ROTC offers airborne experience
Cadet Jennifer Cowart
Issue date: 11/10/09 Section: News
An Augusta State University ROTC cadet recently jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and hit the ground running.
David E. Hernandez, 21, spent three weeks this summer at the U.S. Army Airborne School near Columbus, Ga., where he trained to be a military parachutist with more than 500 of his peers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from June 24 to July 14.
Hernandez is a college junior originally from Cape Coral, Fla. He spent nearly 10 years in the Army and was last stationed at Fort Gordon. He is participating in the Green-to-Gold program, at Augusta State, a process that allows Soldiers to attend college ROTC full time in order to be commissioned as an Army officer.
"Being prior service, I had always wondered what the fascination about being Airborne was all about," Hernandez said. 'So when ROTC asked for volunteers, I jumped at the chance."
Airborne school is broken up into three different training weeks; ground week, tower week and jump week. The phases are designed to progress to the ultimate goal, jumping out of an airplane, landing safely and getting off the drop zone as fast as possible.
According to Hernandez, the first week of class concentrated on parachute landing falls, or PLFs. Trainees were taught how to jump from high platforms, fall and roll to the ground properly without getting hurt.
"During ground week, which for most people was the hardest physically, we had to learn what equipment we would be using, exiting the aircraft properly, (and) lots of PLFs," Hernandez said. "Everyone's backs and butts were sore when the weekend came, but it was important to learn."
The next phase, tower week, sent trainees sliding off of a 34-foot tower with a harness attached to a steel cable to simulate exiting an aircraft. Students slid to the end of the steel cable, unhooked and got back in line to do it again.
"If you've never jumped off objects that are high in the air, then this would definitely get you ready for the real thing," Hernandez said. "I think I probably did it 20 times and it was a lot of fun."
David E. Hernandez, 21, spent three weeks this summer at the U.S. Army Airborne School near Columbus, Ga., where he trained to be a military parachutist with more than 500 of his peers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from June 24 to July 14.
Hernandez is a college junior originally from Cape Coral, Fla. He spent nearly 10 years in the Army and was last stationed at Fort Gordon. He is participating in the Green-to-Gold program, at Augusta State, a process that allows Soldiers to attend college ROTC full time in order to be commissioned as an Army officer.
"Being prior service, I had always wondered what the fascination about being Airborne was all about," Hernandez said. 'So when ROTC asked for volunteers, I jumped at the chance."
Airborne school is broken up into three different training weeks; ground week, tower week and jump week. The phases are designed to progress to the ultimate goal, jumping out of an airplane, landing safely and getting off the drop zone as fast as possible.
According to Hernandez, the first week of class concentrated on parachute landing falls, or PLFs. Trainees were taught how to jump from high platforms, fall and roll to the ground properly without getting hurt.
"During ground week, which for most people was the hardest physically, we had to learn what equipment we would be using, exiting the aircraft properly, (and) lots of PLFs," Hernandez said. "Everyone's backs and butts were sore when the weekend came, but it was important to learn."
The next phase, tower week, sent trainees sliding off of a 34-foot tower with a harness attached to a steel cable to simulate exiting an aircraft. Students slid to the end of the steel cable, unhooked and got back in line to do it again.
"If you've never jumped off objects that are high in the air, then this would definitely get you ready for the real thing," Hernandez said. "I think I probably did it 20 times and it was a lot of fun."
Be the first to comment on this story