- 20 hours ago
The Pentagon is sending about 2,000 Army paratroopers to the Middle East. Based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division can be sent anywhere in the world in as little as 18 hours. The deployment comes as President Trump says he’s attempting to end the war with Iran through diplomacy.
Paratroopers are trained to support crisis-response, security and deterrence. Before anyone can become a paratrooper, they have to survive US Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Business Insider went inside the three-week training course, and visited the riggers, who are responsible for safely packing and inspecting every parachute.
Paratroopers are trained to support crisis-response, security and deterrence. Before anyone can become a paratrooper, they have to survive US Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Business Insider went inside the three-week training course, and visited the riggers, who are responsible for safely packing and inspecting every parachute.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:02The Pentagon is sending about 2,000 Army paratroopers to the Middle East.
00:07Based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division can be sent anywhere in the world
00:13in as little as 18 hours.
00:16Paratroopers are trained to support crisis response, security, and deterrence.
00:21The deployment comes as President Trump says he's attempting to end the war with Iran through diplomacy.
00:26Before anyone can become a paratrooper, they have to survive U.S. Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia.
00:34It's a three-week course that teaches the techniques involved in parachuting from airplanes and landing safely on the ground.
00:42Although that doesn't always happen.
00:45When Business Insider went inside Airborne School, we found out how dangerous the training process can be.
00:59When this Airborne student collided with a Humvee parked in the drop zone, our camera crew feared she was seriously
01:06injured, if not worse.
01:08Damn.
01:10Hey, sir, what are you doing?
01:11Me?
01:12Yeah.
01:13Filming?
01:13You can't.
01:14Uh-uh.
01:15No.
01:15An instructor ordered us to stop recording while the medics tended to her.
01:20A few minutes later, she was back on her feet and walking without assistance.
01:26When we caught up to her, she was all smiles, getting ready for her next jump.
01:32The medic checked me out.
01:33I didn't pull anything.
01:34I didn't tear anything.
01:36I didn't break anything.
01:36I was very grateful and also very conscious of the fact that I didn't hear a pop.
01:43That may be due to the fact that Davis listened to this instructor's advice right before she crashed.
01:49Keep your feet together.
01:51Keeping the feet and knees together is an essential component of executing a safe landing after a jump.
01:58Feet and knees together.
01:59Feet and knees together.
02:00Feet and knees together.
02:01Feet and knees together.
02:02Feet and knees together.
02:03Keep your feet and knees together.
02:04Feet and knees together.
02:08It's a phrase heard ad nauseum at Airborne School.
02:13A three-week course where the Army trains students to become paratroopers.
02:19Throwing yourself out of an aircraft is not a natural thing, especially at an altitude of 1,250 feet.
02:25It is a feeling like nothing you have ever felt before.
02:29Insider spent five days at Airborne School.
02:33Land.
02:34Where we observe different classes in the three phases of training.
02:40Ground week is pretty much an introduction.
02:42When they land on the ground, what procedures they need to take.
02:45And it's just building that confidence in their equipment.
02:50Tower week is the second week overcoming your fears of jumping.
02:55Jump week is the culminating event.
02:57You're jumping out of aircraft.
02:59You successfully make five jumps and you graduate Airborne School.
03:04The overall objective is to provide a capability to put a battalion size plus element in a location within 72
03:12hours.
03:14On day one, students have to pass two physical assessments.
03:18First group, get ready.
03:19First, the flex arm hang, where students must perform a pull-up and remain in place for 10 seconds.
03:28Up!
03:30This exercise requires the same technique and amount of upper body strength to perform what's known as a slip.
03:37Where a paratrooper grabs handles on the harness called risers and pulls down to adjust the parachute's direction.
03:45To really pull good slip, you're pulling, I think, 60% of your body weight.
03:49If you cannot hook up to the incline cable, you are a reach assessment failure.
03:54Do you understand?
03:55The second physical test assesses a student's ability to reach the cable they must connect to before jumping.
04:01Stand your arms straight up.
04:03Bring your fingers.
04:04Being a smaller human, I was definitely nervous about that.
04:07But when I got there, I stretched my arm out as fast as I could and realized,
04:11all right, I qualify, and that was a good feeling because I was a little bit nervous.
04:14While most pass with ease, for some students, a failed reach assessment brings an end to their training before it
04:24officially begins.
04:27About 15,000 students enroll in airborne school each year, and roughly 13,000 graduate.
04:36About 10% of students are female.
04:39I'm 17, and so I joined right out of high school.
04:42My friends now, they're just graduating.
04:44They're just going to college.
04:46That's the new things that they're starting, and the things I wanted to start right out of high school
04:50is, you know, saving people's lives and jumping out of planes.
04:57The Army wants still more volunteers from its ranks for parachute duty.
05:01Since 1940, paratroopers have been trained at the Fort Benning Army installation,
05:06which straddles the Alabama-Georgia border about 100 miles southwest of Atlanta.
05:12Stand by for the jump light.
05:14That's it.
05:15Four more trips like this one, and the fledgling paratrooper gets his wings.
05:19His pay will be $50 a month more than regular soldiers of his rank.
05:24Today, paratroopers still get extra pay.
05:33Students who graduate from airborne school get $150 per month added to their paycheck,
05:42classified as hazardous duty incentive pay.
05:52Students use mock parachutes to learn how to safely don and rig them before a jump.
05:58Everybody, walk all the way to the end.
06:00Marking the beginning of ground week.
06:02Slap, step, kick, count.
06:05The ground week phase gives you confidence in your competency.
06:10If you're on the left door, your static line is in the left hand.
06:13You don't have to be the strongest or the smartest.
06:17Recover!
06:17If you can remember to do very specific things at very specific times, you'll be fine.
06:24These are your equipment rings.
06:25Below that, you have your saddle.
06:29We teach them how to properly put on what's called a harness.
06:32Teach them how to rig it, the different components of the harness.
06:35Everyone, once you're finished and you're ready for inspection, come to me.
06:38After donning and rigging the harness, an instructor inspects the student's work.
06:43Hold.
06:44Squat.
06:46Turn.
06:47Bend.
06:52Recover.
06:53Recover.
06:54Recover.
06:55Sergeant, what's up with the little glove tap?
06:57That's basically called the seal of approval.
07:01Cover.
07:02Basically, they have what's called five points of contact.
07:05The balls of the feet, the calves, the thigh, the buttocks, and the pull-up muscle.
07:08Recover.
07:09The fourth point of contact is the easier, accessible part of the body that doesn't have
07:13anything to interfere as far as the harness itself.
07:16Recover.
07:17That fourth point of contact is the seal of approval that your equipment is good, I've
07:20checked it, and you're good to go.
07:21Relight.
07:22Go.
07:23Step.
07:24Kick.
07:24Count.
07:25Then they'll move to what's called the mock doors.
07:27So the mock doors is where they'll learn how to properly do individual exits from the aircraft.
07:31Kick.
07:32Count.
07:33Which is basically keeping those elbows tight, feet and knees together, knees slightly bent,
07:37and so on and so forth.
07:38Relight.
07:39Go.
07:39The mock door prepares students for what it's like to jump, but not to land.
07:50Paratroopers land at speeds of about 13 miles per hour, with the force comparable to jumping
07:56from a 9- to 12-foot wall, which is why they practice the parachute landing fall, or PLF,
08:04from a height of roughly 3 feet to develop a safe technique for landing.
08:09Essentially, it is a choreographed movement of them creating a banana shape or a rocking
08:13chair shape.
08:14They do a small bunny hop off the wall.
08:16They hit the ground.
08:17They tuck their chin down in their chest with their elbows high in front of their face.
08:19I like to concentrate on keeping their feet together so that there's more surface area
08:23for the impact of jumping out of the aircraft to absorb into, so that they can roll, getting
08:27them to bleed off the momentum so that they do not get injured.
08:30It hurt.
08:31It was annoying falling over and over and over until you get it right.
08:35And even then, you have to fall more and more.
08:37Land.
08:38This is my life that's on the line, so I appreciate that.
08:42Land.
08:44After PLFs, they move to the lateral drift apparatus, a zip line they slide across until
08:51they're ordered to let go and land.
08:54It simulates the lateral drift that will happen in the air due to wind, so then they'll have
08:59more momentum to actually complete the parachute landing fall and kick it up and over.
09:04All right, remember, we're slipping to the right.
09:06Students use the suspended harness to practice pulling a slip.
09:13So you would pull a slip in the direction that you want to go.
09:16So if you want to go to your front, to your left, you're going to pull a front-left slip
09:18as it would be all the way around all four risers.
09:22The T-11 parachute is not technically steerable, but executing a slip is the only option for
09:29avoiding a collision.
09:32Whether it's avoiding trees, other jumpers, they do work, and that's why we teach them here.
09:38Doing it constantly, knowing which way to slip.
09:41So in the air, I'm confident in which direction I'm going to go.
09:45Everything taught during ground week is taken to a new height the following week.
09:50Tower week, you're 34 feet off the ground.
09:53What are you going to do?
09:55You know, nobody knows how they're going to react when they're staring that door in the face.
09:59And I think everyone had that gut check, if you will, when they were up there.
10:05But once you send it, once you're jumping off, you're good.
10:12The height of the tower is typically where a lot of people are going to show the panic and
10:17the fear of heights.
10:18And the tower is used to help them control that fear.
10:22When you get up in that tower, everybody's excited.
10:26You're walking upstairs just like anybody else.
10:27But then, now reality sets in when I'm standing up here, 34 foot in the air, and now you asking
10:34me to jump out.
10:42They're going to kick out, creating the explosive power required for them to exit
10:46the aircraft, getting a good up-six, out-36 inch exit far away from the aircraft.
10:51As soon as their foot leaves the platform, they begin to count to 6,000.
10:57At the end of your 6,000 count, your main canopy will have fully deployed and has begun its
11:01inflation process and begun its descent to the ground.
11:04You did everything right.
11:05Students are observed and evaluated by instructors who critique them until they have developed
11:11an exit worthy of a live jump.
11:13All right, do it again.
11:14I actually jumped the mock tower 22 times just because I just had to perfect it and get
11:19it right.
11:20You've got to kick out a certain amount to get far enough away.
11:22And that was probably the thing I struggled with the most.
11:26The final exercise during tower week is the improved swing landing trainer, an opportunity
11:33to practice a parachute landing fall in a more realistic way.
11:38It simulates the oscillation and downward movement that you would experience on a normal
11:44parachute jump.
11:45They will swing until they get into a good parachute landing fall position.
11:49In a true parachute landing fall, you are not looking at the ground so you don't know when you're
11:53going to hit.
11:53We don't tell them, I'm dropping you now.
11:55We just say, hold what you got, prepare to land.
11:58That way they know the ground will be coming soon, they just won't know when.
12:03The instructor pulls a cable that causes the student to fall.
12:07This is also the most dangerous course when it comes to the actual training.
12:13We've seen broken bones, we've seen concussions result from this training more so than any
12:18other training.
12:22Training culminates with jump week.
12:25Jump week.
12:26Where students apply everything they've learned in five different jumps from a live aircraft
12:33flying 1,250 feet off the ground.
12:38Jump week begins with a jog to the airfield.
12:42Running down here from the barracks, it's a very slow pace.
12:45I found out the purpose of that was to check to see if anyone had any injuries.
12:49And then it's a waiting game until you finally get to jump.
12:53Students pick up their main and reserve parachutes,
12:57which have been meticulously packed and inspected by riggers.
13:03The team uses a 13-step process to pack about 75,000 parachutes a year for airborne students.
13:12If the riggers discover any deficiencies in a parachute, it is removed from circulation.
13:18What was the deficiency with that guy?
13:20A hole in the apex.
13:21A hole in the apex?
13:23Yeah.
13:25Students head to the harness shed, where instructors inspect their parachutes.
13:31So they go through five rounds of inspections by the time they exit the aircraft.
13:36Just to verify, re-verify, triple verify, make sure that everything is in order.
13:42Everything from checking the helmet and the actual T11 harness and the parachute for any deficiencies,
13:47any cuts, frays, any twists, anything that could injure the jumper or cause a malfunction.
13:57After the inspections, students wait, and wait, and wait, their jumps often delayed
14:05for hours by weather and air traffic control.
14:10I will say, the harness shed is not fun. You can't talk, you can't go to the bathroom,
14:16you just have to sit there in our nice comfy harnesses until you get to jump.
14:22Finally, the students get the signal that it's time to board the C-130 Hercules that will fly them to
14:29the drop zone.
14:41The C-130 flies toward Friar Drop Zone on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee River.
14:53When you're sitting there waiting, it's like it's not real yet.
14:57When they open the door, it's like, oh, you know. If your heart's not already beaten,
15:01that's when it starts because you're just about to go.
15:05Before the students jump, two instructors go to assess wind conditions.
15:10So they'll jump out, not pull a slip, see where the wind's taking them,
15:13and then we'll send that wind data up to the aircraft.
15:16On the ground, a smoke bomb ignited in a barrel provides an additional sense of wind direction and speed.
15:24The students hook their static lines to the anchor line cable.
15:28This connection will open the chute upon jumping.
15:32It's one of those things that you don't know that much about it until you do it.
15:36And it's not as scary as people think it is.
15:51We all have fears. A lot of folks are scared of heights.
15:54You know, you hear the stories, possible fatalities, and you allow that to get in your head.
15:59But once you get here to the school, you'll see that it's nothing like you ever thought it would be.
16:05That 18 to 20-something seconds you have falling out of the sky, you're in your happy place.
16:14The most surprising thing that I experienced when I exited the aircraft was the calm.
16:19It's like slipping into the void, and there's absolute silence. And it's such a cool feeling.
16:25Keep your feet together.
16:26But accidents can occur.
16:29I knew I was coming for the Humvee. I tried to calm down as much as I could.
16:34Keep my slip, cover my face, and just wait for what happened next.
16:37Had First Lieutenant Davis landed just a few inches to the left,
16:42her face and head could have collided with this mirror on the side of the Humvee.
16:47Mentally, I was back in my plebe combative class at West Point.
16:52There's a point in the class where you are going to get hit in the face, and you have to
16:58prepare for it.
17:00And I thought, I'm going to get hit, and I have to prepare.
17:04When you jump, you can't have a clear drop zone. We have to have vehicles out there for emergency
17:08purposes. And the best you can do is pull a one-restro slip opposite the direction of the hazard,
17:13feet and knees together, ready to land.
17:14Our next jump was the night jump. So you can imagine a somewhat traumatizing experience
17:21occurring. And then I was really, really trying to just remind myself that I'm good at this
17:27and just have faith in the equipment.
17:29So how did that one go?
17:30It went flawlessly. Flawlessly. It was great.
17:34Beat the knees together.
17:37Flawless landings are rare during the final jump when students jump with about 35 pounds of combat gear
17:44added to their load.
17:45It was really nice to get it over with on a combat jump, which that isn't fun because you're carrying
17:49all the equipment. But once you get out of the aircraft and you realize that being a smaller
17:54person kind of aids in bringing you down to the ground a little bit slower, it all pays off.
18:01All right, come in for a nice target landing.
18:04Friends and family gather to see the newest class of airborne qualified soldiers graduate
18:10underway after three weeks of training.
18:23What you see is a student that comes here. They don't know what to expect. They chose to do
18:29something that probably over one third of the army won't do. It's something to have this wing on your
18:34chest. You have proven that, hey, you jumped out of a moving aircraft. So they confidence just get
18:40greater and greater at each phase of the course.
18:43I was afraid of heights, but managed to step up to the plate, jump out the plane,
18:47and now I can say that I'm airborne qualified.
18:52I've definitely grown in confidence in myself. I'm a signal officer, so I work on computers.
18:58And it's very different having a trust that a modem will function versus a parachute opening.
19:04I'm the last military member in my immediate family to become airborne qualified. So as my mom would
19:11say, I'm no longer a dirty, nasty leg. So that's fun. What's the leg thing?
19:17So a leg is someone who don't have airborne wings. You can have everything. You ain't got airborne wings,
19:22you're a leg. So that's what we call your leg. 376 airborne students that just graduated, no longer legs.
19:31These soldiers are now officially airborne qualified, but in order for them to survive their jumps,
19:37their parachutes have to work. That responsibility falls on the riggers, who pack and inspect 75,000
19:45parachutes a year for airborne school. This is the most crucial moment for every student during airborne
19:52school. The moment the parachute deploys after jumping. If anything is wrong with the parachute
20:00itself, no amount of training can stave off a potential disaster. That's why every parachute is
20:08packed and inspected by a team of riggers, who collectively prepare about 75,000 chutes each year.
20:16It may seem like a simple job, but the stakes couldn't be higher. It doesn't matter how many
20:22I have to pack. Every chute matters. Every jumper matters. There can be no compromise with perfection.
20:27Without the riggers, we can't do anything. I tell them all the time, hey, you have our lives in your
20:33hands.
20:34You want to put one on? Insiders spent a day with the riggers of the first 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment
20:42to find out how these chutes are packed and checked
20:44before a live jump. I had a GI Joe back in the day, and he was a paratrooper. I used
20:51to just sit around packing his chute.
20:54I always told my family, if I ever did join the military, I'm pretty sure I could get a job
20:58packing
20:58parachutes, and here I am. Along with graduating from airborne school, riggers must complete 13 weeks
21:05of specialized training, culminating with jumping out of a live aircraft using a parachute that they
21:11pack themselves. To fully understand the gravity of the equipment that you are preparing for a jumper
21:19who's putting his life in your hands as the parachute packer, I don't believe that you can fully comprehend
21:25that unless you are prepared to take that leap yourself. They're supervised by in-process inspectors,
21:32or IPs, who wear red hats and perform eight different checks during the packing process.
21:39So the parachute that's being packed right now on the tables of Miami is the T-11 main. It is
21:43the static
21:44line parachute that we use here at the airborne school, and it is the primary static line parachute
21:48for the Army. Each T-11 parachute costs about $4,000 and takes 24 to 30 minutes to fully pack.
21:58Serial number 40884. We verify that we have the correct information in the book. So in event of a
22:05situation, the information can be tracked down and traced back to who packed it, when it was packed,
22:11who inspected it. Flaking the canopy exposes the panels, ensuring each one gets folded and packed
22:21for a safe deployment upon jumping. This is pretty much the longest process.
22:26The air channel must be clear so that it can inflate properly. This is my line separator. Put it in
22:33between
22:33a group of lines, and I place a packing weight on top. 28 suspension lines connect the parachute's
22:39canopy to the harness, separated into four groups. So I'm going to verify that I don't have any twists,
22:45turns, or tangles. My IP is down there, making sure that they're not tangled. My IP will count the
22:51panels of the parachute. You should have 15 on that side and 13 on this side. I'm starting the long
22:56fold.
22:56I grab my sleeve. Now I can begin to pull the chute into the deployment bag. Now I can begin
23:02stowing.
23:04Keeping the lines tight and neat as I can, I close my flap. The entire process contains about a dozen
23:12individual steps. And down here, I take my static line, secure it, and that is the pack of the T
23:19-11.
23:19Each rigger is limited to packing 15 parachutes a day. Due to the severity and seriousness of our
23:26job, we want to avoid anybody overworking themselves or overexerting themselves and becoming fatigued,
23:32because everybody can only do so much before they start losing the ability to perform at 100%.
23:39Each parachute has a service life of 12 and a half years before it's removed from circulation.
23:46What was the deficiency with that guy? A hole in the apex. A hole in the apex? Yeah.
23:50Sometimes, riggers discover deficiencies during packing and take the parachute out of circulation.
23:58Chutes that are successfully packed and inspected are sent to a hangar,
24:03where students pick them up before donning them.
24:08Every step I'm taking, I'm like, hey, this is someone's life in my hands.
24:12I know that they would, they would want me to pack a good chute for them.
24:15Hell yeah. And make sure that they can get down to the ground safely and
24:19make it home to their families at the end of the day.
24:22All 2,000 paratroopers headed to the Middle East have one thing in common,
24:27their training at airborne school. But this time, they could be jumping into a real war.
24:35All 2,000 paratroopers headed to the Middle East.
Comments