Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
No CARP for us.
GMRS all the way.
TR
|
Adverse Weather Air Delivery System (AWADS) was so bad it took longer to round up the jumpers after the jump than it did to roust them out of the barracks on a foggy night, run them out to Green Ramp, give them the pre jump stuff, chute up, JMPI, load the plane, fly around a while and then drop - hopefully somewhere near the Ft Bragg DZs.
It was run like a detail sort-of. Everyone knew if they were a jumper or support. When the weather got shitty you knew you were going to get the call. Riggers hated it also. Tore up a lot of chutes. Only good thing is I never remembered a great number of jumpers for any operation. IIRC it was less than 20.
The problem for the individual jumper was you couldn't see any other jumpers and when you hit the ground you didn't have the slightest idea which way to go.
When I jumped I was lucky in that I always found somebody else fairly quickly and was able to find a trail - and then shorty a jeep running around.
I was on the DZ party the night the conversation on the ground with the A/C went something like "They're out?" "Are you sure?" "Shit, I don't even hear the A/C." We were looking for guys and chutes well into the next afternoon.
I think they practiced with SF for a few months and then tried a few larger operations with the 82nd. Never heard anything about it after that.
Would have to get an Air Force type from the day to explain how AWADS tied into CARP. The big difference was with AWADS you couldn't see crap.
Have used CARP on Blind or Area DZs but yes, much prefer GMRS.