"Further On Up the Road" - totally off AS subject!

Chuck999 · Sep 2, 2002

BK just noticed your post about chutes. I did all my military stuff with the good old T-10, and my early civie jumps with T-10's also. Nowadays of course all the civie DZ's use is squares. I know all the special ops guys use squares too, but really don't have any idea what the "regular" airborne guys on AD are using these days. I guess Marines aren't jumpers unless they're Recon, huh Slide? I would be curious to know what they use at Benning, etc, these days. I go so far back I had probably already DEROS'd before most of you guys were born! Hell, with those damn T-10's if you weighed over 160 you came in HOT! I had one buddy who went thru jump school with me who probably weighed 230-240. He would come in so hot it was like someone dropping a damn telephone pole from a couple of 100 feet up. The squares are a whole different world as you guys know. After a few jumps you can usually make most of your landings standing up. They still teach PLF's at the civie jump courses, but unless you really fuck up and land downwind or something, you usually don't even hit the ground.

bigkraut · Sep 2, 2002

I was trained on the old T-10s. I tell ya, I can feel for your buddy. I was a light weight then, but during a heavy equipment jump, my gear weighed as much as I did. I'm glad it landed ahead of me! lol.

slide · Sep 2, 2002

Chuck999 said:
I guess Marines aren't jumpers unless they're Recon, huh Slide?

If it pertains to your job, they'll send you to school, but other than that, there's a slim chance you can get a school seat and an even smaller chance your parent command will send you just for the hell of it, although some commands do get one quota per year, etc. I've heard also that for re-enlisment incentives (in some cases), you can get a school seat to jump, but again, these are rare also.

---slide---

Chuck999 · Sep 3, 2002

Yeh, thats the big diff about mil jumps - the gear. Last time I jumped with gear was in Guatamala. The civie jumps are a lot easier - just you and the chute.

Damn Slide - I just was just stupid enough to put in for jump school toward the end of AIT and they just sent me! No big deal (of course as we all know some guys do wash out). Some of my buddies thought I was out of my mind. Maybe its harder in the Army now too, but they make you poor jarheads compete for school seats it sounds like.