Day: 15 April 2009

Day: 15 April 2009

Weather report: low 70’s and humidity at 93%

Well last night I crashed after I got a shower and did not go get my donuts. Maybe today I will. Our platoon is starting to get more focused and oriented to falling into their assigned stick. It has made our lives a little easier.

PT! Oh man, did we do PT. They showed me and made me do things I have never seen in my 11 years of military training. They ran us to an area named the “PIT”. It is a covered area with dime sized river stones. It is pretty soft to land in and not too bad of physical training. Today our training consisted of three portions: 15 minutes, 10 minutes, and 5 minutes. The exercises conducted were: side straddle hop, push-ups (close hand, wide hand, and normal), flutter kicks, leg lifts, roll left, roll right, forward combat rolls, over head clap, toe touches, push-ups with our feet near our hands and it is tough, cross-country skier, and the ski jumper. They smoked us pretty good. We had one soldier pass out and he had to seek medical attention. It was 42 degrees at that time and it takes a lot to make that happen. When finished, with PT, we set-up all the equipment for the training day. The 34’ tower!

Back at the room and our next formation is at 0845hrs. Helmets and canteens, ready to train!

Formation and move out! We headed for the 34’ towers. After the PT this morning we had one soldier, QUIT. They decided airborne was not for them and told the Sergeant Airborne that they were finished. After getting to the towers we broke off into our sticks to dismount the mock C-130 aircraft at 34’ with parachute harness, reserve parachute, and attached to risers connected to some pretty big cable. I was assigned as the NCOIC for the dismount area know as the mound and had ten E-4’s and below there to ensure everyone was unhooked and safely taken off the cable risers. It was a great opportunity for me to get to know some of the soldiers in my stick and spend some time with the Joe’s. It was my turn to exit the tower. I was hooked-up and ready to go. First, before you can enter the tower you have to complete the exit door properly drill like we trained on yesterday. “Proper aircraft exit and count”! At that point you are allowed to climb the steps to the top. Once at the top you simulate shuffling to the exit door and holding onto the static line. (The static line is the line attached to you chute that pulls it out upon exiting the aircraft) Once the two jumper’s closes to the door reach the exit they are attached to the cable. The commands are: two short and one short. This refers to the static line that has been placed behind your head to keep your neck from getting caught in it during your decent to the hill. It is the jumper’s responsibility to hook up the short side and the jumpmaster will attach the long side. Once completed, the jumpmaster will say, “stand by”, give you a slap on the buttock and say, “GO”! This means get your butt out the door or they will help you out. Today one of the soldier decided he was not quite ready to exit the building and froze in the exit door, the jumpmaster pushed him about and said, “AIRBORNE”. On my first orientation jump I was calm and ready to do this. When I got to the door there was no problem. The rappel tower at Clark’s Hill Training Center is taller, so no worries and I trust my equipment. I shouted, “November 264”, that is my roster number, slap, GO! I exited the tower and let my hands ride up toward the top of my reserve chute. The sergeant airborne told me that it was a good exit, but I needed to keep my hands on the ends of the reserve so not to deploy the reserve accidentally. By-the-way all the reserves we are using are dummies, they are only used for training or they would be going off all day. He said that your hands cradling the ends are the only proper way and the other way is called “puppyen’ the chute”. We then broke for lunch, so I had to take all the equipment off just to turn right back around and put it all back on. We had MRE’s for lunch today and I had Chili Mac, it is one of the better MRE’s to eat. Harnessed back up and checked off by the sergeant airborne and I am on my way back to the mock door and up the tower. My second jump, good until I left the platform, my helmet slammed onto the bridge of my nose and my feet came apart. This was a no go, but it was only orientation, no worries. My next four jumps were good-to-go (satisfactory jumps). After the stick had completed all their jumps and receiving four good exits we cleaned the area.

We have successfully completed the tower and had all GO’s! Amazing! Most classes lose several soldiers at the 34’ tower. We then headed to a shaded area and received a block of instruction on malfunctions and how to correct them. There are two types of malfunctions: total malfunction and partial malfunction. The total malfunction means you chute will not open and you MUST pull your reserve chute. The partial malfunction means your chute opens and you may not need to pull your reserve. It order to activate your reserve you will need to do the following: exit the aircraft, count to 4, if your parachute has not deployed at this time you must grasp the handle on the left side of the reserve, turn your head to the left and pull up and away with the reserve handle and drop it. It will deploy from your chest area and you will land safely. Points of performance for exiting and aircraft: proper exit and count, check canopy and gain canopy control, keep a sharp look-out throughout your decent, prepare to land, and land. During the check canopy and gain canopy control; you must look up and observe your chute to ensure that there are no issues with your chute, if so pull the reserve and ensure you make a safe landing.

After that training was complete, we went to the pit and had a block of instruction on PLF’s. Parachute Landing Fall’s! There is a five point process to the land. I will try to explain it now and go over it again tomorrow to ensure I have put it in here correctly. One, land on the balls of the feet; two, hit the calf muscle; three, hit the thigh muscle; four, hit the buttock; and finally hit the pull-up muscle. This is the proper way to land. I guess we will figure it out more tomorrow when we actually do it. They also told us how to slip the risers to make our landings softer, if there is such a thing. Falling between 18 to 22 feet per second is going to hurt and you fall at a speed of 12.6 to 14.2 mph. It should take between 35 and 45 seconds to land while exiting from 1250’. That is the height we will jump from during airborne school. To slip the risers you will need to pull two of the four, two in front and two in back, to drift you into the wind and slow your decent. The risers are sectioned as such: if you grasp the two in the front that is a front slip; the back and front on the right a right slip; you get the point. We will work on that on Monday. For tomorrow and the rest of the week I think is PLF’s.

Another short run back and dismissal formation. We were tasked with CQ duty until the end of the week. The E8 and E7 are got out of it again along with the two Major’s. All CPT’s and below along with all E6’s and below have to pull duty. Some of the E4 and below have to pull duty more than once. I remember those days. That is the only thing good about airborne so far. When the duty day is done so am I! I headed back to the room to check in with my family. I am going to the PX after I shower and send some post cards and a couple t-shirts home for my children. Hope they enjoy them. I will restock my fridge and get some sunscreen, my face and neck are fried, I also need Chap Stick the wind is a butt kicker here so far, guessing it is the changing of the weather, or it might just be Ft. Benning. The weather is very unpredictable as I guess you have already figured out by reading this far.

Formation tomorrow at 0530hrs with FULL PT clothing, it is going to be cold. We shall see!

PULL-UPS for the day: 50