ANY PARATROOPERS?

[ron_c]

Does anyone else remember or saw back in Jump School at Ft. Benning, the full size wood carving of a Paratrooper?

A Black Hat Staff Sergeant was hand carving this from about a 4 foot wide solid piece of tree. He had finished it from about the waist up to the top of the helmet. The rest was rough shaped. He said it had taken him 6 years just to do what was finished.

I saw this in Oct. of 1965 and have tried to find out if or when it was finished and where it might be located. He said it was going to put on display after it was finished at Ft. Benning.

 

[Airborne423]

I jumped in 1974 at Benning. We jumped from the C-130 (up 3 and out 3) and the C-140, we walked out the door. I hollered Geronimo on the 2nd jump from the C-130. I remember we started jumping on the 3rd of June.
I was in the 12th Special Forces Reserve out of Arlington Ht's Illinois. i will never forget while I served in the regular Marine Corps doing Brig duty aboard the ship going over to Nam. At that time I was not Airborne, and we had some of the 173rd Airborne guys in the ships brig. I also remember giving one of the paratroopers a vitamin pill. I always wanted to find out if this 173rd Paratrooper made it back safely from Vietnam.

 

[Airborne423]

Airborne 423 again

Made a mistake about the Plane we walked out of at 1200 feet.
it was a C-141, and not a C-140.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

50 years for me, 49th Company at Fort Benning, January, 1969.
Jump School is about the only Army school where they teach you EVERYTHING you need to know, none of this "You'll get it in your unit" nonsense.

 

[REM 3200]

Jump pay was good!

Flight pay was better.

 

[amazingflapjack]

I remember reading an account from a Special forces guy who worked with "Nung" mercenaries in VN. They were known to be both loyal and resolute in character. He had them lined up in formation, and asked if any of them were jump qualified, and if so, they should form up on the other side, as they would be paid $10.00 more a month. Immediately, the whole assemblage moved over to the "Airborne" side. He said that it was clear to him that few if any of them were jump qualified, and that most of them had not even been in a fixed wing aircraft. So to sort things out, he announced that they would have a test jump. To his amazement, they all filed right onto the aircraft!

 

[amazingflapjack]

I remember reading an account from a Special forces guy who worked with "Nung" mercenaries in VN. They were known to be both loyal and resolute in character. He had them lined up in formation, and asked if any of them were jump qualified, and if so, they should form up on the other side, as they would be paid $10.00 more a month. Immediately, the whole assemblage moved over to the "Airborne" side. He said that it was clear to him that few if any of them were jump qualified, and that most of them had not even been in a fixed wing aircraft. So to sort things out, he announced that they would have a test jump. To his amazement, they all filed right onto the aircraft!

 

[Sistema1927]

My Dad enlisted in 1950, and volunteered for Airborne since his drill sergeant said that he would never make it. He served with the 508th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. He was always up for jumping, and would jump for some guys for a cut of their jump pay.

He proudly wore his wings and bloused jump boots in Class A's for his entire 21 year career, even when he wasn't actively assigned to an airborne unit.

Edited to add: As a young man, I did some sport jumping just to prove that I was half the man my Dad is. My service was in Armor, not a parachute big enough to drop an M60 tank and crew.

 

[Bozz10mm]

Does anyone else remember or saw back in Jump School at Ft. Benning, the full size wood carving of a Paratrooper?

A Black Hat Staff Sergeant was hand carving this from about a 4 foot wide solid piece of tree. He had finished it from about the waist up to the top of the helmet. The rest was rough shaped. He said it had taken him 6 years just to do what was finished.

I saw this in Oct. of 1965 and have tried to find out if or when it was finished and where it might be located. He said it was going to put on display after it was finished at Ft. Benning.

I went through jump school in October of 1968. I don't remember seeing the wooden sculpture. But that doesn't mean anything. I've forgotten a lot in the last 50 years.

 

[Bozz10mm]

Flight pay was better.

Jump pay was a windfall for me. As an E2, the $55 a month gave me an immediate 50% pay raise. Went from $101 a month to $156 a month while on active duty. What sucked was, in the Reserves/National Guard, Jump Pay was pro-rated. On a weekend your are paid the equivalent of 4 days active duty pay. On jump status, the Jump Pay was for, well 4 days. So we received about $7.30 a month instead of the $55.

We were still required to make the same amount of qualifying jumps as active duty troopers. For years, the jump pay for officers was twice that of enlisted, $110 per month. I think they finally changed that in the 1980's so that all received $110.

Anyone know what jump pay is these days? Still $110? BTW, I think it's called incentive pay now.

 

[Trooperdan]

He said fifty two jumps...in eight years.

That is not an unreasonable number! Only required to make one jump every 90 days and even then, you could "jump back" late to cover a previous non-jump period so it is theoretically possible to jump once in 5 months or so and remain on status.

 

[Steve912]

That is not an unreasonable number! Only required to make one jump every 90 days and even then, you could "jump back" late to cover a previous non-jump period so it is theoretically possible to jump once in 5 months or so and remain on status.

Roger that!

I had almost twice that in two years, and made an
erroneous assumption.

*doing pooooshups!!*

RLTW

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I knew a SSG King at Fort Bragg in 1969, he was quite disgruntled because he told me he had over 100 jumps but still wore Novice Wings, couldn't get a slot for Jumpmasters School. Said they gave all the slots to officers so they could punch their tickets.
At Fort Benning the instructors wore black hats, the Riggers red ones.

 

[Goldstar225]

I worked with two officers several years ago. One retired Army who had been airborne, the other retired Air Force who had been a C-130 loadmaster. During shift briefing one day they were talking about their military jobs. Army remarked that he was paid $150.00 a month jump pay to jump out of planes. The Air Force guy replied that he was paid $250.00 a month in flight pay to stay in the plane.

 

[jpage]

Does anyone remember a Sgt. Bloodburns from jump school, 1959-60 ?
I believe he was an instructor. My Pops told numerous stories about him, apparently he looked like Woody Strode.

 

[elm_creek_smith]

Never went Airborne. Seems they couldn't airdrop tanks.



The 82nd Airborne had an Armor battalion from 1968 to the early 90's. I served in the battalion as a staff officer and company commander from 82-85, graduated Jumpmaster school, and earned Master Airborne Wings.



Our tanks were M551A1 Sheridans delivered by Low Altitude Parachute Extraction. The tanks were mounted on skids inside a C130. The 130 came in at 6 feet, sometimes lower. A drogue chute pulled the tank out of the airplane. It dropped on the skid and slid down the LZ to a halt.

The Sheridan was NOT a tank. The army called it an Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle (AR/AAV). I was a tanker from M48A5 to all versions of the M60A1 to the M60A3/M60A3TTS to the M1. My last tank was an M1A2-CITV.



Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

 

[Steve912]

Our tanks were M551A1 Sheridans delivered by Low Altitude Parachute Extraction. The tanks were mounted on skids inside a C130. The 130 came in at 6 feet, sometimes lower. A drogue chute pulled the tank out of the airplane. It dropped on the skid and slid down the LZ to a halt. -- When it didn't hit something or catch a corner and roll. I wrote off several total losses in my time. In the late 80's there was a fatal accident causing a crash that killed some guys on the ground.

And no, we parachuted separately, didn't ride the tanks down.

I thought the 82d had toyed with dropping Sheridans, with
bad luck ("Can you air drop a Sheridan? Yes, once."), in the
Seventies.

There's a vid over on youtube showing Sheridans dropping (not
LAPESing)..."4 x M551 Sheridan Light Tanks LVAD C-5B Paradrop".

 

[Steve912]

Does anyone remember a Sgt. Bloodburns from jump school, 1959-60 ?
I believe he was an instructor. My Pops told numerous stories about him, apparently he looked like Woody Strode.

I only remember one cadre NCO from 1981...he was part of the
"housekeeping staff" that harassed us in the barracks and
marched us back and forth to the jump committee guys.

"Joo weel do pooshups to dee north, pooshups to dee south,
pooshups to dee east, and pooshups to dee west!"

Everybody called him Idi Amin. No idea what his actual name
was!

 

[LoboGunLeather]

I have been out of the Army for 47 years so I have little knowledge of how things work now.

Back in my days Airborne training was a 3-week program. First week was ground week, lots of PT (physical training), running, and basic instruction on PLF (parachute landing falls). Week two was tower week, starting with jumping from moderate heights in full equipment to practice your PLF, then progressing to the big towers on which you were hauled up to a considerable height (don't remember the actual height, but it was at least 100 feet) in full harness and parachute supported in a halo-shaped device, then released to descend on the parachute to the ground, landing and recovering. Third week was jump week, a jump every day, supported by USAF aircraft (C130 and C119 cargo planes), starting with only the harness and parachute, then progressing to full equipment jumps (weapons and field gear, kit bags rigged to the harness). End of jump week was graduation day, awarding the "jump wings" to those who had successfully completed the program.

Basic "jump wings" (parachutist badge) was the standard of qualification for airborne duty and assignments. "Senior" parachutist badge and "jumpmaster" qualifications required advanced training (and as others have pointed out, not everyone automatically revolved into those schools, mostly career officers "getting their tickets punched"). Jump pay was $55.00 per month for enlisted soldiers, $110.00 per month for officers during my service. The soldier had to be assigned to an "airborne" unit and assignment, and complete at least one jump every 90 days in order to qualify for the added pay. Might not sound like a lot of money these days, but back in the day when a PFC was paid $150 per month, a corporal about $210, and a buck sergeant made $250 or so, the extra $55.00 per month was HUGE.

I have had the good fortune to know several old WW2 paratroopers, and have shared experiences with them. Back in the 1940's the airborne units were trained together for months, and the training went far beyond basic parachute school. They were extensively trained in small unit tactics, weapons (US and foreign), advanced first aid and medical care, survival, escape & evasion, hand-to-hand combat, intelligence gathering, camouflage, and many other aspects of the military "arts".

Comparing "airborne training" of the past 50 years or so to "paratrooper training" of World War II era is like comparing juicy ripe apples to shriveled grapes.

 

[vonn]

1966 when I went to jump school they were pretty sure where you were going to be before your time was up and pushed as hard as you could take to make you "Airborne ". That training helped me get through a long year and all the years since. I didn't hide my service but didn't bring it up except to people close to me and then not much. Going to the VA lately and seeing the young guys makes me think that maybe they didn't get enough of that airborne mindset. I wonder if all the suicide stats are part of that.