and now in front of you is a woman. Woman were allowed to go thru Airborne Course as part of Force supplement program, many women are master parachutist.
I check her chute, can't barely see the thing, check all the wire and see if any wire are damage, well, you can't open the chute and see if that's work, you know when you are out of the flight, kind of like a surprise bonus to you. Then i tap her shoulder, she look back.
Then you also look at the yourselves, see if the rifle is strapped onto your body, see if the reserve chute looks okay. Normally a static jump can happen anywhere between 1000 to 12000 feet AGL, but hardly gone over 5000, mostly between 1000 or 1500 to 3500, this is a 3500 jump, so a reserve chute is wore, but jumping from 1000 to 2000 ft AGL, you can do without your reserve as well, simply if the main one don't work, you don't have enough time to pull your reserve anyway.
"Sound off" - One by one, people are yelling out that you and the person in front of you are okay and ready to jump.
"1 minute" At this point, you are really scared. All sort of things going thru your mind, did I did my chute right? The paracord is strong enough? What if i fainted when i felt down? What if i missed the DZ? and so on. That 1 minute seems like forever, you try to occupy you time, you start counting the second. Then
0200 - Over DZ, Somewhere over Georgia Proving Ground
Once that hand hit the mark, the plane just lit up, flashing, it is as if the plane is on fire and alert you all to get the hack out of there.
"Go-Go-Go" The guy near the cargo door yell. In a jump, each member wait for 6 second to jump to make some distance over the last guy that got out. Otherwise it's no fun, even dangerous to crash mid drop. From having a broken nose to death on impact by tangling two chute. You look in front, you count 6 second in your mind, then you go.
Jumping part is easy, jumping out is not. What you need to do is, you just need to take a step forward when you are at the gate, lean forward and your weight will drop you off the plane, then the jet blast will blow you away from the plane, but how do you take one step forward into nothing and lean forward? That's kind of a trick.
Some people need pushing (They do push you off), some people just close their eyes and make a leap of faith, while some people hang on to anything. Don't forget, if you refuse to jump, you fail the course, so what you do is, you try to best yourselves and build up your courage to that moment, and leap forward.
After your static line pulled away from the aircraft, what it does was the line will still attach to the C-5 via the D Clamp, but the other end flew out from your pack, effectively pulling the chute for you. Most people look up when you feel a sudden pull back (Where the chute deployed) and see if the chute is intact and deployed in a good way, i choose not to, well, no point looking up if you are not dropping like a stone, even if you are, what do you expect to see??
Every one take the same amount of time to descend to the ground, well, more or less, it kind of depend on the wind that blows. If a sudden wind change blow you away the drop zone, you will then need to guide/glide your chute back on course, which kills the downward momentum, you hang longer.
What i did was trying to look up straight, lucky things was, it was dark anyway, so you can't see shit, you don't know when will you touch the ground, or you don't even feel you are falling, beside the wind brust up against you. Later i would found out to be a big mistake, as you don't know where you are landing, and worse, you are not prepare for the landing. You just fall.
The moment you hit the ground is a very weird moment. Imagine from weightlessness to full gravity. The moment you touch down you don't feel a thing, as if your leg wasn't even there, well, i mean the weight of your leg. Then when the chute started to collapse, suddenly the whole body weight and your load compact you into the ground, it was like suddenly you got hammered into the ground and you ain't and the reaction force push back, it would a big mistake if you are not prepare for this.
Now on the ground, still with my harness on. The first thing you do is to unhook the chute, you unhook them by tapping the 2 quick release. Then the next 10 minutes you start orientate yourselves with the surrounding, you rack the charging handle and now your rifle is hot. Then you start collect your fellow stick member and you would move off to your objective.
Being in the Airborne school, they teach you more then how to jump out of a moving aircraft, but they also teach you how to be alone, how to deal with being alone (Sounded like a dating website), how to achieve your objective alone and the leadership, strength (both mental and physical) and tactics to contact operation behind enemy line, without friendly support.
Airborne school are open for everyone, and to all other branch too, sometime you are jumping out with men and women, Marine, Soldier, Sailor and Airmen/Airwomen. Everyone have a stick in the Airborne school, but what they can get out of is a totally different story.
For a soldier like me, it would be first the Airborne School, then you went to either Sapper or Ranger School and the final destination always are the same -Special Force. However, most of other branch trained in Airborne School goes directly to Special Force, some are non-combatant, some just pay (Yes, you can pay them to get in) to have fun.
Airborne is actually a lost art to the Army now, compare to the striving period of WW2. Today Airborne troop used like a regular light infantry division, and most of the duty had been taken over by Air Assault. Today Airborne are almost Special Force exclusive event, and the Operation Overlord and Operation Market Garden is almost a thing in the pass. We even scale down the Unit that are Airborne Certified. Today US Army only have 1 Airborne Division (82nd Airborne Division), 2 Brigades (173 Airborne Brigade and 4 BCT/25 INF) and Ranger/Special Force element. Ironically, the 101st "Airborne" Division that made famous during WW2 is no longer an Airborne Division, however the lineage stick, some 101 member are airborne trained.
0213 - Assembly Area
Finally, picked up the last man in the platoon, move on to the assembly point, have a serious discuss with the jump, the condition of the soldier and we all agreed that this is a good jump, well, strictly speaking, a jump without casualty is a good jump, can't say the same with combat jump.
A combat jump is an airborne intrusion into enemy territories in war. Soldier participate a combat jump will receive a jump star in his jump wing. The more combat jump you did, the more you were respected. While as i said before, the golden ages of Airborne is way passed. There are some 30 Combat Ops that award Jump star to paratrooper since WW2. The last one is OEF when the 173 jump to seize an airfield in Afghanistan.
0234 - Fort Benning - Georgia
After everyone is accounted for, we are riding home with the transport the command send us, so after about 2 hours of adrenaline pumping parachuting experience, we are trucking back to the base. On the way, you can see the smile on the trooper face. It is something people achieved and something of a right you can brag about. I mean, how many people know how it feel dangle in the air 3000 feet's above ground? That's an experience you can never forget, and what's more, you only need to do 4 more jump like that, then
"Welcome to the Airborne"
@levina @Slav Defence @Manticore @Neptune @Oscar @Horus @WebMaster @DESERT FIGHTER
A single ship of C-5 laden with 45 jumper, a stick they called, it was pitch dark over the south-eastern skyline, with a few light to be seen reflecting the pitch black skies. I sat on the seat furthest away of the tailgate.
It was a night jump, with TOE load, also known as full combat jump. I sat on the jump seat glazing around, people are talking, joking, some are smoking to calm the nerve. While you can look at their faces with the dimmed lighting on board the C-5, but you can't hear what they are saying. The 4 Jet engines outside drown any dialogue, it was like looking at the TV muting the sound.
Looking down, my feet was shaking, trying to hide this by tapping my feet into beats. I try to smoothen my backpack, my rugsack and my chute, to no avail, as the 75 pound tandem load would just push down every time i push them up. Press the mag release on my rifle, rack the charging handle so make sure the weapon was cold before i jump, then jam the mag back into the rifle, looking satisfied.
"Lieutenant" The jump master yelled. "Are you scare?"
"I can hardly hear him, but then I quirkily replied "No, are you?"
"I am not the one jumping out you know." He lean closer and yell at my ear.
"I know, lucky bastard" I smiled at him.
0156 - 3 minutes to drop zone.
At this point, the light inside the cabin came on. You know the drill, you try your best trying to stand up, with 95 pounds gear and weighting 180 pound myself, it's hardly an easy task. Plus the turbulence does not help one bit.
Eventually someone on your aisle would be able to stand up, then they will bend down as best that they can and offer you a hand, after a few second of struggle, i manage to get up.
"3 minutes to drop zone" Jump master yelled out, putting out 3 fingers out of his hand signalling there are 3 minutes to jump.
"Hook up" He yelled, at this point, you slice your D ring on the static line on top of the C5. When you move, the line move with you.
"Equipment Check" - That is the time you play grab *** with the fella in front of you, only this time the person sit next to me, and now in front of you is a woman. Woman were allowed to go thru Airborne Course as part of Force supplement program, many women are master parachutist.
I check her chute, can't barely see the thing, check all the wire and see if any wire are damage, well, you can't open the chute and see if that's work, you know when you are out of the flight, kind of like a surprise bonus to you. Then i tap her shoulder, she look back.
Then you also look at the yourselves, see if the rifle is strapped onto your body, see if the reserve chute looks okay. Normally a static jump can happen anywhere between 1000 to 12000 feet AGL, but hardly gone over 5000, mostly between 1000 or 1500 to 3500, this is a 3500 jump, so a reserve chute is wore, but jumping from 1000 to 2000 ft AGL, you can do without your reserve as well, simply if the main one don't work, you don't have enough time to pull your reserve anyway.
"Sound off" - One by one, people are yelling out that you and the person in front of you are okay and ready to jump.
"1 minute" At this point, you are really scared. All sort of things going thru your mind, did I did my chute right? The paracord is strong enough? What if i fainted when i felt down? What if i missed the DZ? and so on. That 1 minute seems like forever, you try to occupy you time, you start counting the second. Then
0200 - Over DZ, Somewhere over Georgia Proving Ground
Once that hand hit the mark, the plane just lit up, flashing, it is as if the plane is on fire and alert you all to get the hack out of there.
"Go-Go-Go" The guy near the cargo door yell. In a jump, each member wait for 6 second to jump to make some distance over the last guy that got out. Otherwise it's no fun, even dangerous to crash mid drop. From having a broken nose to death on impact by tangling two chute. You look in front, you count 6 second in your mind, then you go.
Jumping part is easy, jumping out is not. What you need to do is, you just need to take a step forward when you are at the gate, lean forward and your weight will drop you off the plane, then the jet blast will blow you away from the plane, but how do you take one step forward into nothing and lean forward? That's kind of a trick.
Some people need pushing (They do push you off), some people just close their eyes and make a leap of faith, while some people hang on to anything. Don't forget, if you refuse to jump, you fail the course, so what you do is, you try to best yourselves and build up your courage to that moment, and leap forward.
After your static line pulled away from the aircraft, what it does was the line will still attach to the C-5 via the D Clamp, but the other end flew out from your pack, effectively pulling the chute for you. Most people look up when you feel a sudden pull back (Where the chute deployed) and see if the chute is intact and deployed in a good way, i choose not to, well, no point looking up if you are not dropping like a stone, even if you are, what do you expect to see??
Every one take the same amount of time to descend to the ground, well, more or less, it kind of depend on the wind that blows. If a sudden wind change blow you away the drop zone, you will then need to guide/glide your chute back on course, which kills the downward momentum, you hang longer.
What i did was trying to look up straight, lucky things was, it was dark anyway, so you can't see shit, you don't know when will you touch the ground, or you don't even feel you are falling, beside the wind brust up against you. Later i would found out to be a big mistake, as you don't know where you are landing, and worse, you are not prepare for the landing. You just fall.
The moment you hit the ground is a very weird moment. Imagine from weightlessness to full gravity. The moment you touch down you don't feel a thing, as if your leg wasn't even there, well, i mean the weight of your leg. Then when the chute started to collapse, suddenly the whole body weight and your load compact you into the ground, it was like suddenly you got hammered into the ground and you ain't and the reaction force push back, it would a big mistake if you are not prepare for this.
Now on the ground, still with my harness on. The first thing you do is to unhook the chute, you unhook them by tapping the 2 quick release. Then the next 10 minutes you start orientate yourselves with the surrounding, you rack the charging handle and now your rifle is hot. Then you start collect your fellow stick member and you would move off to your objective.
Being in the Airborne school, they teach you more then how to jump out of a moving aircraft, but they also teach you how to be alone, how to deal with being alone (Sounded like a dating website), how to achieve your objective alone and the leadership, strength (both mental and physical) and tactics to contact operation behind enemy line, without friendly support.
Airborne school are open for everyone, and to all other branch too, sometime you are jumping out with men and women, Marine, Soldier, Sailor and Airmen/Airwomen. Everyone have a stick in the Airborne school, but what they can get out of is a totally different story.
For a soldier like me, it would be first the Airborne School, then you went to either Sapper or Ranger School and the final destination always are the same -Special Force. However, most of other branch trained in Airborne School goes directly to Special Force, some are non-combatant, some just pay (Yes, you can pay them to get in) to have fun.
Airborne is actually a lost art to the Army now, compare to the striving period of WW2. Today Airborne troop used like a regular light infantry division, and most of the duty had been taken over by Air Assault. Today Airborne are almost Special Force exclusive event, and the Operation Overlord and Operation Market Garden is almost a thing in the pass. We even scale down the Unit that are Airborne Certified. Today US Army only have 1 Airborne Division (82nd Airborne Division), 2 Brigades (173 Airborne Brigade and 4 BCT/25 INF) and Ranger/Special Force element. Ironically, the 101st "Airborne" Division that made famous during WW2 is no longer an Airborne Division, however the lineage stick, some 101 member are airborne trained.
0213 - Assembly Area
Finally, picked up the last man in the platoon, move on to the assembly point, have a serious discuss with the jump, the condition of the soldier and we all agreed that this is a good jump, well, strictly speaking, a jump without casualty is a good jump, can't say the same with combat jump.
A combat jump is an airborne intrusion into enemy territories in war. Soldier participate a combat jump will receive a jump star in his jump wing. The more combat jump you did, the more you were respected. While as i said before, the golden ages of Airborne is way passed. There are some 30 Combat Ops that award Jump star to paratrooper since WW2. The last one is OEF when the 173 jump to seize an airfield in Afghanistan.
0234 - Fort Benning - Georgia
After everyone is accounted for, we are riding home with the transport the command send us, so after about 2 hours of adrenaline pumping parachuting experience, we are trucking back to the base. On the way, you can see the smile on the trooper face. It is something people achieved and something of a right you can brag about. I mean, how many people know how it feel dangle in the air 3000 feet's above ground? That's an experience you can never forget, and what's more, you only need to do 4 more jump like that, then
"Welcome to the Airborne"
@levina @Slav Defence @Manticore @Neptune @Oscar @Horus @WebMaster @DESERT FIGHTER
