Anybody seen the new WOKE Army recruiting ad?

[Thumper]

Don't get me wrong, I still believe we (the U.S.) still has the mightiest military in the world, but really ....????

Here is an example of Chinese, Russian and U.S. Army recruitment ads. Sheeeesh! Give me a frigging break. :banghead

(You don't need to understand the language to get the point)


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[chadwimc1]

The change in the Army's mission has a lot of hard chargers waiting for the day they can leave it all behind. I know a young man right now that is soooo over being
in the Army. He has been some places and done some things that a normal 23 old couldn't even begin to comprehend. But he *DID* promise to take me on a tandem parachute jump when he is out. So I got that goin' for me...

[FooBang]

I saw it. My reaction was "Russia and China gotta act tough.. We's just is tough." Kinda like a boy called Sue. :D

[Thumper]

Chad, is he planning on becoming an instructor? Or do you mean both of you will be going on a tandem jump? I used to love jumping, but after I decided to fire all my employees and take my business over myself, it probably wasn’t the smartest hobby. All I had to do was twist an ankle and I couldn’t have worked, so I backed away from it. I’ve actually never been on a tandem jump. I suppose it’s exciting, not sure. I also have no idea what sort of options there are these days, but when I started, they had what’s called an Advanced Free Fall (AFF) course. I don’t remember persactly, but I think you started in the morning with something like an 8-hour course, then jumped the same afternoon (solo). On the first jump, two instructors fly with you. If you f-up somehow, they are there to hook up and hopefully save your ass. You jump and once they see you’ve stabilized, they’ll split off and observe until you pull the cord. The next couple jumps, only one will go along just to observe, then you’re on your own after that. Careful, it’s addicting and you can easily get hooked! I assume some jump sites still offer AFF, but I’ve been away from it a while and really don’t know.

Here’s a pic of my first jump. My instructors are making sure I’m in good shape (everything is hand signals of course) before splitting off and leaving me to do my own thing. It’s a total rush if you’d consider doing something like that.

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My smiling mug!

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And a perfect landing (remained on my feet!) Not bad for a first jump!

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[chadwimc1]

My guy has high altitude, low altitude, water, and helicopter jumps. The way I get it is I'll be strapped to the front of him where all his gear would normally be. He has qualified with 20lbs or more than his body weight when he exited the plane, so that'll be about right for my jelly belly to be hanging on to him. He tells me amateur sky diving is sooo different than what he has done that there may be an issue or two to get ironed out. He has a gig lined up for us, tho'.

Ain't no doubt he is gonna have to push me at the door...:toothy

And then the ride down is going to be like an alley cat has dug his claws into his hide...

[Thumper]

Yeah, that's what's confusing me I guess. I'm a dinosaur in the field these days, but I know there's a LOT to do to become a tandem pilot (instructor). I feel you may have misunderstood him and what he meant when he said he'd take you on a tandem skydive, I'm assuming he meant he will accompany you and you will BOTH go on a tandem dive, with two different tandem pilots. I don't know what his military training is, but just because he jumps, it doesn't give him the ability to jump tandem as a pilot. Plus, the military generally doesn't use ram-air canopies and those are the only chutes that qualify as jump numbers for licensing purposes. You have to have a minimum of 500 LOGGED jumps with a ram-air canopy just to get the basic USPA license, THEN move on from there to qualify for tandem. Also, as for your jelly-belly only weighing 20-lbs, I have to assume you dropped a number in there somewhere. :lmao I think the max any military paratrooper can carry is maybe 120-lbs, but that would be extremely rare unless it would be some sort of special training. The gear generally runs about 70-lbs.

A tandem set-up is a whole different beast as far as equipment goes. In fact, to qualify for a tandem license, one has to qualify with whichever manufacturer’s equipment he uses. That’s an additional 25 jumps, 10 with company observers and 15 with passengers.

[Bwana]

Said the guy who doesn't know anything about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. ;-)

[Thumper]

Ha ha! Yep, but it IS a blast and a major rush. I jumped most every weekend for quite a while. It's a lot of fun, but I was asking for trouble being self-employed in a labor intensive business with no other employees. I figured it was too much of a gamble to continue. I do miss it though.

[chadwimc1]

I'll have to get in touch with the guy. He has a lot of jumps but no where near 500. I get the impression we're jumping with my jelly belly strapped to him.

[Bwana]

I have a great friend who is a parachuting nut. Matter of fact, he retired this past summer and moved to Arizona so he can now jump year 'round without having to fly somewhere warm and sunny during the winter to do so.

I came THIS close to jumping years ago while at a drop zone one evening with him but a tornado made an appearance during an evening thunderstorm which nixed anything happening that day. Since then the closest I have come is spending a few hours in wind tunnels where you can learn how to free fall or practice patterning points. FYI - holding yourself stable is WAY harder than I ever thought it would be!

[Thumper]

Chad, I'm at a loss as to what your buddy is planning or what his capabilities are (legally), but do NOT pass up the opportunity to tag along for a jump. I'm 99% sure what he meant was that the two of you will go for (separate) tandem jumps "together". Who knows? You may get hooked. The minute I exited the door on my first jump, I couldn't wait to get back to the ground so I could go again. I did ALL my jumps at 13,500 feet, so it gave a nice little window for freefall which is really what it's all about. The time under canopy is just for a bit of sight-seeing, as the freefall itself is the real rush. The experienced guys pull at the last possible minute and have some pretty racy canopies which gives them minimal time under canopy. When I first got involved, I thought it was the other way around and assumed dangling under that chute and enjoying the view was what it was all about! Take him up on his offer and go for it! I'm SURE you won't be disappointed. I just wish I could tag along, but I'm just too old, fat and out of shape for most legitimate DZ's to allow it these days.

This thread got me wondering how much things have changed over the years, so I decided to dig around on the net a bit to re-educate myself a little. Here's something I dug up which pretty much explains where my confusion has been coming from in my earlier posts. It may be pretty dry reading, but it touches on some of what I've been saying above. Plus, this article is pretty much referring to the basic A license, to be licensed for tandem jumps is MUCH more involved. Unless your guy has been pursuing instructor status on the civilian side during his time in the military, either you're misunderstanding him, or he misunderstands the requirements to pilot a passenger. No matter what, just DO IT AND HAVE FUN! I'm jealous. :(

https://uspa.org/p/Article/crossover-training-for-military-jumpers#:~:text=Crossover%20Training%20for%20Milit ary%20Jumpers&text=USPA%20takes%20every%20opportunity%20to,enter ing%20civilian%20life%20after%20service.