Photo By Ana Henderson | Maj. Derick Taylor jumped into the role of commander of the Military Free Fall School...... read more read more
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Maj. Derrick Taylor is just a few months short of 23 years in the Military.
His Army career has taken him many places and provided him with a wealth of experience, yet it started in the most unlikely placed…in the United States Marine Corps. Through that enlistment he earned an Army Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship that allowed him to attend Georgia Military College and commissioned in as an infantry officer.
His path changed again when he when he joined the reserves and enlisted in the Army National Guard. From there Taylor enlisted fulltime into the Army.
“I have gotten to serve in all three components of the Army and the Marine Corps.”
His diverse entrance into the military prepared him for his work today. “Having the experience across the components, I am able to talk the language of each components, which is slightly different even though we all wear the Army name tag, then bring all of these experiences to this command job where I have all of these Soldiers.”
Taylor jumped into the role of commander of the Military Free Fall (MFF) School based at Yuma Proving Ground just two short months ago. The MFF School is the largest course in the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and trains all branches of the military except the Coast Guard.
Taylor has been with Special Operations since 2003, at the time based out of Tampa, Florida. He served as a staff officer and was able to perform missions with special operations detachment. “I got to go on some mission in North Africa and I said, ‘this is for me.’” In 2007, he entered into the Special Forces Acceptance selection course.
From there his career took him around the world, including the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. In the states he’s lived in Georgia, Florida, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which was his duty station when he served on the Joint Operations Command.
The position at YPG for the MFF will gives Taylor more stability.
“The last decade plus has just had me go all over the world, meeting interesting people and doing interesting things, and I am thankful for it. But I am certainly happy, for two years or more, to be here in Yuma commanding the Free Fall School.”
While leading the MFF Taylor has oversight of four programs of instruction. The MFF basic parachutist course, the largest course of the four, trains hundreds of basic parachutists from all branches of the military per year. The MFF jumpmaster’s course, the second largest course, trains about 300 students a year. There is the MFF instructor course, which is only for Soldiers assigned to Yuma. The fourth program is the tactical infiltration course.
“It’s our smallest course but our most advanced course,” explained Taylor. “This is the combat focused, combat ready, free fall parachutist course where they are jumping in rough terrain, with combat equipment at nighttime, about as dangerous as it can be without the combat.”
The MFF School trains between 1,200-1,400 students per year.
“We are a very small organization but we have the most students of our entire institutional apparatus,” said Taylor. “We take great pride in the level of training we give these guys.”
Also in the works for the MFF is a new facility. Currently the MFF School uses 13 smaller and older building around YPG. This facility would bring them all under one roof. “The Army is all about modernization, how do we do things better fast, more efficiently, and how do we get rid of the older Army buildings and equipment in favor of the newer more efficient equipment potentially cheaper things?”
The military construction project for the building is set to break ground in 2021 on the Laguna Army Airfield. “What’s exciting for us is the efficiencies that it will bring. Right now our parachutes are in one place, but our training is in another. If we can consolidate all of that and put it outside of where our aircraft is parked, it will add training time to our day.”
While the number one line of effort is training, Taylor also looks forward to getting involved in YPG and Yuma community events. “Every single special courses graduate comes here to Yuma and gets their training for free fall parachutist-- that’s a big story to tell.”
| Date Taken: | 10.14.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 10.16.2019 10:25 |
| Story ID: | 347771 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, AZ, US |
| Web Views: | 592 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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