Photo By Sgt. A.M. LaVey | Staff Sgt. John Labas, a jumpmaster with Troop C, 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment,...... read more read more
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VAZIANI, Georgia - Throughout their career, many American paratroopers get a chance to conduct a parachute jump with foreign armies, but for a paratrooper with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, it’s in his job title.
Staff Sgt. John G. Labas, an infantry squad leader with Troop C, 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, is a jumpmaster. As an jumpmaster, he is one of the expert paratroopers within the 173rd who is responsible for the training and teaching the Army’s techniques to jump from aircraft while in flight.
“I’ve been in airborne units most of my life,” said Labas. “So becoming a jumpmaster was a natural career progression.”
The Granville, N.Y.-native enlisted in the Army about 10 years ago as a parachute rigger.
“I specifically joined the army to become a paratrooper,” said Labas. “Paratroopers always set themselves apart from the rest of the Army and I wanted to be part of that.”
After sixteen weeks of training to become a U.S. Army parachute rigger, Labas reported to Fort Bragg and began his career. But he felt a need to change his job, to that of an infantryman - but his skills as a parachute rigger remain with him still and are highlighted even more now that he is a jumpmaster.
“Labas is the most intense jumpmaster I’ve ever seen,” said 1st Lt. William Wright, Labas’ platoon leader. From this times as a parachute rigger he has amazing skills and knows parachutes inside and out - a real asset.”
The U.S. Army Jumpmaster Course is a technical leadership school, you must meet many prerequisites to even apply. A healthy paratrooper must be a noncommissioned or a commissioned officer, they must have at least a year of parachutist experience with at least 12 high-performance parachute jumps, and be recommended by their battalion commander.
Once they meet the prerequisites, they must pass a written and practical test in order to receive the coveted ‘white slip,’ in order to attend the three week course. Once they are admitted to the highly-selective course, they are trained on nomenclature, pre-jump safety training, practical work in the aircraft, jumpmaster personnel inspections and a written exam.
“Being a jumpmaster isn’t a requisite to be a leader in an airborne unit,” said Sgt. 1st Class Matthew W. Carter, Labas’ platoon sergeant. “But Labas leads by example - and that is what a noncommissioned officer does. As a NCO in this unit, you’re expected to go to jumpmaster school and become a jumpmaster. We, as leaders, need to be able to show our junior paratrooper what right looks like.
Being a jumpmaster is an additional duty position for Labas, as an airborne infantry squad leader he also responsible for the paratroopers whom he leads. For some of his subordinates, being a jumpmaster sets him apart from the other troop leaders.
“When it comes to airborne operations, Staff Sgt. Labas has a lot of experience,” said Pfc. Daniel Woods, an airborne infantryman assigned to Labas’ squad. “He brings that aspect of his leadership to not only our squad, but to the entire troop.’
Being a jumpmaster is an important part of who he is as a leader in the United States Army.
“Younger paratroopers look up to jumpmasters to leader them,” said Labas. “If I can’t lead my squad into battle from aircraft - who else is going to do it? It’s just another way of taking care and leading my Soldiers. As a leader in an airborne unit, it’s an obligation for us to become jumpmasters - we are expected to do it. Every aspiring leader of paratroopers should also aspire to become a jumpmaster.”
His troops agree.
Staff Sgt. Labas “is a great leader and he absolutely inspires me to go to jumpmaster school as soon as I can,” said Woods. “I am ready to go any and every time he say’s ‘follow me’ to follow him out of an aircraft. Following him, I always feel safe. I would follow him into a cage full of lions if he asked me to.”
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, as the forwardly-positioned U.S. Army Contingency Force in Europe, has a special requirement to be able to deploy ready forces anywhere in the U.S. European, Africa and Central Commands’ areas of responsibility within hours of alert.
With this mandate, and also to improve interoperability with allied and partner armies, paratroopers from the 173rd often train with foreign paratroopers and jump into foreign drop zones.
“It’s what we do,” said Labas. “The experience of being a jumpmaster in the 173rd, whether it be at the brigade headquarters in Italy, or our squadron headquarters in Germany, is like nowhere else. Nearly all of our seasoned jumpmasters have experience into foreign countries - we have amazing collective institutional experience. On any given day, the brigade can be jumping into six or more different countries.”
Jumping into foreign drop zones is a special skill set that the paratroopers for the 173rd are constantly perfecting.
“Jumping into Georgia, Romania, Germany, Italy — wherever, is not like jumping into Fort Bragg, N.C., where you are constantly jumping the same places,” said Labas. “The jumpmasters do a lot when it comes to safety and each time we jump somewhere new, it is preparing us for whenever the brigade has to conduct another jump into combat - we are already proficient in coming to a foreign country, setting up a drop zone and executing a flawless airborne operation onto foreign soil.”
Lobos credits much of his success to the jumpmasters who he’s known and worked with his whole career.
“Growing up in the Army, I looked up to those jumpmasters and saw how they carried themselves professionally - I trusted them with my life,” said Labas. “I looked to them for my safety and saw how they ran airborne operation. They are highly professional subject matter experts and I became a jumpmaster so I could be a part of that elite community.”
In an airborne unit, no one is required to become a jumpmaster, and even in the 173rd there are not many of them.
“We have an important job and are a crucial component of an airborne unit,” said Labas. “Without jumpmasters, a unit cannot conduct parachute operations - it’s impossible.”
According to Labas the best part of 173rd are the world-wide opportunities for its’ jumpmasters.
“We get great opportunities in the 173rd to train with foreign paratroopers,” said Labas. “This training shows our allies and partners that we are willing to invest our time into the training that we do with them - and this forever strengthens our international relationships. The armies that we work with know that they are going to get the best bang for their buck - American paratroopers are true professionals and an impressive sight to see.”
Lobos recently parachuted into Vaziani, Georgia with other paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade into the opening ceremony of Exercise Noble Partner 15. Noble Partner is a field training and live-fire exercise between the U.S. Army and the Georgian military to support Georgia's participation in the NATO Response Force and build military ties between the two nations.
| Date Taken: | 05.16.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 05.16.2015 06:24 |
| Story ID: | 163550 |
| Location: | VAZIANI, GE |
| Hometown: | GRANVILLE, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 1,062 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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