The Army's Aviation and Special Forces Command recently held up the careers of two enlisted master parachutists as examples of excellent achievement to all of the nation's military personnel, whether they are performing their mandatory military service or intend to have a career in the military.
CORPORAL HUANG
A graduate of Tamkang University, Corporal Huang Chien-chou (
PHOTO: JIMMY CHUANG, TAIPEI TIMES
To select paratroopers, the airborne recruits rookies through a drawing from among all junior enlisted personnel who are serving their 16 months of mandatory military service.
These personnel are certified as qualified paratroopers after completing five jumps, and the vast bulk of airborne troopers perform only five jumps during their entire 16-month military service period.
Therefore, most master parachutists are chosen from among career military personnel.
But although most of his fellow paratroopers finished their five jumps, then ended their military service and left the airborne, Huang performed 50 jumps before completing his service on Feb. 9, thereby qualifying as a jumpmaster and earning his "master parachutist badge."
He accomplished his 50th jump on Jan. 30, and all of the paratroopers in his brigade were assembled to salute him when he landed, holding a ceremony in which he was awarded his master parachutist badge.
Huang was the first -- and so far only -- paratrooper on mandatory military service to be awarded such a badge, which is the top honor among Taiwanese paratroopers.
"I volunteered to become a paratrooper because I wanted to do something different during my military service," Huang said.
Huang said that he earned his "jump wings" -- becoming a certified paratrooper -- in January 2005, when he was still a private.
Despite his junior rank, however, he was assigned as an assistant parachute instructor at the aviation brigade training center the following month.
His superior officer asked him whether he was interested in becoming a jumpmaster, and he accepted the offer without hesitation.
THE JUMPMASTER
A jumpmaster's job is to leap out of the plane ahead of his fellow paratroopers during training or in combat, in order to gather information (such as windspeed and direction) to help control the descents of the troopers who follow. It is one of the most dangerous jobs in the military, during peacetime or in war.
After the jumpmaster jumps from a height of 411.48m -- the standard altitude from which paratroopers would carry out a combat mission -- she or he does not immediately deploy the parachute.
Instead, the jumpmaster must determine the direction and relative speed of the wind while in freefall, before deploying his or her chute and finding a safe place to land.
Once on the ground, the jumpmaster must quickly establish radio contact with the pilots conducting the mission, to coordinate the aircraft's speed and direction, as well as the position from which the paratroopers will jump to carry out the mission safely.
As a result, a jumpmaster must be smart, extremely cool-headed and insanely brave. It is not a job for just any qualified paratrooper.
"To be a jumpmaster, you must have a heart stronger than anybody else," Huang said. "Although there are many surprises in the air, nobody can help you up there."
Huang said that one of the most dangerous situations he encountered happened a few months ago.
It was a sunny day with a clear sky, he said. After he jumped, however, the wind shear began to pick up, growing to approximately 24kph and blowing him away from the landing zone.
"I immediately started the emergency procedures that I learned at the training center, and I managed to land safely," Huang said.
"But those were truly the craziest 60 seconds in the air, that kind of thing can drive you nuts," he said.
SERGEANT KUANG
Sergeant Kuang Chi-hsuan (
Kuang passed the entrance exam to become a career NCO in 2004, and officially joined the army in January 2005.
In July, she volunteered to serve in an airborne brigade, and soon began her training.
After two years, the 22-year-old jumpmaster now has 81 jumps -- including one night jump, regarded as the most dangerous type of mission for a paratrooper -- to her credit.
Both Huang and Kuang have at one time been assigned to be assistant instructors at the airborne training center. Kuang said that this was ironic, because she almost washed out of the airborne because of her fear of heights.
"When I was still a rookie at the training center, I failed the simulated jumps from a tower at least five or six times, but my instructors never failed me," she said. "But, when I was carrying out my first real training mission onboard an airplane, again, I was too scared to jump. Eventually, my instructor pushed me out."
Kuang said that she had experienced a near-fatal accident during a jump last May.
She said that again, because of her fear of heights, she decided to jump out backwards, facing the inside of the plane as she exited the aircraft.
Unfortunately, her timing was wrong, and she hit her head on the aircraft hatch as she jumped clear, knocking her unconscious.
"Thank God that I woke up at the last minute, carried out the standard procedure for a chute malfunction, and then landed safely," she said.
THE NIGHT JUMP
The paratroopers are an elite force, and are part of the Aviation and Special Forces Command. To qualify for the airborne, a paratrooper must complete five jumps, including one night jump.
The night-jump course had been suspended for more than a decade because of the potential danger that paratroopers encounter during the training, but it has recently been resumed.
To carry out a night jump, the paratrooper will first tie a small flashlight to his or her heel, and the flashlight beam is used to gauge the distance between each paratrooper.
The biggest difference between a regular jump and a night jump, obviously, is that a paratrooper can see almost nothing while in the air. Therefore, the paratrooper has almost no frame of reference to judge when and where he or she will land.
As a result, in addition to the physical dangers involved, a primal "fear of the dark" while airborne is also a powerful psychological challenge that a paratrooper must master during the training.
"Once you jump out of that hatch on the plane, you fall victim to [the fear of the dark], even though you know it is dangerous," Kuang said.
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