I've been back from Airborne for about a week now. I must say that it sucks. Not particularly challenging, it was mostly tedious. Granted, it was tedious for a good reason. Things can get quite dangerous when you are leaping from a low-flying aircraft, but it was tedious none the less.
Ground week went by about as fast as pond water. Day Zero, or In-Processing Day was incredibly boring, consisting of about eight hours of standing and sitting around in miserable weather. The next morning we were up bright and early for an APFT. If you can't pass a PT test, then you're a joke, and probably shouldn't be in the Army anyhow. Despite that, we lost almost eighty people from our class for inability to pass the APFT. Later that day we ran out to the Ground Phase Training area, which is about one half of a mile from the barracks. We learned the basics of how to put on a parachute harness, and rip cord grip awareness. Accidental deployments of a reserve parachute can be very dangerous. In an aircraft, it can drag the soldier out of the paratroop door in a less than safe manner, possibly taking other soldiers with him. On the ground it is just a pain in the ass to gather up and deal with. Then we began learning out Five Points of performance:
1. Proper exit, check body position, and count.
2. Check canopy and gain canopy control.
3. Keep a sharp lookout during entire descent.
4. Prepare to land.
5. Land.
The first few days focused on Points of Performance 1 and 2. By the end of the week we had also learned 4 and 5. 1 and 2 were honed using the "mock door" which is a very basic mockup of the inside of an aircraft with benches, an anchorline cable, and a paratroop door. 4 and 5 were practiced on the LDA or "lateral drift apparatus." The military is full of unneccesary acronyms, but hey, they sound cool. The LDA is basically a small scale zipline, on which you hang until told to release. Your forward momentum simulates lateral drift, and you are forced to do a proper PLF (Parachutist Landing Fall) to have a safe landing. PT during ground week was simple. Aside from one mild smoke session, it was a series of very easy runs, the longest being about 3.2 miles.
The weekend after ground week, I went and visited the Arndts in Atlanta. I was greeted with warm hospitality, only to be expected from a child of the Masons and her husband. Andy was a very gracious host and seemed obsessed with assuring that I was properly hydrated. I had a delicious dinner with them Saturday night and attended mass with them the next morning. From there we went on to Lunch at Chili's and a romp about Michael's as Megan looked for school supplies.
Tower week was slightly more interesting. We practiced exits from the 38 foot mock tower. On an interesting side note, almost any obstacle in the military built to instill fear in the user is about 40 feet high. This is because at some point around World War 2, scientists discovered that the human mind was most scared at this altitude, and that we started to lose depth perception any higher than it. As our height passes 40 feet, we lose our sense of perspective, and thus our fear. The start of the week was spent this way, and as we the week wore on we moved to the SLT or "Swing Land Trainer." This particular diabolical device leaves you swinging on a rope twelve feet above the ground. The other end of the rope is in the hand of Sgt. Airborne, who drops you unexpectedly. You are expected to do a proper PLF. The last day or two of tower week was spent covering malfunctions, and there are a myriad of malfunctions. From high altitude entanglements (we had one on our first jump), water landings, wire landings, tree landings, parachute malfunctions, to being towed by the aircraft, you name it and there is a procedure for it. Our PT was culminated by a five mile run, of which the climax was "cardiac hill." I think my pulse may have increased a little bit, but I certainly wasn't working hard.
Jump week was much more fun. We didn't jump on Monday because of high winds on the drop zone. On Tuesday we actually completed three jumps, which is almost unheard of for the Airborne School. On Wednesday we did our final two.
Jumping out of an airplane is a very unnatural act. You get trained and drilled so thoroughly in the actions to take, that you don't really think about it. As we stood up and hooked into the anchor line cable on Tuesday, I remember feeling like I was in a dream. That is, until the first soldier in my stick exited the aircraft. The shuffle towards that C-130 paratroop door felt like a date with destiny. I refused to allow myself to consider what I was doing. When I reached the jump master safety, I looked him dead in the eye, passed of my static line, performed a quick pivot to the right, looked up into the sky (to avoid looking at the ground), and kicked out of the door. Nothing can really prepare for jumping into a one hundred and forty knot wind. Then you get grabbed and thrown by the prop blast. The whole time you must be locked into a tight body position. If not, the air will catch one of your extremities and spin you, resulting in twisted risers and suspension lines. I was so shocked by the force of the prop blast, that my body position was a little weak on my first jump. It resulted in a few twists in my risers, but nothing that wasn't easily corrected. It only took about a minute for me to descend, and I came down on hard dirt road that ran through the drop zone. I performed a proper PLF, and had a rather comfortable landing. The rest of my jumps went even more smoothly, and by my third or fourth exit, my nervousness was replaced simply with excited anticipation to exit the aircraft.
Graduation sucked. It was pooring the whole morning before hand. And being December, by the time the ceremony was over we all had ice on our BDU's. I bought a few items for Christmas, went out to eat with my mom, and then drove home.
I managed to surprise Mer by returning a day earlier than expected. The look on her face was classic.
