Paratrooping

I was in the 82nd Airborne from June 1994 to April 1997. (I had a month of leave stored up so I actually got out in May 1997.)

Our job was to jump into a hostile enemy airfield, secure it by utilizing maximum force, and provide heavy weapons and anti-tank support to our fellow paratroopers.

The majority of my 32 jumps were “Mass Tac” (thousands of paratroopers in a multitude of airplanes, primarily C-130s or C-141s), with equipment (read: heavy) and at night.

This picture is a good representation of what those jumps were like, except nobody was setting off any flashbulbs inside of the aircraft.

It was pitch black, except a red light and the long awaited green light…