Standby, GO!, Feb 2003

by MCpl Ian MacDonald, RHLI

During the month of February, MCpl Steve Holdom, Pte Sean Hutchinson and myself did our Basic Para course in Trenton. Somewhere at the 1000 ft. mark is my common sense. If you come across it please send it back to me in B-Coy. It is not natural for a human to jump out of a plane, and not just any human, an infantry soldier. A little bit crazy and a whole lot fearless!

The Basic Para course teaches any soldier in the CF how to parachute safely into enemy territory and cause trouble. The three-week course starts Monday morning at 0400 hrs for your Para PT test. Can't pass? Too bad. You go home right there. PT test out of the way, you begin your training, starting with the history of the Airborne.

Then there are the classes. First off: equipment. This class covers ever piece of kit a paratrooper wears while parachuting. Next up, flight class, also known as the racks. In this class, you hang from your harness and go though the drills that you need to safely descend through the air, includes obstacles on the ground, wind and other paratroopers in the air. Following flight class is aircraft drills: what you do inside the plane, where you sit, how you sit, what to do during emergencies and all the drills before you exit the aircraft.

After aircraft drills is landings. This class is probably the hardest due to the fact that you have to defeat your instincts. In the class you are hung from your harness in a swing and then dropped. As a paratrooper you must be able to fight after you land, therefore it is imperative that you land safely. Your feet and knees have to remain together and your body has to complete the landing roll, otherwise your body will absorb the entire shock of hitting the ground and you won't be getting up. These four classes are covered everyday, and become more advanced and difficult as the weeks go on.

During the second week you begin the mock tower drills. The mock tower is a replica of a CC-130 Hercules fuselage which is used to practice exits. The mock tower sits at 33 feet, the psychological height of fear. It's said that if you can't jump from the mock tower you can't jump from an airplane.

That first jump is pretty humbling. Feeling the recoil of your harness and equipment off your body causes quite a jolt. 33 feet isn't that high, but when you are looking out that door, your mind is racing about all the things that could possibly happen. For every exit the Parachute Instructors are watching your every move: your posture, foot movement, hand movement. All your exit drills must be perfectly executed, without a single safety infraction since there is no room for error while parachuting.

With mock tower out of the way, you move on to the final test day before you actually jump. It was probably the most stressful day of my life - no exams or challenges compared. That morning, everything you've done is assessed: simply a pass/fail with only one chance for a retest. Not everybody passes. Once the tests are out of the way, you can breathe again. After that the only thing left to do is jump.

The day after the testing you move onto J stage. You kit up and wait to board the aircraft. Everybody is nervous and thinking about what it will be like. Now it's time to board the aircraft. Walking out the doors with the turbo propellers going it's loud, windy and smelly from exhaust and the tension mounts. You sit down and put on your sear belt. The ramp closes, only the lights inside are glowing. Lift off, your ears pop, the roar of the engines gets louder.

As soon as you're in the air, it's time to start your drills. The Jump Master starts to yell the commands. SEAT BELTS OFF, GET READY, STAND UP, HOOK UP, CHECK STATIC LINE, CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT, SOUND OFF EQUIPMENT CHECK.

The doors open, a huge blast of air, everyone is shouting and turbulence makes your knees give out. STAND BY! The world becomes a lot smaller and the only thing on your mind is the fact that you are about to jump out of a plane traveling at 130 knots, doing a double door mass exit at 1250 ft. GO! The line of troops in front of me is getting smaller, 5 guys left, 4 guys, 3, 2, 1, my turn. Throw my static line, glide into the door, the world looks a long way down, no going back, jab, I'm out!

A huge blast of air, my stomach is in my throat. One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand, check canopy. Wow, I'm still alive, what a huge rush. Good exit. The air is filled with 42 paratroopers. Looking around, keeping a sharp lookout, low winds make for a nice descent. The ground is getting closer, closer, closer, prepare to land, thump. I'm on the ground, looking up doing a quick mental assessment of my body: no broken bones, no pain, I'm ok.. Get out of my harness, pack up my parachute. I'm no longer a LEG (lack enough guts). Walk back to the drop zone shed. As the troops start to return, everyone's got a huge smile, everyone's got a story to tell.

After that, we did six more jumps, all of them good. The course started with 52 candidates, graduated with 38. We graduated on a Friday, had our wings parade and became members of the Airborne family. Ex Coelis (from the clouds)!

Semper Paratus

Editor's Note: On a subsequent jump course, the RHLI graduated two other candidates with their coveted jump wings: Pte Mike Nagtegaal and Pte Mike Hillmer.