The paras in Iraq

[owdun]

Prez,ABI,nice to see a sense of fun creeping back onto the forum,it's been in rather short supply of late.


Aye Owdun.

[BenChug]

no actually i reckon they were quite attractive, to hot for army chicks.
its a rarity.

[El Prez]

I agree wholetartedly Owdun. Unfortunately the conflict in Eyerak has downed a few spirits and lowered the threshold of tolerance amongst most of us, hence the recent tetchiness. I reckon a lot of this may be attributed to concern for all our troops when we hear of constant Blue on Blue, frustration with Blair, the lack of quality and quantity in terms of our troops equipment and the constant barrage of suspect reporting by the BBC; it all engenders huge uneasiness.

Plus the Paras winning the 2003 FIBUA finals at Moss Side, due to Royal being out of the country, really irritates. (FIBUA - Fighting in Bathrooms and Utility Areas)

[DelD]

While he subject of female paras has been raised, it would to the best of my knowledge also be true that no woman has passed P Company, however there is another way to earn your Parachute wings- make an operational jump, and this has allowed a very select group of women to wear that badge. With no disrespect to those on the site who have earned their wings by passing P company, it must surely have been easier than parachuting into NAZI occupied France, and then working under cover. There are a few pictures in existence of women wearing wings, but they were the lucky ones who actually got hime to sew them on, rather than thrown into the ovens alive. I cant think of anyone braver than them.

[ABI]

Deld

Couldn't agree more, I've read some of their stories and they showed bravery many men would not.

However, there is a common misunderstanding that P-Coy is a test to get you on to the parachute course at Brize. It is infact designed to test the individual has obtained the required standard physically and mentally to be a Paratrooper. Brize is the icing on the cake and parachuting in itself is a means to an end, no more no less.

Marines do not do P-Coy yet there are many with their wings up, for them it is seen as a 'course attended' and a nice badge to have.

[El Prez]

Marines do not do P-Coy yet there are many with their wings up, for them it is seen as a 'course attended' and a nice badge to have.

Is that a line from "Trout fishing" by JR Hartley? "Nicely presented to the surface, the trout rose, nudged the slowly rotating fly and stuck his fin up at the angler!"

[Rotary Booty]

.....and here's one of those, 'nice badges'!

[ABI]

Well I thought I'd cast it out there and see what happened.

[DelD]

I think I have to say that regardless of how an individual has obtained the parachuting qualification, anyone who can stand in a herc for hours with their own body weight again strapped to them and then jump out at what I believe is now a ridiculously low height gets my respect! And as ABI says, that is only the start, not the end of the job they have to do, whoich makes it all the more impressive.

[The JaCkAl]

Can you direct the parachutes when you jump out? They're round so how can you? What do you just jump out and hope for the best, and land with bended knee. What if you land in a busy crocadile pit?

[barbie]

I believe they only traverse whilst the general direction is downward,

(never have seen any reason to get out of a perfectly serviceable aicraft)

[BenChug]

Nuts i says.

A buddy of mines dad told me a story from awhile back when he was training a group of Gurkas to parachute. And I believe they were going to jump from about a 1,000 feet? (or something close to that I'm not one for such details.) And they asked with they could go down to a 100 feet as per they didn't realize they would have parachutes. which strikes me as nuts cause I wouldn't bloody jump from an aircraft at a 100 feet without a parachute.
Thats balls or .. well it sure is something.

[Sven]

Isn`t that Dit from the film "The Red Beret" or something, about a Yank who joins the British Paratroopers in the Second World War? I remember the scene that your refering to....

[Bob Sidmond]

work out your drift and pull down on the appropriate lift web, feet n kness together and accept the landing. you can jump LLP at 250ft however it has been done at 150ft once you hit the ground tab off to your RV then the real work starts.
HAPPY DAYS

[gash-hand]

work out your drift and pull down on the appropriate lift web, feet n kness together and accept the landing.

Or as Royal likes to say:

See which way the winds blowing, observe great big tree, climb your lift webs to exert greater pulling power on them, observe how ineffective your strainings are, feet together or knees together - but for some reason not both at the same time, accept the landing and subsequent face full of cow sh*te, gte back on the plane and do it all again