The Master Parachutist

 The difference between skydiving and parachuting

This story is to help people unfamiliar with this topic understand the difference between skydiving and military parachuting. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve told folks I was a military master parachutist, and they go off asking questions you should ask a skydiver. And when I try to correct them, they look at me like I’m a Martian. So folks I hope this will clear up the confusion, and hopefully get people to understand what it really means to be a military parachutist (or what it means to be one of our close cousins, a smoke jumper. Except for the firepower we carry, the parachuting is the same).

To help the reader understand the full impact of what we do I present the rule of LGOPs:

The rule of LGOPs, or Little Group of Paratroopers, is a concept in the US Army that describes how soldiers adapt and overcome situations in combat:  After the demise of the best Airborne plan, a most terrifying effect occurs on the battlefield. This effect is known as the rule of the LGOPs. This is, in its purest form, small groups of pissed-off 19-year-old American paratroopers. They are well-trained. They are armed to the teeth and lack serious adult supervision. They collectively remember the Commander’s intent as “March to the sound of the guns and kill anyone who is not dressed like you” – or something like that.

We are in extended ranks for a late afternoon manifest call. This is how every night jump begins. We stand in formation, dog tags hanging outside our shirts, ID cards in our left hands. The jump masters walk down the ranks checking each trooper’s IDs against the jump manifest and that they have their dog tags.

Once the jump masters have verified that all the jumpers on the manifest are present, and they all have their dog tags and IDs we close ranks, pick up our gear, and load onto the trucks for the ride to “green ramp”.

People always make the mistake of thinking that skydiving is the same as military parachuting. The truth is the only thing they have in common is that you use a parachute in both.

The ride to “green ramp” is relatively quiet. There is some good-natured kidding, and a few jokes, but mostly there’s introspection. Some pray, some smoke, and all of us recheck our equipment.

The trucks pull into the unloading area at “green ramp “. We get off the trucks, assemble, pick up our gear, and march to the rigging area. When our commander directs us to, we ground our equipment and move over to parachute issue. We draw our main and reserve parachutes and return to our equipment.

We pair up and use the buddy system to put on our parachutes. We attach our equipment and weapons. We will carry on our bodies everything we need to fight and survive for seventy-two hours of sustained combat. We check each other and move over to the jump masters for pre-jump inspection. Once we have been inspected and assigned the door we’ll be jumping we get in stick order and sit down. Tonight, I will be the first jumper in the starboard door.

As we wait, I check that I can reach the knife I have strapped to my right boot. I release the safety strap and grip the handle. I pull it up and it slides smoothly out of the sheath. Most of the guys prefer the Marine Corps Ka-Bar, but I feel that my Gerber Mk II is more elegant, though it requires more skill to use. After checking the blade, I slip it back into the sheath and snap the safety strap back in place.

The jump masters go to conduct their safety inspections of the drop aircraft. When they’ve finished, they put on their parachutes and equipment. They inspect each other and join the rest of us as we wait to get on the airplanes.

A stark difference between skydiving and military parachuting is in skydiving there are few people in the sky at the same time. Tonight, I’ll be in the first of four flights of aircraft just minutes apart, tonight I’ll share the sky with nearly six hundred members of the battalion.

But there is a moment, a very elusive moment, one that we all seek. It is this moment that keeps us coming back, that keeps us jumping.

At 20:00 hours we load onto the aircraft. We waddle onto the tarmac and to the waiting planes. When you’re wearing 96 pounds of combat equipment, ammunition, water, and food plus 46 pounds of parachute all you can do is waddle. I’m a medic so I have an extra 15 pounds of medical supplies. Fortunately, I’m not carrying a W.I.C.E. bag, that would really suck.

At 20:40 hours the first flight taxis for takeoff. The JATO (Jet Assisted Takeoff) bottles ignite, and the acceleration of the aircraft slams us against each other. When the planes clear the runway the JATO bottles fall away. The forty-minute flight to the drop zone begins.

Believe it or not, you can sleep when you’re this loaded up. Packed into the plane like this there’s nothing else you can do. No one wants to talk; everyone is too busy with their own thoughts.

Flying in an Air Force transport for a jump is not like being in an airliner. There are no rows of seats and no flight attendants. Port and starboard “sticks” sit with our backs against the skin of the aircraft, and the center aisle “sticks” sit back-to-back facing us. There is no room to walk down the aisles so the safety NCOs must walk on us to do their inflight checks.

The jump masters give the ten-minute warning. They have to use hand and arm signals because the noise from the engines is so loud only those seated close to them can hear them.

Shortly comes the six-minute warning. The jump masters take their positions as the aircrew and safety NCOs make their final checks.

The jump masters start giving their commands.

“Outboard personnel stand up!” Those of us seated against the skin of the aircraft stand, lift our seats out of the way, locking them in the up position, and face the jump masters.

“Inboard personnel stand up!” The inside sticks stand, raising their seats and face the jump masters as well.

“Hook up!” We all hook up our static lines to the anchor line cables.

“Check static lines!” We all trace our static lines as far as we can, and then we check the static line of the jumper in front of us.

“Check equipment!” We all check that our equipment is still properly rigged and connected to our harnesses.

“Sound off for equipment check!” Starting from the front of the aircraft each jumper swats the butt of the jumper in front of him and shouts, “Okay!” This continues until it reaches the jumpers closest to the doors. When the check reaches me, I stomp my left foot, point to the jump master for my door and shout, “All okay!”

The jump master gives me the thumbs up and goes to do the door safety checks. He feels the edges of the door frame. He stomps on the jump step making sure it’s secure. Next, he moves to the edge of the jump step and leans outside the aircraft to check for obstructions. When the jump master has completed the safety checks he moves back into the plane and looks out the door for the ground markers.

Shortly the aircraft’s crew chief touches the jump masters’ shoulder and speaks into his ear. The jump master nods and steps back from the door. He shouts, “One minute!” Then he points at me and commands, “Stand in the door!”

I shuffle to the door and get into position. I can see the jump lights on the door frame. The light is currently red.

Standing in the door, the world passes by. The cool air, the smell of spring mixed with burnt JP4. The clock ticks, seconds turning to minutes. Adrenaline pumping, I’m ready to spring into the sky. Heart pounding, pulse racing. Stars sparkling on the horizon.

The light changes from red to green. A shout in my left ear, “Go!” I leap out of the door.

The wind twists me parallel to the plane. I see the canopy starting to deploy beneath my feet. The roar of engines fade as I swing below the canopy. I check that it has deployed correctly.

The night closes in and for a moment I’m alone, and I become one with the night sky.

R. A. “Doc” Correa

www.goldenboxbooks.com/ra-doc-correa.html

A retired US Army military master parachutist retired surgical technologist, and retired computer scientist. He’s an award-winning poet and author. “Doc” has had poems published in multiple books and had stories published in Bookish Magazine and Your Secret Library. His first novel, Rapier, won a Book Excellence award and was given a Reader’s Favorite five-star review.