HALO-HAHO-HAMO Train Up - Page 2

KSC · 06-09-2007, 02:48

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSC

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.

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.

KSC · 06-21-2007, 04:26

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.

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by one_shift_eight

what is a HAMO jump?

Who are you?

Did you get a registration message and comply?

Have you read the stickies?

TR

**Pete** · 01-20-2008, 20:31

I think one shift eight just volunteered to do a LANO

Pete

**Team Sergeant** · 01-20-2008, 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete

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?

**Pete** · 01-21-2008, 11:04

Well, one shift eight, you didn't get to do a LANO but your PLF was OK.

01-21-2008, 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by AngelsSix

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.