Injuries Expected To Drop With New Parachute

[MontanaKid]

Looks interesting. My last jump was with dash 1 in 1977 with the Montana National Guard. Never even jumped with the later anti-inversion nets. Did regular T-10s in Jump School at Benning in 1975. I think non-combat deaths and injuries took a much greater toll on the actual drop zones than enemy fire at jumpers in the air. The extra time will mean a lot less DZ casualties for the medics to deal with and a much quicker assembly at rally points and departure on the mission. I am working now, at my 53 years, at getting back into soldierly shape. It would be great to jump one of those things, but I don't have the connections Col. Murph does.

[frisco-kid]

"Steerable" was the wrong choice of word. The T-10 was NOT designed to be "steerable," but you could get some lateral movement by pulling down on the suspension lines to spill some air and, hopefully, avoid another jumper or obstacle on the ground. This was very minimal, at best. It was, by no stretch of the imagination, a precision jumping parachute. Thanks for clarifying, Colonel.

[MontanaKid]

I've got a little jump school story to relate to you about "steerable" parachutes. This wasn't even the T-10. This was the smaller chute on the 200-foot tower. For all you legs out there, jump school (at least when I went through it) is divided into three weeks, Ground Week, Tower Week and Jump Week. Jump week ends as soon as the fifth aircraft jump is completed. During tower week, trainees spend a lot of time on the Swing Landing Trainer and practicing multiple exits out of the 35-foot towers. But to get a realistic taste of a parachute landing, the crowning event of tower week is when the trainees are locked into a regular parachute harnesss, hooked to a parachute that is already expanded in a hoop and webbing frame and then raised by cable 200 feet on one of four arms of the 200 foot tower. The cable is released and you float to the ground where you get to make a realistic PLF (parachute landing fall) into some plowed dirt. If some kind of wind is blowing, one arm is a "dirty arm" and is not used if the wind is too much, because the trainee might be blown into the tower frame. It was marginal when I was hauled up, and the black hat sergeant and then the Lieutenant told me to pull hard on the risers to make sure I broke clear of the tower. In fact the lieutenant told me to reach up, grap those risers as high as I could and "pull them to your knees!"
I took him literally and my buddies told me I sailed away at a sharp angle from the tower, canopy flapping, while the Black Hat with the bullhorn, shouted, "LET GO OF THOSE RISERS!!!" When I landed, the black hat sergeant forgot himself a moment and said gleefuly, "You really DID pull those fuckers to your knees!!" Up in the air, I was oblivious as to how thrilling it all looked from the ground.