Citius Altius Fortius
After three weeks of training at ol' Ft. Benning, I'm now officially a super dooper paratrooper. I finally have something legit to pin on to my uniform.
Over the past few weeks, I kept thinking to myself what decisions I made in the past that brought me to a certain point and wondered how my nonmilitary student friends were spending their summer days. This being my first Army training outside of ROTC, I was in for a good learning/indoctrinating experience. Airborne school wasn't really all that hard, though it was still very rewarding. The first two weeks felt slow and always seemed to tire me out by the end of the day. When our class finally got to jump week, after losing about 70 students for various reasons (out of about 560 who started the school, 485 went on to get their wings), I was really looking forward to my first jump. I felt strangely calm in that C-130 as we took off and even as we stood up, hooked up, and shuffled to the door, outside wind and engine noise deafening. That first jump was really somethin. I loved the rush of jumpin out of that door along with all those other jumpers and the following decent. The transition from screaming noise of the aircraft to the calm that immediately followed in the 1250 foot slow decent back to terra firma seemed somehow poetic, ie not something someone as myself could easily pontificate.
The long hours spent in the harness shed waiting on our planes were soon forgotten, sort of, after each successive jump. Before we knew it, it was time for our final jump. (We had one "hollywood" jump on Monday, another hollywood and a combat equipment jump on Tuesday, another combat equipment jump on Wednesday afternoon, followed by our final jump, another hollywood night time jump). I was lucky number one out the door this time round, my first time to be the first one out the door. I was lovin every minute. I stood facing the door, seeing that amber light to my lower left and the sparcely lit dark horizon out beyond the tip of the aircraft's wing in great anticipation for what I was about to do. "30 seconds!" the jumpmaster called out.... Green light, GO! A strong exit and a huge whoosh! of wind and a yank from my T-10 canopy, then silence, save for the light breeze. I could see out pretty far for it being 2300. I felt very at peace. I was going to savor this last jump. Keeping a sharp lookout during my decent, I steered my parachute safely away from other jumpers. A few seconds later, squeezing my feet and knees together I landed. I paused for a moment to take in my surroundings on Fryer DZ. The sky was completely clear, the Milky Way and all its glory in full view. I carefully gathered my chute and reserve in my kit bag and made my way off the DZ for the fifth and final time.
Now back in Auburn, and soon to be on the road for California, I looked through some pics of myself in and around the engineering buildings on campus, thinking how dismal and lackluster these settings seemed compared to what I just came back from. Maybe this Army thing is for me after all.
Running update: (warning, don't read this part, it's boring)
I didn't get to run much during my time on Ft. Benning, but I think I ran just enough to not lose any endurance, hopefully. If I ever hope to run Pinhoti this November, It's time to really crank on the miles. I think these last 3 weeks of low to no miles has given me a needed break from distance running, but now the breaks' over. Time to get back into it hardcore, Faster, Higher, Stronger. So many miles, so little time.
Better get movin.'
Over the past few weeks, I kept thinking to myself what decisions I made in the past that brought me to a certain point and wondered how my nonmilitary student friends were spending their summer days. This being my first Army training outside of ROTC, I was in for a good learning/indoctrinating experience. Airborne school wasn't really all that hard, though it was still very rewarding. The first two weeks felt slow and always seemed to tire me out by the end of the day. When our class finally got to jump week, after losing about 70 students for various reasons (out of about 560 who started the school, 485 went on to get their wings), I was really looking forward to my first jump. I felt strangely calm in that C-130 as we took off and even as we stood up, hooked up, and shuffled to the door, outside wind and engine noise deafening. That first jump was really somethin. I loved the rush of jumpin out of that door along with all those other jumpers and the following decent. The transition from screaming noise of the aircraft to the calm that immediately followed in the 1250 foot slow decent back to terra firma seemed somehow poetic, ie not something someone as myself could easily pontificate.
The long hours spent in the harness shed waiting on our planes were soon forgotten, sort of, after each successive jump. Before we knew it, it was time for our final jump. (We had one "hollywood" jump on Monday, another hollywood and a combat equipment jump on Tuesday, another combat equipment jump on Wednesday afternoon, followed by our final jump, another hollywood night time jump). I was lucky number one out the door this time round, my first time to be the first one out the door. I was lovin every minute. I stood facing the door, seeing that amber light to my lower left and the sparcely lit dark horizon out beyond the tip of the aircraft's wing in great anticipation for what I was about to do. "30 seconds!" the jumpmaster called out.... Green light, GO! A strong exit and a huge whoosh! of wind and a yank from my T-10 canopy, then silence, save for the light breeze. I could see out pretty far for it being 2300. I felt very at peace. I was going to savor this last jump. Keeping a sharp lookout during my decent, I steered my parachute safely away from other jumpers. A few seconds later, squeezing my feet and knees together I landed. I paused for a moment to take in my surroundings on Fryer DZ. The sky was completely clear, the Milky Way and all its glory in full view. I carefully gathered my chute and reserve in my kit bag and made my way off the DZ for the fifth and final time.
Now back in Auburn, and soon to be on the road for California, I looked through some pics of myself in and around the engineering buildings on campus, thinking how dismal and lackluster these settings seemed compared to what I just came back from. Maybe this Army thing is for me after all.
Running update: (warning, don't read this part, it's boring)
I didn't get to run much during my time on Ft. Benning, but I think I ran just enough to not lose any endurance, hopefully. If I ever hope to run Pinhoti this November, It's time to really crank on the miles. I think these last 3 weeks of low to no miles has given me a needed break from distance running, but now the breaks' over. Time to get back into it hardcore, Faster, Higher, Stronger. So many miles, so little time.
Better get movin.'
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