Quote:
Originally Posted by CDRODA396
I don't know about the Rangers, but the Brigade Air Officer for the Div jump left it up to the JM Teams. I was JM on my bird, and me and the other JM both decided we would go with Reserves, but no safety wire through the connector, and the waist band rolled and taped out of the way. We figured it was a "familiar" thing and one less "worry" by jumpers with a lot already on their mind.
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Very similar. No pins in the reserves nor in the static lines. I still had the waist strap in.
The real difference for us, was that the safeties were suited up CE and jumped last. JMs were allowed to jump anywhere in the stick dependent on the tactical plan (i.e. jump with their squad).
I look back and remember many of the procedures that were used in training, but abandoned in combat. Not for cool points, but for mission requirements. My parachute was held together with 100mph tape, 90mm rounds that stuck outside of the ruck were taped to stay in, jumping safeties, no safety pins, etc
Many of those procedures we learned were because we really didn't train as we fought. Training rucks were always full of water, food, snivel gear... not ammo! I had so much ammo that I even ditched my woobie in favor of an extra box of 7.62 belt fed and it broke my ruck frame when I hit the ground.
To the OP topic. I can't imagine dropping another 150-200 ft. I would imagine there are a lot of factors that include ADA threat, terrain, etc that could force a higher risk jump to be conducted at lower AGL.
My hat is off to those that jumped that low to eventually keep me safe on my jump into Panama!