Soldiers with Yuma Test Center’s elite Airborne Test Force (ATF) are continually mastering their jumping skills. Recently the Soldiers took to the skies over Eloy, Ariz. to train.
At the facility, the Soldiers focus strictly on skydiving, often referred to as freefall, versus static-line jumps, where they are tethered to the aircraft.
“It fine-tunes us,” says ATF Master Sgt. Donald Bullock of the training.
ATF Test Parachutist Program Manager Joe Castillo creates training programs for the Soldiers to keep building on their experience.
Bullock explains, “Once jumpers have enough jumps, at least 400 plus, and they have already gone through all the steps Joe [Castillo] has come up with, they can transition into a non-standard parachute which is a non-military parachute. It’s a regular skydiving parachute.”
In Eloy, the jumpers are able to get more consecutive jumps per day.
“Each day it’s about five to six jumps depending on the weather,” says Bullock.