Airborne School

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for writing me, keeping me in your prayers, and supporting me. Oh, this is Ben if you haven't figured out yet. My mom decided I should write a little something on Airborne School since I haven't written home or anything. So here's a glimpse into the Army's easiest school...

Because we graduated Basic and all that stuff we aren't "trainee's" so to speak so we have a lot more freedoms. My parents left my computer and cell phone here so it's been a great privalege to have them. I've caught up with many friends and all so it was very motivational. Unfortunitly, it'd make me think of home and all ya'll so much more. Anyways, this school is 3 weeks long. The first week is Ground Week. Second, Tower Week. And third, Jump Week. We only train Mon through Fri so I've really only been training for 10 days. They've been long ones though. Our mornings would start around 0445 and ends around 1800 (0600pm). And next week we'll put everything into practice.

Ground week we learned how to properly exit the aircraft and the 2 types of aircraft they use. We also learned how to land properly from any direction with any wind current. They went over all the details and nonsense no jumper really needs to know except how to exit and land. One SGT Airborne (our instructors) describe jumping out of a moving aircraft to throwing a cigarette butt out the window of your car while going 60mph. Oh boy, this is gonna be interesting. Tower week brought us off the ground a little bit. We did more landing practice from a swinging harness, from elevated platforms, and the works. And to practice our aircraft exits we had a zip line, so to speak, in which we hooked our harness up. So these past few weeks have been nonstop craziness. We run everywhere and as soon as we master one activity, its on to the next.

Jump weeks starts next Monday promptly at 0345; meaning wake up at 0300. Kill me now. There's a lot of rumors going around, as always, on what will happen during the week. But were supposed to get in 5 jumps in order to earn our wings. However, many companies have only been doing 3. There are 2 types of jumps. One's called a Hollywood jump with just a parachute and reserve; and the other is called a combat jump, where we have a ruck sack attached to our legs and a weapons case on our left side. So were supposed to do one of each and one night jump at the minimum. Bravo company, one week ahead of us, is behind already so our jumps will be pushed back unfortunately. And word has it the Air Force sent a lot of crappy broken down birds so there's been a lot of maintenance on them instead of jumping.

My graduation is scheduled for next Friday the 30th, but we'll see how that goes. The military just loves to hold all the precious information till the very end, and change it as soon as they put it out to us. So I hope to be done by next Friday. Rumor has it that upon graduation we pick up our bags and run to RIP, a pre-ranger course anywhere from a few blocks to 5 miles away. Once I get there I'll be briefed, hopefully, on what will take place. But I'll be downloading most of my extra stuff to my dad, meaning I'll be getting rid of my computer and books and everything else I won't need in order to make the run and survive day zero. Haha. The school is currently making a transition real soon if it hasn't already happened. They are extending the program from 4 weeks to 8 due to the increase of slackers getting into the Battalions and the near 200% overstrength groups. So I could be the last 4 week class, or the first 8 week class after Christmas leave. I'm really hoping I will be granted to go home for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas, but like I said, nobody knows anything.

Well, I think thats it for now. Thank you again for the love and support. If you'd like to email me my address is bawrestler@gmail.com. Thank you again and I'll be talking to ya'll soon.

- PFC Guido
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