So, I know I had said that we'd be jumping yesterday but the winds were too heavy. We sat in a shed all day. It was horrible. If you really want that story, call me or something. In bigger news:
I jumped out of a plane today! Twice! It was a freaking rush. Much more fun than I had expected. I thought I was going to be freaking out on the plane and what not, but I wasn't. I was pretty calm and collected compared to most everyone else. I was messing with people, trying to get them to chill out. However, once we were given the 30 second warning, I did freak out just a little. I zoned in on the Jumpmaster Safety (the guy you give your static line to right before you jump out the door) and tried to not concentrate on the door. Then the green light came on and I didn't even think about it. I just shuffled forward, handed my line off and turned. Once I turned to jump out, I had no choice. I just jumped. I knew that if I didn't I was going to get a boot in my ass and kicked out anyway. When you leave the plane its crazy. I quit breathing for a few seconds (my heart may have stopped too). The silence is eerie... The propeller blast throws you behind the plane. The next thing you know you feel a tug and your parachute is above you, deployed.
My first landing was perfect. I pulled the right slip to slow me down, had good body position, and did a proper PLF. I got a little flustered when I landed and had to slow myself down and think about what I was doing with my recovery. But all in all, I did great. My second jump however, I got messed up by the wind. I was blowing all over the place on the way down and had trouble deciding on which slip to pull. Right at 200 feet I decided that a rear slip would be best, I got prepared to pull it and I felt my body turn and start drifting right. Quickly, I pulled a left slip and prepared to land. However, the wind grabbed my chute and pulled me backwards about 2 seconds above the ground (40-50 feet). This put my body in bad position. I landed on my feet, then my butt, then hit my head. Hurt SO bad. But, I'm unscathed and undeterred.
Tomorrow we are going to try and jump two more times. Hopefully, we can get both in. The first one is in combat equipment. That's going to suck sitting in the shed with all that gear on. But, its what I gotta do. I'll let you all know how it goes.
Chris
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Tomorrow's the day
So, tomorrow is the day that these last two weeks have been building up to. I am finally about to make the stupidest decision of my life. Who in their right mind wouldn't be excited, right? Actually though, I am really not as nervous as I should be. Given, I still have my boots on the ground, once that plane starts moving, I might get pretty scared. And if I started to cry when the door opens, it wouldn't surprise me... But, I'll try my best to update this thing tomorrow. No promises though. As it is, I'm waking up at 2:45 tomorrow and we most likely won't be home until AT LEAST 8 pm... Not to mention the emotional roller coaster that comes with jumping out of a plane twice tomorrow. Anyway, Love and Miss you. Also, if both my parachutes fail to deploy, have a good life. Just Kidding. There is only like an 86% failure rate on main chutes and a 63% failure rate on reserves... I'll be fine.
Chris
Chris
Friday, February 12, 2010
The Devil's Torture Device
So, I'm finally done with Week Two. All my training is done and over with. Supposedly, I'm all trained up and ready to jump out of planes. Which is exactly what I'll be doing Tuesday morning. This coming week will be the most intense week of my life (or close to it). I will be jumping out of the plane 5 times. My first jump will be the scariest, obviously. After that it's all about jumping with gear on and with lots of people coming out of the plane quickly. I will try and update my blog often this week, but no promises. Going to be a lot of late nights and early mornings...
The run down on this past week:
Monday:
We were allowed to skip PT because a lot of people were out late watching the Superbowl. We formed up at 0830 and get straight to training. Our platoon started working on the mock doors. The mock doors are replicas of the inside of a C-17 or C-130. We practiced all the commands and actions taken inside the plane prior to jumping. It was pretty easy and most people picked up on it pretty quickly.
Afterwards, we started on Mass Exits from the 34 foot tower. We got into 4 man groups and had to do 4 different kinds of jumps from the tower. We had to get "Go's" on a Hollywood (no gear) with a partial malfunction, Hollywood full malfunction, Full Combat Gear (Ruck sack and weapon) partial malfunction, and Full Combat Gear full malfunction. For the most part it was pretty easy. Our group took 6 tries and got a Go in all 4 categories. The bags hang from your waist and in front of your legs, like the pack in the picture:
It weighs about 30 pounds. These bags were a pain in the ass to lug up and down the tower. We finished all of our jumps on Monday then we worked a detail retrieving the alice packs.
Tuesday:
For PT we did Grass Drills. For people familiar with football drills, this is very close to Up-Downs. The Sergeant Airborne says Front and you start doing pushups. He says back and you start doing flutter kicks. And if he says Go you stand up and start running. He might also tell you to roll left or right. You get pretty dirty and its a pretty fun workout.
After morning chow, we went back to the tower to finish up the people who hadn't finished all their jumps. I worked the rope detail which sucked because I was one of the few details that was exposed to the rain, the wind, and the mud. I got very, VERY dirty. I was also very wet and freezing. P.S. Georgia weather SUCKS.
After Lunch, we took a class on the Swing Landing Trainer. The Swing Landing Trainer is the most painful torture device I have been hooked up to. Here's a video for you to watch. It doesn't look too bad here. I'm not sure who was running it in this video, but they are much nicer than our Sergeant Airborne's. Luckily, I did not have to attempt the SLT on Tuesday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Gzzle_GqI&feature=PlayList&p=C7D20697BA481993&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2
Wednesday:
For PT, we did Circuit Drills. We run around the track and stop every couple hundred meters and do some kind of exercise, then run again and do another exercise, for about 50 minutes. We ended up doing 2 miles and a lot of exercises.... But great PT, fun stuff.
After morning chow, it was time to head back to the SLT, and this time it was my turn in the harness. As you can kind of see by the video above, what happens is that you jump off a 12 foot platform, harnessed in to a swing. The swing catches you and you swing back and forth. Then you pull a slip, just pull two of your risers, which slows you down as you approach the ground, and then the instructor drops you and you perform a "PLF." You have to get Go's on 2 each from your left and right, and 1 each from your front right, front left, rear right, and rear left. This means you have to get 8 Go's. I had to go 17 times to get those 8 Go's. Although, it doesn't look that violent, believe me, it is. When the harness catches you, it pulls on your body. Well, for guys, it happens to put pressure on the one part of the body that causes the most pain, our balls... (sorry if thats a little harsh for some of you, but its exactly what happens). By the end of the day, it felt as if I had been punched in the balls 17 times. I had chafing on my inner thighs and below my stomach where my leg meets my pelvic bone, like right above the man area. This chafing was soooo bad that I had blood running down my leg. We came to a conclusion that if the Devil wanted to build a torture device, he would build the Swing Landing Trainer. Wednesday was definitely the most painful day of Airborne school. P.S. It's very VERY cold in Georgia.
After dinner chow, our platoon sergeant decided to revoke our pass. I had planned on going to bed early, however, we needed to clean our barracks because a few people had made some poor decisions earlier in the day. We stood at parade rest in our hall, passing one broom around, from 1900 to 2130. It was the most retarded thing ever.
Thursday:
Thursday was an easy day. For PT we had a 4 mile run that included a very large hill, aptly named Cardiac Hill. After that, we had two final classes to pop out before the week was over. The morning class was on diagonal slips and what to do if a malfunction occurs in the air. The practical exercise was pretty lame and the device was in a few inches of water. Thus, everyone's feet were soaked and we were all freezing. P.S. Did I mention its cold in Georgia.
After lunch, we got divided up into the chalks that we'll be jumping in next week. A couple guys I've gotten to know these last 2 weeks are in my group, so that's good. And then we went back out to our last class on malfunctions that can happen with our chutes and what to do if they occurred. It was pretty lame and we had already been taught most of it. But luckily it was our last block of training. We were finally released for our 4 day weekend. So, as I mentioned it is cold and windy in Georgia. From being outside in all this shit, I have a very painful wind burn on my face. I have never experienced wind burn. But basically, what it feels like is similar to if you were in a bucket of ice for a while, then jumped into the Hot Tub. You still feel cold, but hot, and its all tingly. I get to deal with this all weekend.
Friday:
Today has been pretty chill. Start of a 4 day weekend. I woke up around 9 and me and a buddy went to Burger King for breakfast. Then I had a 2 hour guard from noon to 2 pm. Around 8:30 this morning it began to snow. It hasn't stopped since (it's 6 pm right now). In Georgia, the 3 inches we've accumulated is a catastrophic event. We went to Subway for lunch at 2 and we were told at 2:30 that we needed to leave because they were closing down. This is what most of Columbus has done. We are hoping we can get a taxi that is willing to drive on the freeway to get us to the movie theater to go see Wolfman in a bit. But, that may not be a possibility... Anyway, hope you all have a great President's Weekend. I will update you as much as I can next week. Hope I get to see some of you soon!
Chris
The run down on this past week:
Monday:
We were allowed to skip PT because a lot of people were out late watching the Superbowl. We formed up at 0830 and get straight to training. Our platoon started working on the mock doors. The mock doors are replicas of the inside of a C-17 or C-130. We practiced all the commands and actions taken inside the plane prior to jumping. It was pretty easy and most people picked up on it pretty quickly.
Afterwards, we started on Mass Exits from the 34 foot tower. We got into 4 man groups and had to do 4 different kinds of jumps from the tower. We had to get "Go's" on a Hollywood (no gear) with a partial malfunction, Hollywood full malfunction, Full Combat Gear (Ruck sack and weapon) partial malfunction, and Full Combat Gear full malfunction. For the most part it was pretty easy. Our group took 6 tries and got a Go in all 4 categories. The bags hang from your waist and in front of your legs, like the pack in the picture:
It weighs about 30 pounds. These bags were a pain in the ass to lug up and down the tower. We finished all of our jumps on Monday then we worked a detail retrieving the alice packs.
Tuesday:
For PT we did Grass Drills. For people familiar with football drills, this is very close to Up-Downs. The Sergeant Airborne says Front and you start doing pushups. He says back and you start doing flutter kicks. And if he says Go you stand up and start running. He might also tell you to roll left or right. You get pretty dirty and its a pretty fun workout.
After morning chow, we went back to the tower to finish up the people who hadn't finished all their jumps. I worked the rope detail which sucked because I was one of the few details that was exposed to the rain, the wind, and the mud. I got very, VERY dirty. I was also very wet and freezing. P.S. Georgia weather SUCKS.
After Lunch, we took a class on the Swing Landing Trainer. The Swing Landing Trainer is the most painful torture device I have been hooked up to. Here's a video for you to watch. It doesn't look too bad here. I'm not sure who was running it in this video, but they are much nicer than our Sergeant Airborne's. Luckily, I did not have to attempt the SLT on Tuesday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Gzzle_GqI&feature=PlayList&p=C7D20697BA481993&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2
Wednesday:
For PT, we did Circuit Drills. We run around the track and stop every couple hundred meters and do some kind of exercise, then run again and do another exercise, for about 50 minutes. We ended up doing 2 miles and a lot of exercises.... But great PT, fun stuff.
After morning chow, it was time to head back to the SLT, and this time it was my turn in the harness. As you can kind of see by the video above, what happens is that you jump off a 12 foot platform, harnessed in to a swing. The swing catches you and you swing back and forth. Then you pull a slip, just pull two of your risers, which slows you down as you approach the ground, and then the instructor drops you and you perform a "PLF." You have to get Go's on 2 each from your left and right, and 1 each from your front right, front left, rear right, and rear left. This means you have to get 8 Go's. I had to go 17 times to get those 8 Go's. Although, it doesn't look that violent, believe me, it is. When the harness catches you, it pulls on your body. Well, for guys, it happens to put pressure on the one part of the body that causes the most pain, our balls... (sorry if thats a little harsh for some of you, but its exactly what happens). By the end of the day, it felt as if I had been punched in the balls 17 times. I had chafing on my inner thighs and below my stomach where my leg meets my pelvic bone, like right above the man area. This chafing was soooo bad that I had blood running down my leg. We came to a conclusion that if the Devil wanted to build a torture device, he would build the Swing Landing Trainer. Wednesday was definitely the most painful day of Airborne school. P.S. It's very VERY cold in Georgia.
After dinner chow, our platoon sergeant decided to revoke our pass. I had planned on going to bed early, however, we needed to clean our barracks because a few people had made some poor decisions earlier in the day. We stood at parade rest in our hall, passing one broom around, from 1900 to 2130. It was the most retarded thing ever.
Thursday:
Thursday was an easy day. For PT we had a 4 mile run that included a very large hill, aptly named Cardiac Hill. After that, we had two final classes to pop out before the week was over. The morning class was on diagonal slips and what to do if a malfunction occurs in the air. The practical exercise was pretty lame and the device was in a few inches of water. Thus, everyone's feet were soaked and we were all freezing. P.S. Did I mention its cold in Georgia.
After lunch, we got divided up into the chalks that we'll be jumping in next week. A couple guys I've gotten to know these last 2 weeks are in my group, so that's good. And then we went back out to our last class on malfunctions that can happen with our chutes and what to do if they occurred. It was pretty lame and we had already been taught most of it. But luckily it was our last block of training. We were finally released for our 4 day weekend. So, as I mentioned it is cold and windy in Georgia. From being outside in all this shit, I have a very painful wind burn on my face. I have never experienced wind burn. But basically, what it feels like is similar to if you were in a bucket of ice for a while, then jumped into the Hot Tub. You still feel cold, but hot, and its all tingly. I get to deal with this all weekend.
Friday:
Today has been pretty chill. Start of a 4 day weekend. I woke up around 9 and me and a buddy went to Burger King for breakfast. Then I had a 2 hour guard from noon to 2 pm. Around 8:30 this morning it began to snow. It hasn't stopped since (it's 6 pm right now). In Georgia, the 3 inches we've accumulated is a catastrophic event. We went to Subway for lunch at 2 and we were told at 2:30 that we needed to leave because they were closing down. This is what most of Columbus has done. We are hoping we can get a taxi that is willing to drive on the freeway to get us to the movie theater to go see Wolfman in a bit. But, that may not be a possibility... Anyway, hope you all have a great President's Weekend. I will update you as much as I can next week. Hope I get to see some of you soon!
Chris
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
I suck....
Hey guys-
I just wanted to let you know that I know I haven't posted a new blog all week (I feel like such a nerd using the term blog...). But I have had some really long days this week. Tomorrow should be short and not a lot to do, plus I have Friday through Monday off so I will definitely post a new blog this weekend.
I love and miss you all (except one or two of you... you know who...).
Chris
I just wanted to let you know that I know I haven't posted a new blog all week (I feel like such a nerd using the term blog...). But I have had some really long days this week. Tomorrow should be short and not a lot to do, plus I have Friday through Monday off so I will definitely post a new blog this weekend.
I love and miss you all (except one or two of you... you know who...).
Chris
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Pain is the Cure for Everything.
So, its Wednesday night of our first week. For those of you who have trouble counting (you know who you are) thats 3 full days of Airborne School over with. I'll do my best to give you all a run through of this week so far. Bear in mind that I am really tired and really sore, so it may be a little nonsensical at times.
Monday:
Monday morning I woke up at 0250. We had a PT test at 0400, which means formation is at 0345. In the Army you have to shave, brush your teeth and have everything cleaned up by PT formation. I like to wake up a little before everyone else and get shaved so that I don't have to fight for the sinks.
I passed my PT test pretty easily. The 2 mile run was a little tougher than usual but I still ran faster than most (cuz I'm a beast). It was probably below 20 degrees, although I'm not 100% sure.
We then had chow and changed into ACU's (our digital camouflage uniform). It was time to start training to fall out of planes. We went and watched some demonstrations of the next 2 weeks and saw all the apparatus's we were going to train on. It was a pretty funny demo to watch. After the presentation thingy we started learning how to put on a parachute and a reserve parachute. You would assume that a parachute, with the dangers involved, would be pretty complicated to put on. However, it is really REALLY easy. It's three latches and then tightening it up correctly. That's it. Weirded me out that 5 minutes of training was all we needed to don a parachute.
After lunch we learned how to exit a mock door. It's how we practice exiting a plane. You have to do this gay shuffle thing to the door and when you jump you keep your feet and knees together and get a good tight body position. It reminds me of a high diver doing some kind of crazy flip or something. Overall, it was pretty simple.
Tuesday:
We woke up at 0420 for an 0510 formation. Come to find out... PT isn't til 0600 so we end up being outside for 50 minutes for no reason. Wait, there is a reason... Our Student Platoon Sergeant is a Marine Drill Instructor. So... he's kind of gay about stupid shit... PT was amazing. We did Circuits. I was pretty motivated during PT and it pretty much lasted all day.
After Breakfast we got a demonstration on how to properly exit the 34 foot tower. The 34 foot tower is a mock up of an airplane. You jump out of it and fall approximately 10 feet and the harness catches you and sends you down a zipline. The goal is that as you jump out you keep that tight body position we learned on Monday, count to 4 correctly (sounds easy, but when you're falling out of a tower you maybe say the wrong thing, for instance instead of One Thousand, Two thousand... you might say One one-thousand, Two one-thousand... Not speaking from experience, of course...). The first time I jumped I was scared out of my mind. I did everything wrong (including count wrong). However, the next 4 times in a row I did it perfect. Proving once again, that I am a beast. This took all day and was pretty fun. However, the jerk on your body mixed with PT that morning equated to a pretty sore evening.
Wednesday:
PT was a 4 mile run. They call it the Airborne shuffle because we go SOOOO slow. We went at a 9 minute pace and yet there were still people falling out. I don't want to offend any of you that don't run a 9 minute pace, but for people who are supposed to be in shape and do PT frequently, a 9 minute pace is a creep. I can nearly walk a 9 minute pace if I put some effort into it.
Our training for today was learning how to execute a Parachute Landing Fall (PLF). A PLF is executed by landing on the balls of your feet with your legs perpendicular to the direction of travel. As you hit you shift your knees towards the direction of travel to expose your calves and thighs. Then you turn your upper body slightly away from your knees, enough that you can see your heels between the elbows that have been placed in front of your face with your chin tucked. When this is done properly it makes a rocking chair effect out of your body. As you hit you roll across the rocking chair, and kick your legs up and over your opposite shoulder and onto your back. This video is an almost correct PLF: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJx-R8wJLz4&feature=related
We practiced PLF's to the right and left as well as to the front right and the front left. We did them from the ground, from 2 feet high, then from the Lateral Swing Apparatus. This is a zipline that you slide down and let go off when they tell you to. I noticed that the taller guys dropped from about 3 or 4 feet up. However, us shorter people fell from about 5 feet up. I dropped off that zipline probably about 15 or 20 times. Added up with the times we did ground drills and off the wall, we probably all fell atleast 50 times. The real killer though, was that while we waited in line we had to bunny hop when we moved. This sounds easy to bunny hop about a foot every 30 seconds or so. However, after a few hours, it gets tiring... My knees are killing me tonight from all that shit. And in about 8 hours we have PT again... which means it all starts over.
Tomorrow we are doing the same thing. We have to learn rear PLF's. Then continue on what we did today. Luckily, I passed my right, left, and front PLF's today. So, once I pass my rear PLF's, I'm done and just have to run the rope back and forth. Friday we have a pretty easy day. In the morning we are learning how to recover from a PLF (aka take the parachute off and get out of the way of other paratroopers). Then we should get off early. Then its the WEEKEND!!! I can sleep and rest and do nothing!
Anyway, time to get some sleep. Love and miss you all.
Chris
Monday:
Monday morning I woke up at 0250. We had a PT test at 0400, which means formation is at 0345. In the Army you have to shave, brush your teeth and have everything cleaned up by PT formation. I like to wake up a little before everyone else and get shaved so that I don't have to fight for the sinks.
I passed my PT test pretty easily. The 2 mile run was a little tougher than usual but I still ran faster than most (cuz I'm a beast). It was probably below 20 degrees, although I'm not 100% sure.
We then had chow and changed into ACU's (our digital camouflage uniform). It was time to start training to fall out of planes. We went and watched some demonstrations of the next 2 weeks and saw all the apparatus's we were going to train on. It was a pretty funny demo to watch. After the presentation thingy we started learning how to put on a parachute and a reserve parachute. You would assume that a parachute, with the dangers involved, would be pretty complicated to put on. However, it is really REALLY easy. It's three latches and then tightening it up correctly. That's it. Weirded me out that 5 minutes of training was all we needed to don a parachute.
After lunch we learned how to exit a mock door. It's how we practice exiting a plane. You have to do this gay shuffle thing to the door and when you jump you keep your feet and knees together and get a good tight body position. It reminds me of a high diver doing some kind of crazy flip or something. Overall, it was pretty simple.
Tuesday:
We woke up at 0420 for an 0510 formation. Come to find out... PT isn't til 0600 so we end up being outside for 50 minutes for no reason. Wait, there is a reason... Our Student Platoon Sergeant is a Marine Drill Instructor. So... he's kind of gay about stupid shit... PT was amazing. We did Circuits. I was pretty motivated during PT and it pretty much lasted all day.
After Breakfast we got a demonstration on how to properly exit the 34 foot tower. The 34 foot tower is a mock up of an airplane. You jump out of it and fall approximately 10 feet and the harness catches you and sends you down a zipline. The goal is that as you jump out you keep that tight body position we learned on Monday, count to 4 correctly (sounds easy, but when you're falling out of a tower you maybe say the wrong thing, for instance instead of One Thousand, Two thousand... you might say One one-thousand, Two one-thousand... Not speaking from experience, of course...). The first time I jumped I was scared out of my mind. I did everything wrong (including count wrong). However, the next 4 times in a row I did it perfect. Proving once again, that I am a beast. This took all day and was pretty fun. However, the jerk on your body mixed with PT that morning equated to a pretty sore evening.
Wednesday:
PT was a 4 mile run. They call it the Airborne shuffle because we go SOOOO slow. We went at a 9 minute pace and yet there were still people falling out. I don't want to offend any of you that don't run a 9 minute pace, but for people who are supposed to be in shape and do PT frequently, a 9 minute pace is a creep. I can nearly walk a 9 minute pace if I put some effort into it.
Our training for today was learning how to execute a Parachute Landing Fall (PLF). A PLF is executed by landing on the balls of your feet with your legs perpendicular to the direction of travel. As you hit you shift your knees towards the direction of travel to expose your calves and thighs. Then you turn your upper body slightly away from your knees, enough that you can see your heels between the elbows that have been placed in front of your face with your chin tucked. When this is done properly it makes a rocking chair effect out of your body. As you hit you roll across the rocking chair, and kick your legs up and over your opposite shoulder and onto your back. This video is an almost correct PLF: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJx-R8wJLz4&feature=related
We practiced PLF's to the right and left as well as to the front right and the front left. We did them from the ground, from 2 feet high, then from the Lateral Swing Apparatus. This is a zipline that you slide down and let go off when they tell you to. I noticed that the taller guys dropped from about 3 or 4 feet up. However, us shorter people fell from about 5 feet up. I dropped off that zipline probably about 15 or 20 times. Added up with the times we did ground drills and off the wall, we probably all fell atleast 50 times. The real killer though, was that while we waited in line we had to bunny hop when we moved. This sounds easy to bunny hop about a foot every 30 seconds or so. However, after a few hours, it gets tiring... My knees are killing me tonight from all that shit. And in about 8 hours we have PT again... which means it all starts over.
Tomorrow we are doing the same thing. We have to learn rear PLF's. Then continue on what we did today. Luckily, I passed my right, left, and front PLF's today. So, once I pass my rear PLF's, I'm done and just have to run the rope back and forth. Friday we have a pretty easy day. In the morning we are learning how to recover from a PLF (aka take the parachute off and get out of the way of other paratroopers). Then we should get off early. Then its the WEEKEND!!! I can sleep and rest and do nothing!
Anyway, time to get some sleep. Love and miss you all.
Chris
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