4th Recon Parachute Jump

[Markslams]

http://www.romenews-tribune.com/view/full_story/9913567/article-Marine-Reservist-is-rescued-from-a-tree-at-Berry-during-training?instance=lead_story_bullets_left_column

Ol'boy landed in a tree out in Rome Ga. and EVERYONE came out to see. We called the fire dept. and all the siren chasers showed up. He was stuck up about 65 feet and was not injured at all. HQ MarForRes got word of the incident via news reports and apparently freaked out stating we didn't have clearance to be there, which supposedly we did and Bn HQ backed us up. Ended up about 10 minutes before we step off for our mission, HQ MarForRes calls ups and tells us to immediately leave that area. Fun times indeed. Wish I had some pics to post

[egspot]

http://www.romenews-tribune.com/view/full_story/9913567/article-Marine-Reservist-is-rescued-from-a-tree-at-Berry-during-training?instance=lead_story_bullets_left_column

Ol'boy landed in a tree out in Rome Ga. and EVERYONE came out to see. We called the fire dept. and all the siren chasers showed up. He was stuck up about 65 feet and was not injured at all. HQ MarForRes got word of the incident via news reports and apparently freaked out stating we didn't have clearance to be there, which supposedly we did and Bn HQ backed us up. Ended up about 10 minutes before we step off for our mission, HQ MarForRes calls ups and tells us to immediately leave that area. Fun times indeed. Wish I had some pics to post

Funny, back in 1977 (long time ago) I fump an quip jump with the M60. I lost my helmet as the chute deployed and had to pay for it. Landing was great and all good arter that. The good old days to me. No Fire tucks...:smile:

[egspot]

Fu#$

I am not good at this typing stuff.

Regrets

[kpel308]

Thank the Supreme Commandant that he wasn't injured. Hilarity would have ensued. HQ MarForRes needs to get a grip, methinks.

[Mortalitus]

Good thing he wasn't injured. How far off the LZ could he have gotten pushed though the article says he was wind drifted? Either way with x-mas coming up I'll bet he'll have some good "ornament" jokes headed his way lol. Poor guy. Nothing funny about catching limbs, especially when you have civvies and public coming in to get your ass out. That's probably why HQ was all worked up.

Oh well training mishaps will happen best thing we can do is hope noone gets seriously jacked up and pay attention to lessons learned.
Sounds like that as always is/was done.

Semper Fi.

[SOTB]

Oh well training mishaps will happen best thing we can do is hope noone gets seriously jacked up and pay attention to lessons learned....Having put people in the trees as a JM, and having been injured after being put in the trees because of a JM (Trashfinder in 86), I agree. I wish to fuck that it was stupid easy to guarantee that no one was ever bouncing off branches for a hundred feet, but sadly it isn't (yet).

Good to see he is OK....

[Budoka34]

Mortalitus,

I know all about "ornament" jokes. I crashed and burned at Leapfest 89 into a christmas tree farm and knocked myself loopy.

Heard about it for quite a while.:o

[CB]

Looking at the photograph that accompanied the article, it appears that the jumpers were using SF-10A type main canopies.

The photograph shows them jumping Hollywood (no equipment).

Near sea level -- and Rome, GA is about 650 feet MSL -- that means a rate of descent of perhaps 11 feet per second. Very slow, very slow, and without a lot of drive to take advantage of the modification. I can see how D=KAV could fool even an experienced jumpmaster. That canopy is probably too big for a light weight jumper with no equipment.

http://www.airborne-sys.com/pdfs/_AS-Website_Marketing_PDFs/4-TROOP%20PARACHUTES%20-%20STEERABLE/SF-10/Updated%20SF10A%20bis%2002082010.pdf

[sarc88]

I think we've all lost those cool points at one time or another - this guy now has a news article that (thankfully) doesn't list his name to back up his shit talkin!

[Silverbullet]

I think we all know those jumpers who are tree magnets as well. :smile: I swear there are guys who head right for the trees no matter where you put them out.

I'm not a believer in hollywood jumping, especially in daylight, unless it's a refresher after a long period of not jumping due to optempo. If I had to run a hollywood jump it was done in conjunction with a follow on combat equipment jump and then a night combat equipment for a patrol insertion as part of your team training.

[SOTB]

I'm not a believer in hollywood jumping, especially in daylight, unless it's a refresher after a long period of not jumping due to optempo. If I had to run a hollywood jump it was done in conjunction with a follow on combat equipment jump and then a night combat equipment for a patrol insertion as part of your team training.Ditto to HW jumps being far down on the priority scheme. I had a rule in my platoon -- if HW jumps were to occur during a jumpex, all odd-numbered jumps must be CE. I could understand the thinking of getting people suited up and in the air quickly, allowing for HW jumps to then be logical, but they always came after CE jumps.

Besides, CE jumps are good for tree-magnets, the rucks and other equipment protect them while crashing through the branches....:tongue:

[Markslams]

Here's a shot of the DZ. We jmped in from the northern side. Winds were pretty high above the trees and there was a ridgeline to the north that seemed to funnel air up there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=berry+college+rome+ge&sll=34.31434,-85.243253&sspn=0.006655,0.016469&ie=UTF8&radius=0.56&split=1&filter=0&rq=1&ev=zi&t=h&hq=berry+college+rome+ge&hnear=&ll=34.314251,-85.243403&spn=0.006655,0.016469&z=17 (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=berry+college+rome+ge&sll=34.31434,-85.243253&sspn=0.006655,0.016469&ie=UTF8&radius=0.56&split=1&filter=0&rq=1&ev=zi&t=h&hq=berry+college+rome+ge&hnear=&ll=34.314251,-85.243403&spn=0.006655,0.016469&z=17)

And I was told it's not actually listed as a DZ in whatever system it is that lists the DZs around the worls. It is a temporary tatical DZ that was cleared by a pathfinder just a few months ago.

This DZ is pretty small and has every single landing scenario you pratice in the jump brief. Powerlines, trees, a fairly large pond, buildings and various farm equipment.

1500 feet, MC-6 parachute, first jump HW, second jump (actual)combat load, UH-1 platform.

[Markslams]

For clarification that link is bringing it up a little to the left. Actual DZ is on the west side of the road, the long field running at an angle.

[WoreOutMarine]

CB...I had a Force Recon Instructor that trained me to skydive at Maple Hill, NC in 1977 and jumped with several of Force marines at DZ Penguin at LeJuene, and at Quantico so I'm hoping this will rate me to make a comment on here without being spanked because I'm not a Force marine. I had made 11 jumps under a "double L" canopy with no problems then went on float for 6 mths so when I got back to resume jumping I got put back on static line and the rig they gave me was a military rig and the main was a 25ft 7-TU (?) if I remember correctly. Any way that frikken thing SLAMMED me into the ground the hardest I ever hit during the whole time I was a jumper and I landed at least 500 yds Downwind of the DZ. I weighed only 135 lbs sopping wet with two lbs of butter in both hands at the time and I often wondered after that incident how in the hell could a 200 pounder with a 100 lbs of equipment survive a jump under a military rig like that without getting seriously hurt. I immediately bought a paracommander that one of the Force marines had up for sale at the DZ that very day! To this day I still gringe when I see a military jumper landing under one of those green round canopies. For clarification that link is bringing it up a little to the left. Actual DZ is on the west side of the road, the long field running at an angle.

Looking at the photograph that accompanied the article, it appears that the jumpers were using SF-10A type main canopies.

The photograph shows them jumping Hollywood (no equipment).

Near sea level -- and Rome, GA is about 650 feet MSL -- that means a rate of descent of perhaps 11 feet per second. Very slow, very slow, and without a lot of drive to take advantage of the modification. I can see how D=KAV could fool even an experienced jumpmaster. That canopy is probably too big for a light weight jumper with no equipment.

http://www.airborne-sys.com/pdfs/_AS-Website_Marketing_PDFs/4-TROOP%20PARACHUTES%20-%20STEERABLE/SF-10/Updated%20SF10A%20bis%2002082010.pdf

[TJT0321]

I think my favorite part was the ground crew having to do a running nose dive into the jumpers canopies to keep them from dragging our boys across the field. It was like those old office linebacker commercials. Haha. Those winds picked up with almost zero warning and caused some pretty decent hard landings. Made me happy they left my name off the manifest.

My boys had some serious mission blue balls after getting called off so late. We'd been rehearsing for hours, and I was 5 minutes from telling my team to cammie up when they popped smoke and told us to pack up. What a cluster. Haha.