For those of us who have been to the U.S. Army Airborne School, this picture requires no words. For those who haven't, you can't truly appreciate what you are seeing in this picture unless you happen to be a rock climber or face jumper or some other sort of dare devil and have spent some of your time suspended 250 ft or more in the air by a harness for the purpose of letting someone drop you. (Click on the image for a larger picture) This is one of the three 250 ft towers located at the Airborne School on Fort Benning, Georgia. Things commonly heard around the towers: "Button, drop #4" "Hit the hole pole man, hit the hole" "turn right, left" "prepare to land" "get those feet and knees together" "Tower Week" is the second week of the three week Airborne school, the first week being "Ground week" and the third week being "Jump Week." Airborne trainees must work together during every phase of the training to prepare different pieces of equipment for use by other trainees.

One such example would be the 250 ft tower. Trainees spend the vast majority of their time at the 250 ft tower mounting the parachute to the cable assembly so that their fellow students may be dropped. Located in the middle of each parachute is a metal spike which fastens to a release mechanism at the bottom of the cable. The spike is re-inserted after every drop with the use of a long pole, the person weilding the pole being the pole man, and everyone else chanting "hit the hole pole man" as the cable comes closer. There are 32 rings around the outside edge of each parachute which fasten to the outer hoop. On one of the drops while I was in Airborne school, someone fasted one of the rings wrong, causing the student being dropped to snag and become suspended 250 ft above the ground by 1 little metal ring. Button is the person inside the tower control that operates the cable/release. The "Black Hat" (airborne instructor) gives the command outside with the aid of a bull horn. On the particular occasion that I just referred to, I recall the Black Hat yelling, "Button, let #4 down SLOW, Son, don't look up." Of course the guy looked up, and I do believe he screamed the entire 250 ft trip to the bottom on 1 breath.

There is also a 35 ft tower used to practice the exit from the aircraft. I don' yet have a picture of the 35 ft tower, but I hope to get some and put them on the page before too long. The 35ft tower is a mock-up of an aircraft. There are several cables running by the door on each side. Trainees put on a parachute harness which hooks to "risers" attached to a trolley on one of the cables. They then practice the exit from the aircraft and slide down the cable where other students wait to catch them. Personally, the 35 ft tower scared me a lot more than the 250 ft tower. Don't ask me why.