View Full Version : HALO-HAHO-HAMO Train Up
NousDefionsDoc
03-05-2004, 16:01
HALO adventures for our favorite 18D.
So The Team, in its never ending quest for perfection, decides to go out West, where there's room, and practice infiltration.
Our favorite medic hates jumping (quits on every jump) but loves to look over the Jumpmaster's soldier and tell him what he's doing wrong and how he's about to get the whole Team killed because he's an idiot and no sane man would say "Go!". I'm sure Billy-L can testify.
So there they are. Over some Godforsaken desert in Mexico (going to fly back in under canopy don't you know). "Can't be responsible for where the spot happens to end up."
About 0300, 25k AGL, O2, ALWAYS combat equipment. Checks are done! We're on final!
Jumpmaster is leaning down, looking through the little space between the bright shiney thing and the dull blue thing that ALL Jumpmasters look through when doing whatever it is they're doing.
Our favorite medic, who knows it's all phoney and they can't really see shit and are just faking, is leaning over the JM's should telling him just that.
"Get ready!"
"I quit mother fooker!"
"Yeah, you told me already. Get ready!"
"No drop! We're going around!"
"Get ready!"
"I quit and you suck!"
"No drop!"
This goes on like 5 passes. Our medic is now firmly convinced that the TS/JM is retarded, blind and lost.
"What's the matter with you?"
"I can't see the spot!"
"What did you tell them to mark it with?"
"A railroad flare."
Now see, RR flares are red. And so are the brake lights on automobiles. And the DZ was right next to a major highway. There were at least, at least, 17 trillion red lights blinking in the field of view.
TS/JM, "So what do you think?"
Our hero, "Well, you know what they say."
"What?"
"Whole world's a drop zone when you're jumping squares."
"Right, GO!"
LOL
Spent the rest of the night walking. The one we picked wasn't it.
The Reaper
03-05-2004, 19:18
Originally posted by NousDefionsDoc
"Whole world's a drop zone when you're putting out jumpers."
No, that is the motto of the U.S. Air Force.
TR
AngelsSix
03-08-2004, 09:01
Reaper........quit messin' with my AF, man.......that ain't funny!!;)
The Reaper
03-08-2004, 16:38
Originally posted by AngelsSix
Reaper........quit messin' with my AF, man.......that ain't funny!!;)
Especially unfunny if you have been the victim of that.
Fortunately, SF is allowed to GMRS spot and release their jumpers themselves.
Aircrews get pissed when you tell them you are not going to go on their spot, I started telling them when they got out of the aircraft on their CARP spots as well, I'd let them call the release point.
No takers thus far.
TR
NousDefionsDoc
03-08-2004, 16:44
When I was in the 82nd Airplane Gang, the Air Force came out with a recruiting poster that said
"Air Force! We put the 'Air' in Airborne"
The guys went around all over post with markers and changed them:
"Air Force! We put the Airborne in the trees!"
I never will forget that. The Pope CDR complained to the installation CDR.
CPTAUSRET
10-19-2006, 15:21
Write me up for a thread ressurection, violation!
But I just saw this thread, and it's funny!
Monsoon65
10-19-2006, 20:42
Write me up for a thread ressurection, violation!
But I just saw this thread, and it's funny!
I'll second that!!!
"Air Force! We put the Airborne in the trees!" I have to remember that.
I told some CCT guys I don't jump out of perfectly good aircraft. They said that there's no such thing!
CPTAUSRET
10-19-2006, 21:57
I'll second that!!!
"Air Force! We put the Airborne in the trees!" I have to remember that.
I told some CCT guys I don't jump out of perfectly good aircraft. They said that there's no such thing!
CONCUR completely!
I've never flown in a perfectly good A/C...I have in fact signed off a few Red X's cause we needed to respond to Americans in distress!
optactical
10-19-2006, 22:40
Funny shit.... I have been on an A/C where the pilots forgot we were doing CARP and turned the green light on early thinking it was GMRS (second SL jump of the day, mind you, somehow they forgot after the first?). Problem was it was a ramp jump, the safety was done spotting and clearing the airspace, and we all knew we would be looking at the ocean as we exitted, so it felt right, until we looked down.
No one realized the problem till we were in the air over the jungle to the north of Andersen Air Base (Guam) which happens to be on a cliff that drops into the sea. Luckily all jumpers steered to the airfield, the closest landed with his chute a couple meters from the AF Base's north fence. I remember the loadmaster running at me as I was about one step from exitting yelling and giving an impromptu "no drop" signal... It was too late, I was in motion, and the stick was already out the door, stopping was not an option at that point.
There's no such thing as a perfectly good aircraft?!? Heck you'd be hard pressed to find one with a halfway decent aircrew these days, 'cept for C-17s, they are the fooking shiite!!!
Not a HALO story, but defintely a noteworthy experience.
incommin
10-20-2006, 04:56
We used to jump perfectly good A/C.... 46's, 47' 119's......
Jim
Monsoon65
10-20-2006, 15:37
There's no such thing as a perfectly good aircraft?!? Heck you'd be hard pressed to find one with a halfway decent aircrew these days, 'cept for C-17s, they are the fooking shiite!!!
I came back from Kuwait in 1998 on a C-141 with the comfort pallet (the pallet with two toilets on it, for those that might not know) literally slopping over the edge with shit! We were told, "Hold it" for the eight hour flight.
As long as my take offs and landings are of equal number, I'm happy. But if the plane is on fire, you'll have to fight me for the crash ax.
........quit messin' with my AF, man.......that ain't funny!!maybe not...but the Benelux isn't a country....
AngelsSix
11-01-2006, 19:44
Benelux, are you serious??? I haven't heard enough of that this past month, maybe someone else should bring it up, dammit!!!!!
Frakin' Joes!!:rolleyes:
spartanfed182
06-04-2007, 22:30
"Air Force! We put the Airborne in the trees!"
ha ha ha......
Ambush Master
06-05-2007, 20:27
ha ha ha......
Obviously YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN DUMPED INTO TREES!!!!
Alex,
You need to learn how to develop your Situational Awareness by POSTING MUCH LESS and READING a lot MORE!!!
Later
Martin
Don't know, my two Chinook jumps both landed me in the trees. Both in the swampy depression straight across from the bleachers on Sicily. One got me a pretty good concussion. I forgot what was going on till my buddy came down in there looking for me. Then blew off 'some guy who was yelling at me' for not having my helmet on. That 'some guy' caught up with me at the assembly area, turned out to be the BCT SGM, but he pretty much figured it out when I almost puked on him.
82ndtrooper
06-20-2007, 16:52
Don't know, my two Chinook jumps both landed me in the trees. Both in the swampy depression straight across from the bleachers on Sicily. One got me a pretty good concussion. I forgot what was going on till my buddy came down in there looking for me. Then blew off 'some guy who was yelling at me' for not having my helmet on. That 'some guy' caught up with me at the assembly area, turned out to be the BCT SGM, but he pretty much figured it out when I almost puked on him.
Do they still have "Saturday Fun Jumps" at Sicily DZ ?
We used to get word of them on Friday afternoon formations. Just show up in BDU's with your K-Pod and dawn a chute, get your JMPI and load up on a Huey or Chinook and do your thing.
I jumped 6 six times on a single Saturday Afternoon 3 from a Huey and 3 from the Chinook. First time I ever had a -1 that the toggles were packed somehow backwards. Use left toggle to turn right, right toggle to turn left. The air flow holes in the front not in the back of my head. :munchin
On a rather serious note I had been on profile for shoulder surgery and hadn't been able to jump for about a month. Then I put in six jumps and not one of them was logged. Non-High performance aircraft I guess ? Or my FIST team leader was covering my ass for violating the "Profile " status?
Lt. Messmer did have a talk with me about it at DIVARTY HQ later that night, but his attitude was that of "Well Done" "Just dont do it again till we get the docs to clear your profile" I alway's respected his way of thinking.
Yep, now they call them SPJPs, Saturday Proficiency Jump Program. Just flight time for the pilots and fun time or make up time for the jumpers. My unit hosted one with Blackhawks about a year ago, that's the only time I was ever on one. They usually truck out an LMTV and trailer full of chutes and do hot loads out of a C-130 till all the chutes are gone.
They got rid of the old DIVARTY as a command or HQ, about 1.5 years ago and the only DIVARTY is now 4th BCT HQ, they split 3 Panther up over all the other units and brought in 5/73 CAV Scouts to fill out 3 BCT.
Hueys, that must've been WAY back. The only ones I've ever seen flying are the old MEDEVAC birds at Ft Sill.
John A. Larsen
06-28-2007, 17:17
In the 10th we had a fair share of miss drops, and no, going through the trees is not fun. One year I was reading "Piercing the Reich" about the OSS infiltraing into Europe and teams being drop 40 miles from their DZ. That year we had a team dropped about 6 miles (not KM) from their DZ and I pointed out to the USAF rep what they had done in WWII. His reply that they were getting better, from 40 to only 6 miles off. Not so funny when you are dropped on the wrong side of the Rhine River. Several years later I was the SGM of A/3/10 and we did not go to Flintlock, but were the rear area go foers Two men were dropped far off their DZ's into those tall trees in Germany, both men broke their backs when they landed. I personally knew both men, one I had served with on Okinawa, the other was in C/3/10, and he was in the worst shape. We got his wife to Germany so she could fly back home with him. Told her to call as soon as she landed in Andrews (?) AFB. When she did call she was hysterical. Her husband was in so much pain, even with drugs, that everytime they landed he begged her to take a pillow and sufficate him to stop the pain. He had 5 stops before arriving in Boston, and she wanted to know what we could do. Called the 23rd Air Force, and they rescheduled the flight plain, so he would only have one stop before Boston, and that was weathered out. Bottom line is that it is the people who jump out of the USAF perfectly good airplanes who pay the price for the mistakes made in the cockpit, sometimes I think pilots do not fully appreciate that fact.
The Reaper
06-28-2007, 17:22
Last guys to ride the Skyhook found that out as well.
TR
Snaquebite
06-28-2007, 19:31
Since the thread speaks to "Train-up"
Picture this"
Salt Flat
Truck w/ driver
120' rappel rope tied to truck with snap link at the other end
1 MT1-X
2 canopy "holders" (one on each side)
1 anxious GI suited up and attached to all this....
GO!!!!!!!!!!! Truck takes off....you start running.....carefull to keep both toggles fully relaxed.
Get to about 100' cut loose and land.
That's the way I transitioned to squares. The thought process was learn to flare and land safely....later on jumps at altitude steering would just fall in place.
:lifter
PS....this was not my idea....but about 50 of us got trained this way.
John A. Larsen
06-28-2007, 21:52
Reaper, If you are refering to SFC Cliff Stickland, I was there for that too. Another Flintlock, the extraction mission was cancelled, then up drives the Aset. The Under, Under Sec Def is coming so the demo is back on. I still have photos of Cliff sitting in his suit just prior to lift off and you can see two "suits" in trenchcoats by the far tree line. Plane comes, Cliff lifts off and the line did not snag, so he dropped from several hundred feet, and died at the hospital. Ironically I just learned about 3 weeks ago what happened, the device that grabs the line is supposed to rotate to grab the line. Apparently this same plane had a problem in Africa shortly before with a 2 man lift. The device was corroded but the extra weight forced it to rotate. It did not rotate for Cliff. I was told the USAF said because the extraction is for Army personnel, the maintenance was an Army responsibliity. Not sure if that is correct, but what I was told. Seems like a good man died for the lack of a couple of squirts of WD40.
Snaquebite
06-29-2007, 06:19
I've got a set of pictures from an extraction our team did on Flintlock ??.Will try to locate, scan and post. I believe the pick-up was an Air Force guy IIRC.
one_shift_eight
01-20-2008, 17:45
what is a HAMO jump?
The Reaper
01-20-2008, 18:22
what is a HAMO jump?
Who are you?
Did you get a registration message and comply?
Have you read the stickies?
TR
I think one shift eight just volunteered to do a LANO
Pete
Team Sergeant
01-20-2008, 20:59
I think one shift eight just volunteered to do a LANO
Pete
LOL
one_shift_eight,
You'd better comply with "The Reapers" advice ASAP.
Team Sergeant
one_shift_eight
01-21-2008, 11:01
Ok I've made a thread and introductions and filled out my profile anything else?
Well, one shift eight, you didn't get to do a LANO but your PLF was OK.
brownapple
01-21-2008, 17:34
Reaper........quit messin' with my AF, man.......that ain't funny!!;)
As TR said, especially not when you've been in the trees.
A.P. Hill - USAF puts the entire 2d BN, 11th SFG into the pine trees on a Friday evening. Didn't get all the chutes out, ever... took over 12 hours to get all the jumpers out of those trees.
White Mountains - USAF puts a team out of an MC130 at 700 feet (approx) when it was supposed to be a jump altitude of 1000. MC1-1B, heavy rucks. Four broken legs out of 11 jumpers.
Wright-Patterson AFB - USAF puts two ODAs onto a runway instead of the grass.
New River MCAS - USAF puts an ODA into an DZ that is 21 km from the correct DZ.
May not be funny, but it damn well seems true. :(
I bet the third letter in the acronym represents the condition that triggers the fourth letter.