Cobra Pilot

[Packo]

Sorry guys, I only got the 5 "chump jumps" at Benning. 4 were C130's one was a 141. A different experience. I am jealous especially of missing out on a C47 "Skytrain" and a 119, go Rakkasans! (Korea) When I was very young my daddy took me to a Jump in Virginia. Seems the 82nd was doing some sort of training exercise where they had to take over a water works system. I remember seeing them all coming out of the "Flying Boxcar" and telling my dad....."That's what I'm gonna do".

James and Frisco, Dan got all kinds of jumps at Bragg after Vietnam. You might want to ask him how many. I think he was close to being a Jump Master until he went awol to see Janis Joplin. Cost him a stripe too but I would have also felt it was worth it, especially after a run through the green latrine.

AIRBORNE!

ABU!

Packo

[82Rigger]

...ever jump a 130 or 141 in combo with a palette airdrop mission?

Load goes out first, troops on the second pass. The short line is, you get to see, from inside the plane, the load extraction.
Wow!! The packed extraction chute hangs on a little hook on the ceiling right above the edge of the open tailgate. Pilot releases the hook, extraction chute drops, bounces on the tailgate once or twice and falls out into the slipstream, which opens it. You see the extraction chute disappear off the tailgate and two or three seconds later you see it flare open and grab air at the rear of the plane. About one second later, the 40,000 pound load right in front of your nose goes from zero to 125 mph out the back of the plane in about two seconds.
Once in a while, when the extraction chute drops off the hook and hits the tailgate, it gets caught in a little eddy of air at the edge of the tailgate. It just bounces around on the edge of the tailgate, like a marshmallow in a cup of stirred hot chocolate.
What happens then is one of the riggers gets to go out behind the load and kick the extraction chute off the tailgate. Try not to waste too much time getting out from behind the load. And be sure not to trip and fall down.

Airborne! Steve / 82Rigger

[exlrrp]

This is what I was doing in the USAAESWBD, Abn Sec. (USArmy Airborne Electronic and Special Warfare Bd, Airborne Section.)
i got to bragg in June of 68--After about a month, I could see that, with all my combat experience, what they really wanted me to do until ETS was pick up trash and butts, unload sides of beef from boxcars and do KP at the hospital. This is what grunts do when not grunting, which is why theyre disgruntled most of th timeone mornig at formation, the 1st sgt asked for a volunteer for a detail"where you'll do a lot of jumping" Nobody raised their hand. We stood there for some minutes. Finally I asked him if it meant going back to the war (I aint ENTIRELY stupid) he said no. I volunteered. ..(note my continuous motivation for volunteering: getting out of worse)

And this is what we did --I strut around and tell people _"Whoa! I tested parachutes" but what we did is exactly that--rigged up loads, trucks,,artillery and all on palettes and drop them out the tailgate of 130s and 123s, then we'd jump. it is Exactly as you describe.
Actually I liked it bout more than anything I did in the Army, I learned a lot. I was the detail leader an we'd jump, police up the chutes, then take em back and hang em and shake em out and then help the riggers pack all the stuff and rig some more--we jumped bout once or twice a week. This is why I have more jumps than most, most troopers just jump the required once a month. this is when I jumped th Caribou, Mohawk. i only jumped the 141 on div maneuvers, also it was the refresher course jump.
One of the things we tested for dropability was the new 11/4 ton Dodge
I seriously considerd re-upping for a rigger but I had some incidents too and decided my future lay elsewhere.
I like Tailgating more than any other kind of jumping, very satisfying to take three big steps out that big window and rendzvous with destiny time.
Later, due to what I'd learned her, I got a job in Louisiana as a rigging foreman (oilrigs) moving and fitting up pipe aound the rigs--I got the job because I was the only one who knew the difference between a bowline. a clove hitch and a square knot and their diferent uses

james

happy just to be alive

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by Paco
When I was very young my daddy took me to a Jump in Virginia. Seems the 82nd was doing some sort of training exercise where they had to take over a water works system. I remember seeing them all coming out of the "Flying Boxcar" and telling my dad....."That's what I'm gonna do".


Packo

You bet yr ASS!!
I still choke up when I see it
Abu, dude, fight with what you have untill relieved!
James

happy just t be alive

[82Rigger]

...well, it's a shame that you didn't get to jump your favorite
"flying boxcars".

But lemme tell ya what...when I jumped the 119s at Benning during jump school in '68, man, those airplanes were TIRED!
We rookie troopers sat in those planes on the way to the drop zone and looked out the windows at the wings flapping up and down, and rivets popping out, and I remember thinking to myself, "Lord, what have I done?"

Airborne! Steve / 82Rigger

[82Rigger]

When I was a kid I read a book titled CURAHEE! It was about a young man and his tale of joining the newly-formed paratroops during WW2.

He went to the recruiting center and the Navy, Marine Corps, and other branches' tables were swarmed with people signing up.
Off to one side was a soldier sitting at a table with no one around it. He went over and talked to the soldier and discovered he was recruiting men to be paratroopers.
The young man told the soldier he wanted to join. The soldier had him sign a paper with one single sentence on it.

In 1968, when I volunteered for the paratroops, there was a stack of papers to fill out, and as I was going through the papers, I stopped and smiled. Sure enough, there it was! A piece of paper with one single sentence:

" I (name) hereby volunteer to jump from an aircraft while in flight
and land on the ground via parachute."

Some things never change! Probably the best "contract" I ever signed!

Airborne! Steve / 82Rigger

[1CAVCCO15MED]

The army is so inefficient. If I had been in charge I would have combined parachute testing with mattress testing-a natural combination.
Better yet, trampoline testing. That way if you got a bum chute you could bounce back up and tell someone right away, get another chute and try again.

[Andy]

I was reading this thread as it came out and must have missed a few of the minor posts. Just re-read things, with a new pair of glasses.

Everyone there was the best of their generation except for Frisco and me. What? Well, ok I can see that. But that nasty old smelly leg thing still bothers me. How many miles did my airborne friends walk in Vietnam? How many miles did I ride? Who never left home without a dozen cases of beer? Who was nasty? Forget that question. Who had smelly legs?
Mech-borne all the way!
BTW: the original post was GREAT.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[Packo]

Yeah guys, I know the're old and tired but to me the C47 and the C119 were trademarks of Airborne! Steve, you can see rivets poping any time you get a window seat in a US AIR flight! (LOL) And how would you have felt flying in it WITHOUT 2 chutes. I would have given my other hip to have jumped with those ol' WWII guys in the 50th celebration of the Normandy Jump. To go out of a 47 or a 119 has been one of those lifelong dreams. My screen saver at home is a 47 with D-Day stripes and Paratroopers coming out. It's funny, when a guys chute malfunctions he comes back up as wings and a halo.

Andy! Yep, we sure did walk and without beer. I would have loved to have busted jungle with an APC loaded with PBR beers!

I am also a bit jealous of the Herd guys who got the only mustard stains of the war.

Got to live most of the dream!

Packoborne!

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by 1CAVCCO15MED
The army is so inefficient. If I had been in charge I would have combined parachute testing with mattress testing-a natural combination.
Better yet, trampoline testing. That way if you got a bum chute you could bounce back up and tell someone right away, get another chute and try again.

Maybe we shoulda jumped with bungee cords, case we changed our mind.
the rigger's name was always signed on the chute (a little card) if you survived, you knew who to take it up with.
the riggers jumped one of their chutes monthly, picked at random-thats confidence in yr job. Which may be sprising, I saw hungover riggers working.
I'm with you, Packo, jumping the 47 was a link with some MIGHTY men, like wearing the glider patch. I'm glad I did altho it sure wasn't the funnest one by far.
A salute to 82rigger and all the others who made it safe for us to stand in the door, it takes some cojones, no doubt. This is NOT a desk job
James

Ps: the Funnest: the Huey