I made the final jump last night. It was the coolest experience yet… Drifting down to earth in the dead of night, the land below sparsely illuminated by the glow of an urban society; the wind rustling through my canopy as I drop softly to earth and land easily. What an incredible experience. When I landed I took a moment, lying on my back to look up at the stars and take it all in. I’m Airborne qualified.

The past three weeks have been easy as far as Army schools go, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t special. Joining the ranks of history’s Airborne soldiers is awe-inspiring to me. Although I may never jump with a unit (since my home unit is not Airborne), I know that I will always have those wings on my uniform, and if the time ever comes I will be ready to stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door.

We graduate tomorrow morning, then I hop a plane back to Texas. It will be weird flying back… the last five times I’ve climbed aboard an airplane I didn’t land with it. ha!

-Brian

4 jumps down and only one to go.

I’ll say it right up front – jumping out of an airplane going ~140mph at 1250′ is awesome. It’s just awesome. How can you describe it? Standing on the edge of the door as the #1 jumper, watching the world flash by, then jumping out to a rush of wind and four seconds of chaos before your chute opens is the coolest experience in the world. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.

My first three jumps were great – I landed relatively softly, did a perfect PLF (parachute landing fall), and walked away with a huge smile on my face. The fourth jump was a little different – the jump was great, but I hit the ground like a sack of bricks. I think the wind shifted on me at the last minute and pushed me into the ground. It really rung my bell, but I walked away with no injuries, so I can’t complain. What a rush! Tonight we do a night jump, mass exit with full combat equipment… it should be interesting to say the least. I really wish there was a way for me to take a camera with me, but you’ll just have to watch the video up top to get an idea of what we’re experiencing.

Airborne all the way!
-Brian

Tomorrow is the big day. Around 9am Eastern time I will be jumping out of a moving airplane 1250′ in the air along with hundreds of my fellow Airborne students. I have mixed emotions – mostly anxious to go ahead and jump! A little nervous, and a lot excited too. It’s going to be a long day with a lot of waiting around for a couple of minutes of fun, and then we get to do it all over again! I’ll be posting tomorrow night to give you the update of my very first airborne jump.

-Brian

We are halfway through week two at Ft Benning Airborne school and at this point I feel fully qualified to jump out of an airplane. I know how to jump, how to land, how to get rid of my gear and what to do in case of emergencies… and that just about covers it. I’m not really sure what we’ll be doing the rest of the week, but I suppose more practice couldn’t hurt. We are doing two jumps on Monday, two on Tuesday and then a night jump on Wednesday evening, and honestly I can’t wait. I’m just as excited about Monday as I was when I first learned that I was coming to Airborne school.

Today we spent all day jumping out of the 34′ towers again, this time in groups of four to practice our “mass exit” techniques. It’s so much fun flying down that zip line – I had a blast except for the part where I had to carry a full combat load strapped to my body up five flights of stairs. We also found out definitively today that we won’t be jumping off of the 250′ tower. Evidently the risk is not worth the reward as far as training goes… and on top of that with close to 500 people in our class and only eight tower slots to jump from it would take FOREVER to get through one rotation. I’m not too disappointed though, I still get to jump out of a plane five times at 1250 feet.

Unfortunately I’m not able to have a camera with me during the training day, so I don’t have any cool action pictures. There are some other photos I took around the training area up on my Flickr site, so be sure to go over and check those out. I’ll try to take a few more this weekend so you can get an idea of what it is all I’ve been playing on all week.

Keep praying for good weather and that I don’t get hurt!

- Brian