Airborne School...!
There are those who think that reviving the past in our memories is rather wasted. One should be thinking of the future. But, as we learn, those who forget the past are doomed to make the same mistakes over again. I find also, that when taken in perspective, the hard times of today are nothing as when compared to some in the past. Gratitude in a perverse way.
In the last post I recounted my hot 3 mile walks everyday and while on those walks, miserable as they may be, I often think back to 35 years ago and recall that todays hot three mile walks "ain'tshi" squat compared with "hell on earth"....US Army Airborne School. I actually went on to another school after Airborne that was more demanding physically and mentally, but Airborne School was my awakening.
The U.S. Army Airborne School is located at Ft. Benning, Georgia which in the summer is truly hell on earth, even without physical exertion. The daily temperature was in the mid to upper 90's but the humidity was 40% or better. This is one of those army experiences where you had better be in shape when you arrived or it was too late. A drill sergeant later told me their goal was to wash out at least 30% of the class in the first two days. I think they did that and more in my class. Anyway, I had two fraternity brothers who had been to Vietnam already and the only advice they gave was that if you go, brother be in shape. The fat, slow and dumb get killed. I took this to heart, "Fat=Dead" "In shape=Alive". I don't think I've ever completely given that thought up. So, while I was in the relatively sedentary Infantry Officer Basic Course, I had run more than required on my own and was in pretty good shape.
The airborne course is 3 weeks long, the first week being designed to weed the weak sisters out with long, long runs and some basic airborne techniques. The uniform every day was the old army fatiques that were thick as denim, heavy boots and the issue steel helmet that weighs 5 lbs. and is dark colored to absorb heat, with the chin strap to be buckled at all times. This makes it difficult to open ones mouth wide enough to suck in much air at all while running. Shirt sleeves not to be rolled up. The only concession to the heat was that we got to untuck our pants legs from the boots and roll them up to the top of the boot.
The airborne day got started at 5 a.m. with the order, "fall in on the cables". The cables being just that, long orderly rows of wire cables on which one put the toe of his boot to form ranks. Being an officer I lived in seperate quarters from the enlisted swine, so I always got to the area at about 4:50 a.m. having eaten just enough breakfast so I knew that it would be digested by the time the barfing started an hour later. After roll call the daily orders were dispensed through WWII era loud speakers placed all over the company areas. We later agreed that all we ever heard was, "Attention in the 49th company area....". All after that was garbled gibberish, the announcer being so enthusiastic that he yelled so loudly into the microphone that it caused static throughout the entire system. An occasional word of English slipped thru, but the announcer might as well have been speaking Mandarin Chinese, we didn't understand a word. Nor, did we have to, we had no latitude in what was going to happen to us that day anyway.
From the first formation we moved to "physical training" or PT, aka sanctioned torture. About an hour of calisthentics followed by our first run of the day, a three miler around a circuitous asphalt path, running in boots, the heavy fatiques and those damned helmets. Since the sun was now up, it was already hot. The army's solution to overheating was to have overhanging showers along the track about every mile which sprayed down upon the formation whether you wanted to get soaked or not. It felt pretty good, until your soaking pants started cutting rashes into your crotch. This is when I first learned not to wear underwear in some situations. There was another 2 mile run after lunch, so those who had not barfed enough in the morning could have another shot. I can't describe the feeling of all that sweat pouring thru heavy cloths, crotch rash burning and with the helmet on, no way to wipe the drips from your forehead as they ran into the eyes.
In the first week there were a few hours of instruction in the afternoon covering things like how to put the parachute on and how to properly land after jumping. The army uses a "5 points of contact" method when your body comes crashing to earth so we worked on this for days. It involves landing on the balls of the feet, rolling to the calf, the thigh, the side of the butt and then the curve of the back. We practiced this off of 4 and 6 foot walls into pits of sand, dirt and sawdust. All of these materials stick like clue to sweating bodies and increase the misery of the heat dramatically. With 400 or so people practicing in a group, the wait in the sun for your turn to be critqued was long. Good fun waiting for a 2 second experience only to be told by the instructor, "no good, do it again". The instructors, by the way, were the cream of the crop in the army, were good, demanding and could and would curse like.....well drill instructors. Mostly spitting right into your face from a foot away while doing so. The only concession to me as an officer was that after their cursing tirade they'd have to add a "sir" usually with a big, fake grin.
The second week was filled with many fun filled apparatii designed to simulate aiborne operations. Here are a few in pictures...
The "suspended harness" apparatus shown above is used to give trainees the feel of hanging in the parachute harness and work on manuevering the chute thru the "risers" coming off the harness. New jumpers need pay special attention to rigging up their harness as the main support straps go thru the legs on either side of some delicate male property. If the trainee gets it wrong he'll know it when the instructors raise him 4 ft. off the floor.
The "swing landing trainer" above is the most dreaded device of airborne school. It is used to show trainees what it is like to be coming down near the ground in a chute while drifting in one direction and at the same time swinging like a pendulum. The trainee steps off of a 12 ft. platform and is swung, and towed ahead while an instructor lowers the man nearer the ground with a pulley. Whenever the instructor is ready, he releases the pulley rope and down goes the jumper. The job description for instructors here requires some knowledge of sadism, as most of the time they will release the poor trainee when he is highest in his upswing sometimes many feet off the ground. I usually landed very hard on my helmeted head, more than once knocking me dizzy.
The final 3 days of Airborne School are devoted to actually jumping from a C-130 aircraft. Many people will tell you that after the 2 weeks of the hell period, the jumping is anti-climatic. Not really but you are just glad to get it over with. It is a lot of waiting and soul searching. Will I do OK, will I be a "no go" and chicken out. Some did, most jumped, the kid behind me was crying, I couldn't I was an officer. The experience is exhilirating, particularly when the open the door at 120 knots. The training pays off, the green light comes on and you go. I ended up making close to 100 jumps in my army career, many at night. I was never injured seriously and frankly after all that training I don't think that I ever made one of those "5 point landings". Mine all seemed to be 2 point landings. Feet and butt.
There are those who think that reviving the past in our memories is rather wasted. One should be thinking of the future. But, as we learn, those who forget the past are doomed to make the same mistakes over again. I find also, that when taken in perspective, the hard times of today are nothing as when compared to some in the past. Gratitude in a perverse way.
In the last post I recounted my hot 3 mile walks everyday and while on those walks, miserable as they may be, I often think back to 35 years ago and recall that todays hot three mile walks "ain't
The U.S. Army Airborne School is located at Ft. Benning, Georgia which in the summer is truly hell on earth, even without physical exertion. The daily temperature was in the mid to upper 90's but the humidity was 40% or better. This is one of those army experiences where you had better be in shape when you arrived or it was too late. A drill sergeant later told me their goal was to wash out at least 30% of the class in the first two days. I think they did that and more in my class. Anyway, I had two fraternity brothers who had been to Vietnam already and the only advice they gave was that if you go, brother be in shape. The fat, slow and dumb get killed. I took this to heart, "Fat=Dead" "In shape=Alive". I don't think I've ever completely given that thought up. So, while I was in the relatively sedentary Infantry Officer Basic Course, I had run more than required on my own and was in pretty good shape.
The airborne course is 3 weeks long, the first week being designed to weed the weak sisters out with long, long runs and some basic airborne techniques. The uniform every day was the old army fatiques that were thick as denim, heavy boots and the issue steel helmet that weighs 5 lbs. and is dark colored to absorb heat, with the chin strap to be buckled at all times. This makes it difficult to open ones mouth wide enough to suck in much air at all while running. Shirt sleeves not to be rolled up. The only concession to the heat was that we got to untuck our pants legs from the boots and roll them up to the top of the boot.
The airborne day got started at 5 a.m. with the order, "fall in on the cables". The cables being just that, long orderly rows of wire cables on which one put the toe of his boot to form ranks. Being an officer I lived in seperate quarters from the enlisted swine, so I always got to the area at about 4:50 a.m. having eaten just enough breakfast so I knew that it would be digested by the time the barfing started an hour later. After roll call the daily orders were dispensed through WWII era loud speakers placed all over the company areas. We later agreed that all we ever heard was, "Attention in the 49th company area....". All after that was garbled gibberish, the announcer being so enthusiastic that he yelled so loudly into the microphone that it caused static throughout the entire system. An occasional word of English slipped thru, but the announcer might as well have been speaking Mandarin Chinese, we didn't understand a word. Nor, did we have to, we had no latitude in what was going to happen to us that day anyway.
From the first formation we moved to "physical training" or PT, aka sanctioned torture. About an hour of calisthentics followed by our first run of the day, a three miler around a circuitous asphalt path, running in boots, the heavy fatiques and those damned helmets. Since the sun was now up, it was already hot. The army's solution to overheating was to have overhanging showers along the track about every mile which sprayed down upon the formation whether you wanted to get soaked or not. It felt pretty good, until your soaking pants started cutting rashes into your crotch. This is when I first learned not to wear underwear in some situations. There was another 2 mile run after lunch, so those who had not barfed enough in the morning could have another shot. I can't describe the feeling of all that sweat pouring thru heavy cloths, crotch rash burning and with the helmet on, no way to wipe the drips from your forehead as they ran into the eyes.
In the first week there were a few hours of instruction in the afternoon covering things like how to put the parachute on and how to properly land after jumping. The army uses a "5 points of contact" method when your body comes crashing to earth so we worked on this for days. It involves landing on the balls of the feet, rolling to the calf, the thigh, the side of the butt and then the curve of the back. We practiced this off of 4 and 6 foot walls into pits of sand, dirt and sawdust. All of these materials stick like clue to sweating bodies and increase the misery of the heat dramatically. With 400 or so people practicing in a group, the wait in the sun for your turn to be critqued was long. Good fun waiting for a 2 second experience only to be told by the instructor, "no good, do it again". The instructors, by the way, were the cream of the crop in the army, were good, demanding and could and would curse like.....well drill instructors. Mostly spitting right into your face from a foot away while doing so. The only concession to me as an officer was that after their cursing tirade they'd have to add a "sir" usually with a big, fake grin.
The second week was filled with many fun filled apparatii designed to simulate aiborne operations. Here are a few in pictures...
The "suspended harness" apparatus shown above is used to give trainees the feel of hanging in the parachute harness and work on manuevering the chute thru the "risers" coming off the harness. New jumpers need pay special attention to rigging up their harness as the main support straps go thru the legs on either side of some delicate male property. If the trainee gets it wrong he'll know it when the instructors raise him 4 ft. off the floor.
The "swing landing trainer" above is the most dreaded device of airborne school. It is used to show trainees what it is like to be coming down near the ground in a chute while drifting in one direction and at the same time swinging like a pendulum. The trainee steps off of a 12 ft. platform and is swung, and towed ahead while an instructor lowers the man nearer the ground with a pulley. Whenever the instructor is ready, he releases the pulley rope and down goes the jumper. The job description for instructors here requires some knowledge of sadism, as most of the time they will release the poor trainee when he is highest in his upswing sometimes many feet off the ground. I usually landed very hard on my helmeted head, more than once knocking me dizzy.
The final 3 days of Airborne School are devoted to actually jumping from a C-130 aircraft. Many people will tell you that after the 2 weeks of the hell period, the jumping is anti-climatic. Not really but you are just glad to get it over with. It is a lot of waiting and soul searching. Will I do OK, will I be a "no go" and chicken out. Some did, most jumped, the kid behind me was crying, I couldn't I was an officer. The experience is exhilirating, particularly when the open the door at 120 knots. The training pays off, the green light comes on and you go. I ended up making close to 100 jumps in my army career, many at night. I was never injured seriously and frankly after all that training I don't think that I ever made one of those "5 point landings". Mine all seemed to be 2 point landings. Feet and butt.
