SHOALWATER BAY TRAINING AREA, Australia (Army News Service, July 10, 2015) -- "You come to battle under a canopy of a parachute and it gets your adrenaline up and you've got to keep your adrenaline up to keep moving" to your objective once you land, Lt. Col. Matt Hardman said.
"After a 19-hour flight and jump, it's just started," he added.
Hardman and about 400 of his Soldiers, from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, or JBER, Alaska, parachuted onto Kapyong Drop Zone, Williamson Airfield, here in the northeast state of Queensland, Australia, as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 15, July 8.
The Soldiers, part of 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, jumped from seven C-17 Globemasters, two of which belonged to the Royal Australian Air Force, or RAAF.
Aboard one of the Australian C-17s were about 70 Soldiers, who would jump into Australia. For many, this would be one jump in but a handful they've completed in their career so far - between seven and 15 for some, said Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Alexander, first sergeant of D Company, 3-509.
But Alexander, who wore a Ranger tab, has done 108 jumps in his Army career - the most of anyone on the aircraft.
He and other senior enlisted leaders on the plane checked the straps, harness assemblies, buckles, and helmets of the more junior Soldiers to make sure they were ready for the jump. Then they checked their own gear. Then the Soldiers buddy-checked each other's gear. There was a lot checking and re-checking going on - and that was about three hours before the jump.
Alexander said Army parachutists don't like last-minute surprises.
TEAM EFFORT
A safe and effective mission requires a team effort. Soldiers check each other's gear often, and offer words of encouragement when needed, Alexander said.
"No one admits it, but deep inside everyone is scared before going out the door," said Sgt. 1st Class Bobby Caron, the platoon sergeant of 3rd Platoon, D Company, 3-509.
"The moment you're relaxed, you put yourself and others in danger. Every jump is different and it's natural to experience anxiety about not knowing how the jump will go or what you'll land in and how you'll land," he said.
Caron admitted he too had anxiety, but he didn't let it show. He joked and encouraged the same in the other Soldiers.
Caron's anxiety was mixed with excitement - and more so than normal. The jump onto the Kapyong Drop Zone would be his 100th. Also, he said, he'd be jumping into Australia from an Australian aircraft.
"It doesn't get better than that," he said.
Although the Soldiers often jump close to home in JBER, they also routinely make long-distance trips to participate in multi-national exercises in other countries. Once recent example included Exercise Cobra Gold in Thailand, Caron said.
STATIC LINE
Caron said airborne forces like his always do "static-line" jumping because it's the most efficient way to get Soldiers out of the plane quickly, and to put them on the ground inside a relatively small area.
In static line jumping, a wire runs along the inside of the aircraft just above the heads of the Soldiers. The Soldiers line up and latch a strap from their parachute onto the wire. While they jump from the plane, the strap remains attached inside the aircraft. This action pulls the parachute from inside the pack on their back, negating the need for them to deploy the parachute manually.
During jumps with many Soldiers, an aircraft will often need to make more than one pass over the drop zone, he said, because the aircraft passes over the zone too quickly.
Staff Sgt. Paul Beliel, who has 58 jumps, was controlling the static lines for Soldiers during the jump, a job he says is critical to ensuring Soldier safety. As Soldiers disembark the aircraft, at a rate of one per second, he quickly pulls the straps away.
If a strap isn't pulled away in time, he said, it could tangle around a Soldier's arm or neck and cause injury. He said it's happened before to others.
JUMP LIGHT
Beliel said while Soldiers are flying toward the drop zone, a red light near each of the two departure hatches stays illuminated. Minutes before jump time, he said, the light changes color to amber. But once the light turns green, things happen really fast, he said.
The C-17 has two hatches from which Soldiers may jump from the aircraft. They jump at a rate of one per second - so that's two Soldiers exiting the aircraft each second, he said.
Timing is critical to getting everyone into the drop zone in time, Beliel said. Any faster than that, though, isn't safe because the Soldiers could end up too close to one another and get their chutes tangled.
Soldiers were able to make the jump onto Kapyong Drop Zone from an altitude of 1,000 feet. Beliel said that jumps from helicopters requires more height - about 1,500 feet, for instance. He said the faster speed of the C-17 creates more wind, which opens the canopy faster. That, in turn, gives Soldiers more time to deploy their reserve chute if necessary.
During combat, however, jumps can be as low as 600 feet - though it's never done in training, he said.
Beliel said the July 8 jump wasn't the "most challenging" he's experienced. The battalion also does night jumps and even water jumps into Big Lake, near JBER.
At night, he said, distances are harder to judge and the "ground comes up much quicker."
During a water jump, if the chute lands on top of the Soldier, they are trained to raise their arms in an inverted V shape to create an air pocket. They then pull themselves along the seam of the parachute until it is away from them, Beliel said. Zodiac boats then retrieve Soldiers from the lake
The battalion is planning a lake jump later this month, he said.
ARMING FOR THE JUMP
Three hours before the jump, the paratroopers strapped weapons to themselves and rucksacks were strapped in such a way that they would hang below them in the air. While it is cumbersome, Caron said, it's the most effective and efficient way of getting the gear and Soldier to the ground.
About 20 minutes before jump, the Soldiers attached straps to their static lines.
The order of who jumps when is very important, Caron said. Soldiers from the same company are grouped together, but that's no guarantee that they'll all land together in the same location. Many will have to find their way to the right assembly area for their company, he said.
Once Soldiers exit the plane, they're instructed to count to six, Caron said. By that time, they will have felt a tug when the chute opens. They should also look up to see that their chute isn't damaged or tangled, and look to see if their rate of descent is comparable to others around them.
If the tug doesn't happen and the chute doesn't open, the reserve is deployed, he said.
If by chance two Soldiers get tangled with just one chute open, that one chute is designed to carry them both safely to the ground, Caron said.
Caron said when exiting the aircraft, jumpers should step out smartly in a straight line and not look down. A timid short step could cause the Soldier to brush the side of the aircraft, which isn't uncommon. Soldiers sometimes don't even realize they brushed the side.
Before Soldiers jump, their cargo delivery system, or CDS, is released with its own chute out the back hatch of the aircraft, Beliel said. The CDS contains food, water, ammunition and specialty items. It's important that the CDS be located because Soldiers could not fight or sustain themselves for long without those essential supplies.
The first jumper out the door is known as the bundle chaser, he said, because he or she is responsible for chasing down the CDS.
On this jump, Soldiers carried rifles, carbines, M249 Squad Automatic Weapons and 81mm and 60mm mortars. In combat jumps, howitzers and vehicles might be included in the drop depending on the mission, Beliel said.
Once Soldiers hit the ground, they release their canopy harness assembly so the chute doesn't drag them off in the wind, Beliel said. Then they get their weapons out of the carrying cases so they're ready to engage the enemy.
In combat, Soldiers would simply drop their harness and parachute and move out to their objective, he said. In training, Soldiers bag them up so they can be reused.
If Soldiers land in tall trees, they can release their reserve chutes and get to the ground by sliding down, preferably with gloves on, Beliel said. It also helps to have a knife if lines need to be cut.
Once on the ground or out of the trees, Soldiers locate their company by looking for Steiner aids, which are flags placed around the drop zone, he said. Each flag is marked, representing the assembly area for each company. When Soldiers do night jumps, infrared lights are used, and Soldiers can spot them with their night vision goggles.
Once organized on the ground, Soldiers move out to their objectives as squads or as companies, depending on the mission, enemy and terrain, Beliel said.
Late at night on the day of the drop when the Soldiers had secured the area, Hardman pointed out that his battalion successfully seized the expeditionary airfield and secured it for initial entry operations. They then moved four-kilometers away to seize another objective.
The paratroopers, from 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, are slated to depart Australia aboard C-17s and will conduct a parachute drop back onto JBER, July 12, a U.S. Army Alaska spokesman said.
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