FORT HOOD, Texas — Despite gray, ominous clouds building in the sky, soldiers of the 2nd Squadron, 38th Cavalry Regiment, 504th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, recertified as airborne jumpmasters Thursday, Sept. 13 at Fort Hood.
“It’s a jumpmaster refresher,” said Maj. Frank Adkinson, squadron executive officer. “So before we get hot and heavy into airborne operations for the company, we need to ensure that the people sending the guys out in the airplane have gone through training. It ensures that the jump¬-masters are accurate and efficient.”
According to Adkinson, the jumpmaster is responsible for training troopers to conduct safe airborne operations and to ensure personnel are proficient in techniques ranging from parachute control to landing techniques, similar to a civilian skydiving instructor.
“The training will ensure that [our] jumpmasters are accurate and efficient,” Adkinson said.
“Today’s event trained and certified our leaders, so now all 11 jumpmasters are what we call current qualified,” said Lt. Col. John Cogbill, the squadron commander. “Now we can go up and conduct independent airborne operations as a squadron, whereas for this operation, we required a jumpmaster from the advanced airborne school at Fort Bragg, N.C., to come and assist us.”
“It’s important for us to be able to self sustain and conduct independent airborne operations,” Cogbill said. “Now, due to having certified jumpmasters, we can conduct airborne operations and maintain a proficiency at squadron level.”
Fort Hood is one of three posts that have battlefield surveillance brigades, explained Cogbill.
“It’s a big deal,” Adkinson said. “If we don’t do the training, we’re not able to get to regular airborne operations in the upcoming month. We need to be able to maintain and sustain readiness so that when the III Corps commander or a joint task force commander asks for a BFSB, they get all of our capabilities.”
Spc. Brian Freimann, a paratrooper with 2nd Squadron, recertified today with his squadron and said it was great to be jumping again after returning from a deployment to Afghanistan.
“I love jumping,” Freimann said. “It’s a real sense of calm when you’re up there in the bird. We jumped at 1,500 feet today and it was a good jump.”
Adkinson said the training went smoothly and all his soldiers recertified without incident.
“Today was a great jump day,” he said. “Fortunately, the weather gods smiled on us and we’ve been able to beat the rain to get what we needed done.”
| Date Taken: | 09.13.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 09.20.2012 14:19 |
| Story ID: | 95059 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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