The US Army Airborne School is at the US Army Infantry Center,
Ft. Benning Georgia.
This school is located at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Soldiers begin
their first week on the ground, learning the basics of parachute
landings, and start a vigorous training program. During the second
week, called tower week, proper exiting of the plane is mastered,
and Soldiers are given the opportunity to parachute from a 250
foot high tower. The third and final week is the jump week. Everyone
make five jumps from either a C-130 or C-141, including one night
jump and two combat jumps with full combat gear. Each student
must satisfactorily complete 5 jumps from an aircraft while in
flight to earn the
Airborne wings.
Cadet Perspective on Airborne School
By: CDT Tim Shebesta
Airborne
School is a three-week school to train you to jump from an airplane
at 1,200 feet. When i found out I was selected for Airborne
School, I was pretty excited but also very nervous. The
school is broken up into three weeks called Ground Week, Tower
Week, and Jump Week.
The very first day of the school was probably the most challenging
day of the 23 days I was there. Starting at 0400 (4 a.m.), we
took an Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) that we knew 70 out
of the 395 students would fail.
After
we passed the test, we started Ground Week. This week we trained
for landings and door exits. The days were long but in the end
the time passed by quickly. Week two was Tower Week and was much
more fun than the first week. We practiced landings more, and
door exits out of towers, instead of on the ground. We used the
34-foot tower a lot, which was the most exciting training tool
in the school.
Finally, Jump Week started bright and early at 0300 the first
day. Our schedule was for a day “Hollywood” (no combat equipment)
jump on Monday, a day combat (with a rucksack and rifle) jump
and an evening “Hollywood” jump on Tuesday, and on Wednesday a
day “Hollywood” jump, and a night combat jump.
I can't even describe the jumps in a way that would tell how incredible
they were. After every jump, I was excited to get back in the
plane to do it again.
Overall the school was actually much more mentally challenging
than physically challenging. It was a lot of work but when it
finally came to jumping, every negative about camp was well worth
it. I recommend every cadet do this school if possible.
