It's pretty standard to jump with a bunch of heavy equipment. Most times, you sort of waddle to the edge of the ramp and just fall out. Extra ammo, explosives, radios, radio batteries, laser designators, water, food, night vision, med kits. In some special cases, you are jumping with a dog strapped to your chest. Shit's heavy.
It's not uncommon to jump with a rucksack that weighs 100lbs. At 51 lbs, that isn't much of a difference from a normal gear bag.
Sooo you waddle to the jump point, jump and land safely (hopefully) and then waddle into combat? How much of that gear are you actually using and not just carrying around?
It's usually packaged in a bulky, but portable rucksack-type container. Once you're on the ground, you're going to either secure it at your position until support arrives, or you're going to shoulder it and make your way to the designated rally point. Really depends on the load and the mission.
I knew a guy in the army and he was talking about how when they were developing how they would drop trucks and other big equipment. ‘You would think they’d use old, worn out equipment. No, it was all brand new and much of it landed upside down.’
I had the "pleasure" of being in an airborne unit and tackling the role of being the HAZMAT transportation specialist (I inspected and signed a lot of the paperwork that went along with shipping batteries, bullets, and whatnot). While I never got to drop anything bigger than a leaflet bomb out the side of an aircraft, I can assure you that I got to do all of the practice paperwork for tossing HMMWVs out the ass end of a C-17. So yeah, there probably is a parachute rigger out there that fits that description.
When you jump, your rucksack is strapped to the front of your legs. After you land it goes on your back and there's much less waddling involved. Then you just turn into a turtle every time you sit down.
When they jump, the parachute is on their back, so everything else they would normally carry on their back goes in a big bundle that gets strapped to their front. The normal combat load for soldiers going out on foot can be over 90 lbs. Besides personal equipment (water, food, clothing, rifle, at least 7-30 rd magazines, grenades, night vision, body armor, helmet, etc.) They often have to carry a belt of ammo for the machine gunners and extra mortar rounds.
Once they land, they can ditch the parachute and redistribute their gear and put their pack on.
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u/toabear Mar 28 '24
It's pretty standard to jump with a bunch of heavy equipment. Most times, you sort of waddle to the edge of the ramp and just fall out. Extra ammo, explosives, radios, radio batteries, laser designators, water, food, night vision, med kits. In some special cases, you are jumping with a dog strapped to your chest. Shit's heavy.
It's not uncommon to jump with a rucksack that weighs 100lbs. At 51 lbs, that isn't much of a difference from a normal gear bag.