Sunday, March 29, 2009
Jump number 1 and 2 tomorrow
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Basic Airborne Course
Our first event of the day was an Army Physical Fitness Test. For this course we only have to do 42 pushups, 53 situps and 2 mile run in 15 minutes and 54 seconds, too easy. I knock out my pushups and sit-ups in less than a minute and wait to start my run, by this time it is pouring down, it is crazy how hard it was raining. I would venture to say it rained more in that hour than it rains all year in Orem, utah. So we start the run, all 200 of us, the other 200 were on the exact opposite side of this 1 mile loop track and I come in at around 14 minutes and 6 seconds. I pass and we lose a few others in my platoon.
So today’s training is Don and Doff (put on and take off) a Parachute harness w/ parachutes and reserve, how to properly move through a aircraft while hooked up, and proper techniques to exit a c-130 and c-17 aircraft. This train I thought was very good. We did this all day all the while people are still doing stupid stuff and getting counseled for it, I am on the verge of killing someone. By this time I am pretty pissed from Soldiers not doing what they are supposed to be doing. I had a brief conversation with SGT Airborne and he suggested I hold another formation after dinner chow( during the Soldiers Off time) and have a barracks inspection. I have this formation during the time the Soldiers were suppose to be off and have all the Soldiers do a room inspection with all the NCO’s doing the NCO thing. And by then I can tell the Soldiers are furious, and you know what, It doesn’t bother me a bit, cause I know the only thing more important to a Soldier than his money is his time, and since I cant take their money (UCMJ) I can take their time.
Day 2, Tuesday, 17 March 2009: This morning we go through the same deal as far as wake up stuff goes, and its still not the way it should but it’s a lot better.
Next up, PT we do a 4 mile run at a really good pace, I don’t think anyone fell out but a female.
Todays training event was the 34 foot tower, basically we practices proper aircraft exiting techniques, i was a very painful day, we had the parachute harnesses on all day and for guys if its too loose you WILL smash you friends between your legs, trust me it's painful. And no matter if you wear it loose, tight or just right it rubs the inside of your legs raw, it's terrible, in a good way. After I got my 4 Satisfactory jumps from the 34 foot tower I took control of assigning Soldiers to the duties of the towers. That part was fine, haha. After a long day at the towers, we ran back to the barracks, yayy running in boots is great for your knees, and got chow and was released for the day. Overall it wasn't a really bad day.
Day 3, Wednesday, 18 March 2009: Today started off awesome, I woke up with a hurt knee, great. For PT we had grass drills, now I know for a fact I am not in shape anymore, we didi grass drills for a bout an hour and it huuuuurrrrrrtttttt. If I was still on AD it wouldn't have been problem, but it did.
Todays training was PLF's. We learned how to do rightside, left side, front right and front left PLF (parachute Landing Falls). A PLF is nothing more than the correct way/technique to land on the ground while jumping the round parachutes so that you don't injure yourself or worse. Essentially its landing on the ground and hitting all your points of contact( balls of feet, calves, thighs, buttocks and pullup muscle) in certain sequence and techniques to absorb the impact on the ground. If you dont do it right you stand the chance of breaking things or killing yourself.
We did this all day and let me tell you today was one of the slowest days we have had so far, it felt like we were there for days from constantly hitting the ground. We had MRE for lunch. I had Chicken breast and mexican rice. The chicken was OK, the rice was terrible, but the M&M's were great.
Day 4, Thursday, 19 March 2009: Todays PT wasn't that bad until they had us do about 300 meters of Iron mike lunges forward and backwards and made us firemans carry someone of our weight range for about 150 meters( I weigh 210 lbs). That tore my knees up pretty good. They were feeling better when I woke up this morning but immediately after the carries I felt my knees aching.
For training we did rear PLF's and learned how to release the canopy in case we are being towed/drug across the Drop zone by our parachutes and also how the hollywood and tactical way to stow our chutes after we land. Other than this training we kind of sat around the last half of the day. As soon as we got off for the day I went straight to the PX and got some Motrin, I took 4 Motrin (800 MG and 1 tylenol Extra strength). It's been about 3 hours since I took them and it doesn't feel like they are working yet.
Day 5, Friday, 20 March 2009: I woke up this morning and my knee was feeling good, We had a 5k run this morning that was a pretty good run, I felt good throughout it but after the run it began to tighten up again. For training today we did................... nothing, we ate breakfast at 8am then went back to formation and waited there until noon, doing nothing. At noon we ate lunch then went back to formation and from there they released us. Next week is Tower week, hopefully that week is fun.
Day 6, Monday, 23 March 2009: So today we have a 4 mile run this morning and I am dreading it, We start our run and it ends up being a painfully slow 3.2 mile run. WOW, my knees hurt. So We finish the run and start training for the day. Today we did Mass exit techniques, To qualify on the mass exit techniques, we had to do 2 satisfactory hollywood jumps and 2 satisfactory combat load jumps out of the 34 foot tower. What sucked is that my group was one of the last groups to suit up, we didn't even get to suit up until about 3:45 PM, so I was in charge of the recovery detail with four other junior Soldiers while we waited. Finally when it was our turn to suit up, our first two hollywood jumps were satisfactory, Our 1st combat load jump had 1 deficiency and our next two jumps were satisfactory. YES, we are good to go, and we did it fast!!
Day 7, Tuesday, 24 March 2009: Today on the schedule we have a what???? 4 mile run, This is getting old very quickly, I like to run but I honestly don't like to have someone else tell me to run and have to run a forced pace. Well turns out it was about 3.5 miles also. Bottom line is we run everyday, first in shoes then in boot, running in shoes os fine, but the boots suck!
Todays training events were pretty relaxed, we first started with a class photo, then moved to the pit where we had classes on how to rig our combat loads for jumping. That class was pretty easy for me cause thats what I did all day on day 6. So I already knew how to do it. The next thing we did was have the 250 foot tower class, They pretty much instructed us on the procedures for jumping the 250 foot towers. The demonstrators weren't able to do an actual jump, because the winds were so strong today. If the had done a jump the wind may have blown them into the power lines by the road.
The next class was the class on slipping to the left, right, front and rear. After this class we did a practical exercise for a while then we went back to the company area and sat around for about an hour to eat chow.
Day 8, Wednesday, 25 March 2009: Today was another beautiful day at Basic Airborne Course in Fort Benning Georgia. Today for PT we, of course went on a run. I am sick and tired of doing these runs in boots. After that was over we ran to eat breakfast.
Todays training was proper rigging of Combat equipment for Airborne Ops. I already knew how to do it but coached a few Soldiers on how to do it , then the actual instructor took over, from then until lunch I sat around and talked to some folks. After Lunch we did the swing land trainer and I qualified on that after a few painful PLF's and then sat around until the end of the day waiting for others to finish. After that we formed up to go eat dinner chow, we actually walked back to the company area. That was a much needed break and I am so happy they let us walk. The end.
Day 9, Thursday, 26 March 2009: Todays PT Session was very rigorous, we ran to the PT pits, about a .25 mile, we did 4 PLF (parachute Landing Falls) and then did 22 pushups, which took about 5 minutes to complete all those tasks, then we ate chow. After Chow we went to the 250 foot towers to set them up to jump. The winds were about a consistent 14 knots on the ground, I can only imagine how fast the wind was 250 feet in the air. After about 45 minutes of standing around waiting for the wind to die down, they cancelled the 250 foot tower jumps.
Our next raining event of the day was learning all the 1 hand slips and the emergency landing techniques. That was pretty cool but the wiring landing hurt like I don't know what. The nexy thing we did was layout all equipment we used for this weeks training and inventoried it and restacked it back in the storage shed. From that point on we sat around for the rest of the day and got off at 5PM. Another day down another day wasted. I swear this course should be about 10 days long.
Day 10, Friday, 27 March 2009: This morning when I woke up, it looked bad outside, there was a pretty nice breeze but it was pouring down. So after standing in formation, in the pouring down rain for 20 minutes, we march to the track and proceed with our 5 mile run, after 1 lap around the track (1 mile) we ran back to formation area and then we ate breakfast. Our next formation was at 7:45am, guess what time we actually did anything..................9AM. 9 freaking AM, What the heck did we need to have formation at 745am it we weren't going to even leave until 9AM.
So we run to the Air field at 9 AM and rig our combat equipment and receive classes on malfunctions. After that we ran back to the barracks and sat around for about 30 minutes and ate chow. Our last formation was at 1:15 PM and we were released for the day.
Day 11, Monday, 30 March 2009: Well today was a very weird day it was exciting and scary at different parts of the day. Today I executed 2 Parachute jumps from a high performance aircraft while in flight. Heres exactly how the emotions went for me; we run to the air field and I am totally excited, ready to get my first jumps; we do our JMPI which takes forever because we have 400 guys that have to get inspected by 8 people. After waiting for what seemed like 2 hours or so, we finally board the bird (C-130); as we load the bird I am as excited as can be, the bird starts to move forward and the excitement turns to a little nervousness, When the plane leaves the ground I was still a tad bit nervous but ready to go, when they open the doors, the fear strikes, I suddenly start asking myself why am I jumping out of this plane that is not crashing, Why did I volunteer for this? I am the third jumper in the door, there's a female LT who is the number 1 jumper and I am gonna force myself out of this thing one way or another , but I saw the Maam LT looking solid in the door and knew there was no way I am gonna wimp out of this, if she goes, I go. We got the green light, the Jumpmaster (JM) yell GO!!!, gives her the whack on the butt, she Jumps and The guy in front of me hesitates in the door, the JM pushes him out of the door, things were happening so fast up there, the only thing on my mind was hand off static line to JM and exit aircraft. Once out of the bird, it was beautiful, perfectly quiet, with the occasional yahoo scream from fellow jumpers, it felt like heaven. It was awesome, some say even better than sex, I wont go that far but it was pretty close. Both of my jumps went exactly the same except , the first landing was in 5 inches of water and the second was in ankle deep mud, both soft landings, both awesome.
Day 12, Tuesday, 31 March 2009: So today we were suppose to do 2 jumps but only got in 1 due to the thunderstorms and lightning. The morning went like normal, at 4am had formation, did Pre-jump, ran to air field, ate MRE's, rigged up, JMPI and waited around for what seemed like forever. We rigged up combat equipment today to jump, and let me tell ya it is the most uncomfortable thing I have ever been in. All the gear weights about 60 pounds, but its all in aacward locations so it feels like it's actually 120 pounds. We finally got on the birds around 9am and jumped about 5 minutes later. Jumping with combat equipment was not that bad, you fall alot quicker but it's not too bad. About 30 minutes after I landed it started to rain and about 45 minutes after that it started to storm. From that point on we sat in the Harness shed for about 3 hours and finally called off the next jump and we derigged and made it back to the barracks around 5PM. I am not too happy the next jump got scrubbed but its ok, we should be able to Jump tomorrow. Until then....
Day 13, Wednesday, 1 April 2009: Well today started out to be a pretty good day, we got our last 2 jumps in by 3pm due to the weather turning worse and us being rushed all day, which wasn't really a problem, but what we didn't know was we were going to be up until 2AM in the morning doing Parachute Shake out and partial rigging. It was the not fun at all and now i am glad I didn't get the rigger MOS, it is so tedious it is unreal. I got back to my barracks around 2:20 am on thursday and finally got to bed around 3:30 am due to me having to wash clothes, because they were all filthy. Oh yeah I forgot to mention formation was at 6:45am, 3 hours later.
Day 14, Thursday, 2 April 2009: Today we did absolutely nothing, we got a brief that lasted about 3 minutes and then we sat around all day until 2 PM. What a Great Army Day!!!! (right)
Day 15, Friday, 3 April 2009: Well today is the big day, I got up at 3am for formation at 5AM and didn't do anything until about 7:45 am, when we ate breakfast. After that we sat around for a while, formed up and had 1 graduation rehearsal, then sat around again, I took a nap and woke up when evryone started making noise at 11 am. The Graduation lasted about 45 minutes to an hour and afer it we went back to the company area and waited to get our paperwork and certificates.
