When you jump with Israeli paratroops, they undo the left side of their reserves after lowering equipment. We can easily do the same thing. Immediately after lowering your rucksack and/or weapons cases, BOTH HANDS should grasp the waist band quick-release on the left, and pull hard to undo it. This is necessary since under weight under the canopy it does not come undone as easily as when you are on the ground. Then, unclip the left snaphook and swing the reserve away to your right. Refer to the drawing at the top.

At 200 feet and under its probably too low to deploy a reserve anyway, BUT if you have to the reserve has spreader bars and will work if attached by one snaphook. If you are going to land in trees, you do not undo the left side of the reserve. Even if you do undo it, the reserve can still be used to climb down the tree.

Now as you prepare to land, you have only a chest strap and two leg quick-ejector straps to hinder your exit in event of water or combat. Underneath the leg straps should NOT be a folded kit bag. The kit bag should be if its nylon in your BDU trouser pocket or in the outer left or right pocket of your ALICE rucksack. Just before landing, undo your chest strap, and M4 carbine tie downs.

Without the reserve at your waist, you are free to bend more and better roll to dissipate landing shock. You land via a parachute landing fall (PLF) cushioned by Parachute Ankle Braces (PABs) and knee/elbow pads inserted under your BDUs. Lying on your back you release one canopy release assembly to prevent being dragged.

You undo your two leg straps and roll over and out of the harness with your M4 5.56mm carbine slung across your shoulder rolling into your hands ready to fire. If your weapon is in a weapons case, you remove it from its case. Your Field Protective Mask (FPM) should be on your LBE or ETLBV not on the outside of the rucksack.

Next, you low-crawl to your rucksack following your hook, pile tape lowering line (HPT LL), where your disconnect the HPT LL from your ruck by the snaplink used to connect it to the Harness, Single Point Release (HSPR ) where the two straps form an "X". The rucksack shoulder straps are loosened, and the ruck thrown on your back as you IMT to the assembly area using previous decided markers and/or wrist compass direction.

If the jump is a peacetime combat equipment jump, at the rucksack, the HPT LL is stowed in a BDU trouser pocket. The rucksack is opened to retrieve the kit bag. The PABs are removed to ease wear and tear and placed in the pocket vacated by the kit bag. The rucksack is placed on the back. The Paratrooper runs to the canopy and folds it back into the kit bag, taking care to remove the 2 ring attaching straps that belong to the HSPR, and place them in the same BDU pocket as the HPT LL.

If the jump is a "Hollywood" without combat equipment, the kit bag should be carried in a BDU pocket if its nylon. If not, then the cotton kit bag should be stowed under the leg straps though as soon as possible this practice should be discontinued via nylon kit bags replacing cotton ones.

The more we can simplify and speed the Paratrooper to his unit assembly areas, the faster combat power can be built up and used against the enemy. The German Airborne after WWII concluded in their seminal work, Airborne Operation: a German Appraisal, that:

"The time of greatest opportunity and greatest risk for the Paratrooper is when he first lands in the drop zone".

We cannot waste a single second.

RETURN TO AES outside frame

Return to Army Equipment Shop inside frame