Navy Parachutists Rescued From Trees (SEALS)

[Team Sergeant]

LOL, ouch, that's going to leave a mark........


Navy Parachutists Rescued From Trees
June 16, 2010
Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Five parachutists from a Navy special warfare unit became trapped in trees Tuesday in a remote part of Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story and were rescued with the help of the city Fire Department.
It took about two hours to get them all down.
The city was called to help military rescue workers about 9:30 a.m., said Bruce Nedelka, the city's emergency medical services division chief.
One of the five service members fell to the ground when a tree limb broke, Nedelka said, and was taken to a Norfolk hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Three ambulances, two fire engines, two ladder trucks, two specialty rescue trucks and two battalion chiefs were dispatched to the scene, Nedelka said.
The five service members, assigned to Naval Special Warfare Group 2, were on a routine parachute-training exercise, said Chief Petty Officer Robert Fluegel, a Navy spokesman. He said the accident is under investigation.
Special warfare teams include SEALs, the Navy's secretive, highly trained sea-air-land commandos. Fluegel would not say if the five parachutists were SEALs.


http://www.military.com/news/article...rom-trees.html

[craigepo]

hehe. Been there, done that. Thank heavens there were no cameras around.

Being stuck in a tree is not cool. Parachute harness leg straps + stuck in tree=being perilously close to castration.

Whoever came up with the idea of "climb down your reserve parachute" had clearly never attemtped the task.

[2018commo]

I spent a night and most of the next day unscrewing a mess at AP Hill after most of our company landed in the trees. After which the dz became known as DZ Death... lots of stories from that night! I suspect most of us have that tee shirt.

[Pete]

It was dark last night. If the city was called arounf 9:30AM I'd assume it was a night jump.

When you think you're going into the trees on a dark night you don't have much time to adjust when you can start making out the trees from the voids.

I sneaked into a void one time just big enough for my -1. But the full moon helped, was able to pick out the spot from about 100', pull a toggle and slip in.

Thought I was going into the trees one dark, dark night and at about 10' realized it was a bean field. "Crap - splat" ate the ruck and busted the frame.

[Dozer523]

Jumping into Jordan late one night, my leg bag and ruck got all hung up. I'm trying to untie, shake stuff loose. (I think I waddled off the ramp at 2.5X my original weight) Looked around saw the trees below, "Oh I've got plenty of time . . . "
HEY WAIT A MINUTE . . . there aren't any trees here!
WAM! Augured in, next to a bush.

[nousdefions]

Funny .... I don't remember any bushes either .....

You didn't miss anything, it still hurt

I once participated in a 2 hr NOE flight, followed by a rough terrain jump. If I were asked today if I would do it again, I'd opt out saying I had an expense report to write or help the S1 with soldier family DEERs enrollment.

I prayed for a tree vs. the extremely rocky, (boulders) slope I landed on. I kept the ruck on for protection.

[tst43]

Originally Posted by Dozer523

Jumping into Jordan late one night, my leg bag and ruck got all hung up. I'm trying to untie, shake stuff loose. (I think I waddled off the ramp at 2.5X my original weight) Looked around saw the trees below, "Oh I've got plenty of time . . . "
HEY WAIT A MINUTE . . . there aren't any trees here!
WAM! Augured in, next to a bush.

I had a similar experience on what turned out to be the hardest drop zone I had ever bounced off in Georgia. A 750 ft. ceiling and absolutely no light...descended to what I thought had to be tree-top level. Deployed the lowering line and felt the initial tug from the ruck, only to feel the lowering line go immediately limp. Thinking my ruck had separated from the lowering line, I looked down (opening my legs in the process) to see if I could spot my ruck. I quickly found out that the reason the lowering line went limp...I was just before impact on the DZ! That one left several marks.

The hardest DZ in the world, Guam. Nothing but old steel grates that supported aircraft during WWII.

[Basenshukai]

I thought they jumped over at Raeford DZ when I first read the title. Which reminds me of a time I landed near a home my TS landed on that home - in Raeford. Well, I guess that's why we practice.