SAN DIEGO - Army Reserve soldiers jump into the San Diego Bay.
For a parachutist, drifting towards water can be a terrifying proposition; more likely the result of a badly off-course jump, which can turn into a possible life-or-death struggle to stay afloat. Yet for one local Army Reserve unit, a water landing was exactly what they were looking for.
The 301st Tactical Psychological Operations Company (Airborne), based in San Diego, ran an airborne operation over the San Diego Bay Aug. 6. Nearly 50 soldiers from the unit took part in the operation, utilizing an Air Force C-130 aircraft. The C-130 made several passes over the bay to accommodate the soldiers.
“The main reason we’re doing this is so that if they’re inadvertently dropped into the water during a normal parachute drop, they’re better prepared to deal with it,” said Capt. Jeff Peterman, drop zone safety officer for the operation. “We see this as a survival skill for our soldiers to learn and be comfortable with, so that if they ever end up with a water landing, they’ll survive.”
Peterman, the 301st company operations officer, explained that many airborne operations over land occur near bodies of water, so parachutists must be competent in a water landing in case they find themselves off-course over water. Reflecting the seriousness and importance of the training, Peterman explained how servicemembers have died from drowning in the past after inadvertently landing in water. Oftentimes, small lakes or swamps go unnoticed as the parachutist descends through the air.
It’s more dangerous when soldiers don’t realize they’re going to land in the water, Peterman said, in regard to parachutists expecting a ground landing. “As they’re falling, they don’t often see the water below them.”
To counteract the danger of a water landing, parachutists wear a two-part, self-inflating flotation device harnessed around the chest. Each of the two parts is compressed in a carrier, one under each arm. The parachutist deploys the device by pulling a chord from each carrier mid-air, with both parts popping open and meeting in a split second to form a life preserver around the upper torso. The device is a required safety measure for any airborne operation within 1,000 meters of water.
For Pfc. Ricardo Camacho, the relatively higher danger level of a water landing was shrugged off with the characteristic ease of a young soldier, even though this was his first airborne operation over water.
“I was stoked for it,” the psychological operations specialist said. “It’s just like any other jump, just a softer landing.” When asked if he was nervous before the jump, Camacho replied, “No, not really, I mean you have to jump, so being scared isn’t going to help you at all … just go for it.”
Unlike most airborne operations utilizing a C-130, where parachutists exit from the side doors of the aircraft, parachutists exited the C-130 from the tailgate during each pass of this operation. A pre-selected area in the bay was chosen to serve as the “drop zone” for the operation. A drop zone is an area above and around a location where a parachutist exits an aircraft and expects to land. Once parachutists neared the water, Coast Guard recovery boats zoomed in personnel standing ready to scoop up the soldiers. Within minutes, the parachutists, along with their parachutes, were hauled into the boats and were transported to a dock at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. The boats would then race back into position at the drop zone for the next pass of the C-130.
For Lt. j.g. Ryan Beck, commanding officer of the United States Coast Guard Cutter Haddock, an 87-foot vessel, this was the first time working with the Army on an airborne operation.
“It definitely was very good training,” said Beck. “It was a good opportunity to see how the Army operates and to provide assistance and support capacity, and I hope we can do it again in the future.”
Seaman Brian Frisby, a Haddock crewmember, felt much the same way.
“It’s always interesting to see different types of training that the different services are doing,” he said. “The normal training that we do never involves airplanes or people falling out of them, so it’s nice to get the experience to know how to help out in different situations.”
The Haddock stood watch on the drop zone from afar, serving as the command and control center, from which Peterman and his assistants ran the operation.
The inter-service involvement went beyond the Army and Coast Guard to include all branches. The operation utilized a pier maintained by the Marine Corps at the aforementioned Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, and the Air Force’s 914th Airlift Wing out of Niagara Falls, N.Y., provided the C-130 aircraft.
The extensive logistics and inter-service coordination, along with the higher risk level associated with the operation, makes this training somewhat of a rarity in the Army, as a water landing is not required for airborne qualification, Peterman said. Yet the challenges didn’t intimidate the 301st.
“We’ve never been happy doing just the minimum,” he said. “We are always challenging ourselves, the soldiers, to do more and go beyond the minimum.”
| Date Taken: | 08.12.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 08.18.2010 18:47 |
| Story ID: | 54802 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 121 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Psyops parachutists take the plunge, by SGT Michael Connors, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
