ANY PARATROOPERS?

[Bugkiller99]

The lower chute creates a low pressure area above it, so I settled onto his canopy and had to walk off it before my chute collapsed. He was excited, very excited you might say, because I was sinking knee deep into his canopy. I was very motivated myself.

My son told me he did this once at Ft. Benning. Except I think he said he RAN. Thankfully, he waited quite some time afterwards before telling me. Yet to tell his mother. And never will.

 

[VaTom]

Never a paratrooper but have the utmost respect for them. Have been to Normandy and Bastogne and visited the sites there where 82nd and 101st fought. Unbelievable airborne museum in Ste Mereglise. The bridge and causeway over the Meredet River in Normandy is where the 82nd held off repeated German attacks for a couple of days. Great story of heroism. Many paratroopers drowned on D-Day when they landed in the flooded fields seen in the background of my pictures. Monument to paratroopers looking out over the bridge and causeway where they made their stand.

When I was a LEO in the 1970's we didn't have all the high tech fancy boots they make now. My brother who is in the Army in Germany at that time sent me a pair of Corcoran Jump Boots for Christmas one year. They were approved uniform to wear. Walked many miles on the beat with them and wore them in the winter.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

One of the forbidden things-which everybody tried to do-was a standing landing. You pull your chute's risers as far down as you can, then just before you touch ground release them-quickly. Creates enough of an updraft that you can avoid a PLF-Parachute Landing Fall.
When I went through Jump School at Fort Benning one unlucky soul had both his main AND reserve chute malfunction. Fortunately he didn't break anything.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

I never heard anybody yell Geronimo.
I did hear lots of expletives, particularly on the jump that put me directly and closely above another jumper as our chutes deployed. The lower chute creates a low pressure area above it, so I settled onto his canopy and had to walk off it before my chute collapsed. He was excited, very excited you might say, because I was sinking knee deep into his canopy. I was very motivated myself.

Happens more frequently than some folks might imagine. I recall one incident when a trooper's helmeted head became entangled at the apex of the chute beneath him and, being unable to extricate himself, both troopers were seriously injured. Combat jumps are usually done at lower altitudes and with a strong emphasis on getting all personnel out of the aircraft very quickly. Each soldier out the door has his parachute deployed by a static line (attached to the aircraft interior), so things happen pretty quickly; any emergency situation leaves very limited time for corrective action (beneath 550 feet or so it is highly unlikely that the reserve chute can be deployed).

When another trooper's parachute deploys directly beneath you a couple of things happen: 1. your parachute cannot deploy or inflate properly, and 2. the added load placed on the chute beneath you does not permit that chute to function to full effect. With sufficient altitude the soldier who is capable of seeing what has happened can, in effect, "walk off" the other chute with a reasonable chance that his chute can then inflate in time to arrest his descent sufficiently. At lower altitudes (combat jumps may be made with as little as 500-550 feet elevation above ground level) neither of the troopers affected by the situation may have enough time to escape serious consequences.

 

[ron_c]

One of the things Legs, I mean Non Airborne Personnel, would do, when in a group and saw a Paratrooper, someone would say "What falls from the sky?" Someone else would say, "Bird S*** and Paratroopers" They would then laugh about it. I took this with pride, as I knew they didn't have what it took or had no interest to be a Paratrooper.

When in the Dominican Republic in 1966, when I was with the 82nd, on my first jump from a UH-1D Huey helicopter, after jumping out or I should say pushing out of the Huey, I saw that they had dropped us over a sugar cane field. There was no way to do a PLF in this stuff as it was 8 to 10 feel tall and very thick. Later that day, I found out this was the drop zone we would use.

On my 3rd jump from a Huey, about 3 months later,I saw that had cut the sugar cane but they had cut it about 8 to 12 inches above the ground and doing a PLF, some part of your body would land on these stubs.

Our last jump from a Huey, fog started approaching from my right while just after exiting the Huey and by the time we were to land, fog was everywhere and very thick. Thanks goodness, I had looked to see where the rally point was located as you couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of you.

Exciting times.

 

[Triggernosis]

Another airborne joke goes like this:
An new airborne trainee was was telling his best buddy back at home aboit his airborne training. "When I was getting ready to make my first jump I was absolutely terrified to go out the door of the plane." He continued "the jump master told me, "Boy, if you don't jump out of this cotdamned plane right now I'm going to butt-#$@%& you in the *** with my boot until this plane lands!" His friend asked, "So, did you jump?" To which he responded "A little at first".

 

[bulldog06]

Always interesting when checking Canopy and seeing another guy's Cochran jump boot tangled in your anti inversion net at the top of the shroud lines. He got it untangled and swung away just before we hit, avoiding injury and the tedious 'entanglement' paperwork.

Fun also when a guy panics on a night jump, runs with the wind and forces you to dump air to get out of his way. The concussion resulting from not having enough altitude to get back into the wind was a bonus!

Still, a few close calls over 75 jumps was good odds.

And the perfectly good airplane? We had a Caribou for fun jumps one weekend. Crew had to stop after every lift and dump oil into the starboard engine to keep going.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

The last 3 jumps my son made, he cracked his right heel lengthwise each time. In his first year he got wacked on the head so heard, he was wandering around like an idiot and they had to tackle him to get him evacuated. He really had fun with the guys and all but didn't enjoy getting hurt.

His jump class was 1/99 and graduated about now 19 years ago. He was assigned to A Co. 1/325. Same battalion his uncle was in in 1982 and his great uncle in 1943!

I texted him the joke about the fools jump the third week. He response was that that was a real knee slapper, but if he slapped his knee, he would limp for 3 weeks!

Ivan

 

[Shark Bait]

Here's my jump school photo from 1982. Ended up with just over 50 jumps. The best jump I ever made was into Key West, Florida for the Combat Divers Course. It was off the tailgate of a C-130 and landed in the bay.

 

[jimmyj]

I could have been a Paratrooper except there wasn't enough real men on the plane to break my death grip on the seat and drag my crying/begging/wimp body to the door and throw me out of a perfectly good airplane.

 

[elm_creek_smith]

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


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[OLDNAVYMCPO]

I was a Navy Parachutist, a paratrooper is a whole different breed of cat. Paratroopers are trained to fight, usually surrounded and often without officer leadership. They are taught to use their own initiative and to fight alone if necessary.

Although I went thru Benning in July 1969, I would not pretend to be a paratrooper. My uncle Johnny was in the 82nd his entire 20+ years in the Army, jumped into Normandie and Holland. Now he was a paratrooper and a mean moto-scooter.

The photo is me at Ft. Benning in 1969. Only Navy in my class. On the last jump, some butter bar was slipping with the wind, slipped below my chute, stole my air. I fell thru his canopy and wiped him out on landing. I called him a few choice names.

 

[walkin jack]

I think most paratroopers will agree, the jumping was always fun, however some of the landings were not.

Yeah. It not the fall that gets you. It's that sudden stop.

 

[handejector]

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


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Au contraire, Dai Wi.

In the 60's, the 1st Brigade, 8th Inf Div, stationed at Mainz, W. Germany, was both airborne and mechanized. I don't know if the other brigades were both or not. As far as I know, it was the only outfit at the time that was both airborne and mechanized. We could jump with attached armor that had M-60 Tanks at that time. We also could jump with deuce and a half's, APC's, artillery (105's), and the Colonel's jeep.

The theory was we formed a first strike, rapidly deployable and highly mobile unit to be used if the Russians got feisty. We were gonna be the speed bump dropped into the Fulda Gap to slow down a few divisions of Russian Tanks.
You know- kinda like stopping a charging cape buffalo with a real mean and highly motivated dachshund.
We could have cost them at least 15 or 20 minutes.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I was in the 12th Engineer Battalion, 8th Infantry Division, 1970-1971, A Company was airborne, the rest of us were mech. The M551 Sheridan was developed-and adopted-as a "quasi" tank that could be more easily air landed. In WWII the British had the Tetrarch light tank, we had the M22 Locust, they were intended to be glider landed.

 

[ChuckS1]

Another Pathfinder here, Lee. I was at Lee Barracks in Mainz in 1987-90. I was assigned to the forward support battalion headquarters, along with the DS maintenance company. Back then, 1-8 IN, 3-8 IN and 4-34 AR were on the kaserne.

 

[Steve912]

This reminds me of an interesting incident, a coupla
months ago. Saw a (new to me) gunshop had opened
in my area, and stopped in. Proprietor was wearing an
82d cap AND t-shirt...ok.

"So, you were in the 82d?"

"Yep, eight years (or--he may have said eleven years-- it's
been a few months)!"

"How many jumps?"

"Fifty two."

<thinking to myself...>

"You jumpmastered fifty two jumps?"

"No, 52 jumps. You gotta go
to jumpmaster school, to be
a jumpmaster."

Mmm hmm...ok.

Didn't buy a thing from him.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

When my son was in jump school, #2 son and I went his graduation. In his class was a USMC bird colonel, his jump wings were pinned on by his USMC Privet FC (E2) son, who had graduated about a month before.

ivan

 

[Bozz10mm]

This reminds me of an interesting incident, a coupla
months ago. Saw a (new to me) gunshop had opened
in my area, and stopped in. Proprietor was wearing an
82d cap AND t-shirt...ok.

"So, you were in the 82d?"

"Yep, eight years (or--he may have said eleven years-- it's
been a few months)!"

"How many jumps?"

"Fifty two."

<thinking to myself...>

"You jumpmastered fifty two jumps?"

"No, 52 jumps. You gotta go
to jumpmaster school, to be
a jumpmaster."

Mmm hmm...ok.

Didn't buy a thing from him.

Okay, I think I'm missing your point here. ??? I had to go to jump master school to become a jump master.

 

[Steve912]

Okay, I think I'm missing your point here. ??? I had to go to jump master school to become a jump master.

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

 

[ron_c]

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

That's about 6 jumps each year, or every 2 months. We were suppose to make one jump every 3 months to stay on jump pay and status but it was found out more injuries would occur and guys had more time to think about if it was worth it or not, so they would jump us about every 6 weeks.

Back then, some of the NCO's would want to go on home and not have to hang around for a jump at the end of the day and these guys already had lots of jumps anyway, so they would pay the lower ranked $10 to make the jump in their name. You got to jump but not the credit and $10 (this was in '65 to '67) but they get the credit for the jump. Just before I left the 82nd and went into the 101st, they put a stop to this.

 

[Steve912]

That's about 6 jumps each year, or every 2 months. We were suppose to make one jump every 3 months to stay on jump pay and status but it was found out more injuries would occur and guys had more time to think about if it was worth it or not, so they would jump us about every 6 weeks.

Back then, some of the NCO's would want to go on home and not have to hang around for a jump at the end of the day and these guys already had lots of jumps anyway, so they would pay the lower ranked $10 to make the jump in their name. You got to jump but not the credit and $10 (this was in '65 to '67) but they get the credit for the jump. Just before I left the 82nd and went into the 101st, they put a stop to this.

Hmm...I was thinking status required a lot more than 4 jumps a year...but it's been awhile!

The swapping names is wild. USAF would have had a conniption fit if they thought the manifest was hinky. We had to show dog tags and ID card before every jump.

 

[Shark Bait]

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

Sorry, I'm still missing the point, too. I had just over 50 jumps in 11 years on jump status. I also never went to Jump Master school. Could have, just never did.

 

[bulldog06]

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. -- 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.

 

[bulldog06]

Out you go

I could have been a Paratrooper except there wasn't enough real men on the plane to break my death grip on the seat and drag my crying/begging/wimp body to the door and throw me out of a perfectly good airplane.

During a Jump School jump, a guy froze in the door of a C141. The Black hat instructors went into an immediate action drill. Two beat on his hands while one did a pull up on the air frame, swinging toward the guy, kicking him out the door. He had a static line and made it ok. Guy had no trouble after that. He said it was less scary just jumping than being kicked out the door!

 

[bulldog06]

Sorry, I'm still missing the point, too. I had just over 50 jumps in 11 years on jump status. I also never went to Jump Master school. Could have, just never did.

I agree. JM was not required for most guys. JM was extra responsibility and hassle. Many long time guys jumped every quarter, or 4 times a year. There was no issue with it. Commanders and 1SG's generally had to be JM qualified, but all others were volunteers.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

Our "Class Leader" when I attended Basic Medic School at Ft. Sam Houston was a "red beret" - a parachutist from the 82nd Airborne. I think the only reason they made him the class leader was that he was the only jump qualified student - that and he was a big son of a gun that really looked good in uniform. But my goodness, that guy was so full of it. He constantly told all of the men that they weren't real men unless they were jump qualified, and he thought he was God's gift to women. He was truly insufferable.

Two things I don't think he was ever without was his red (actually, maroon colored) beret, and a Samsonite briefcase. One day, on a class break, he left his briefcase on his desk with his beret prominently placed on top of the lid, and carefully centered on it. It looked sharp - I don't think anyone in Hollywood or in advertising could have made a more impressive looking display. Of course, things went south pretty fast once he tried to pick up his beret to don it and found that someone had decided to crazy glue the briefcase to the desktop, and his beret to the top of the briefcase.

Years later I did a detail with some paratroopers from the 101st Airborne ("Screaming Eagles"), and I was very popular for telling that tale.

Regards,

Dave

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Jump Master School was more of a ticket punch, it was one of the Required Merit Badges-along with Ranger School, Jungle Expert, Expert Infantryman's Badge-for officers. I knew an E-6, he said he had over 50 jumps, still wore the novice wings because he couldn't get a slot for Jump Master School.

 

[Prepsherriff]

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. -- 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.

LAPES....watched it often at Ft.Bragg. 2/505, Golden Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. 1980-1984

 

[Steve912]

Sorry, I'm still missing the point, too. I had just over 50 jumps in 11 years on jump status. I also never went to Jump Master school. Could have, just never did.

I googled, and sure enough...one jump every 90 days. Seemed like a low number, so I figured he mean't he'd JM'd that many. That's where the question on jumpmastering came in. That's "the point."

Cumulatively, my average was about 4 jumps/month, but some were in RIP--we'd do anywhere from four to six jumps, Monday was "Jump Day".