Riggers relied on for parachute packing

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - - Spc. Reginald Blanton, parachute packer, 4th Quartermaster Detachment (Airborne), 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, ensures that all the screws in the D-rings are tightly secured while Spc. Jesus Gomez continues to fold the parachute, April 4. This particular portion of folding is called, "folding the gores." (U.S. Air Force photo/Johnathon Green)

Riggers relied on for parachute packing

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - - Spc. Jesus Gomez, Parachute Packer, 4th Quartermaster Detachment (Airborne), 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, connects a deployment bag to the canopy of the parachute, April 4. All connections made for a parachute are by a quarter-inch cotton webbing and secured by tying a surgeon???s knot locking knot. (U.S. Air Force photo/Johnathon Green)

Riggers relied on for parachute packing

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - - Sgt. Rasheen Threatts, parachute inspector, 4th Quartermaster Detachment (Airborne), 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, begins the process of folding a parachute, April 4. This particular portion of folding is called, "folding the gores." (U.S. Air Force photo/Johnathon Green)

Riggers relied on for parachute packing

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - - Sgt. Evan Mason, parachute packer, 4th Quartermaster Detachment (Airborne), 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, begins the first stage of the inspection process, April 4. Once a parachute is complete, it is handed to the first inspector who gives the ???rigger roll??? a good look over to make sure it is correct. The parachute then goes to the final inspector. (U.S. Air Force photo/Johnathon Green)

Riggers relied on for parachute packing

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - - Spc. Ryan Vail, parachute packer, 4th Quartermaster Detachment (Airborne), 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, is the final inspector after a parachute is packed. He does his inspection of the parachute and once satisfied that it has been properly packed, he then documents the security number, date of manufacture, place of service, and deployment bag, April 4. It is now referred to as a ???rigger roll.??? (U.S. Air Force photo/Johnathon Green)

Riggers relied on for parachute packing

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - - Sgt. Rasheen Threatts, Parachute Inspector, 4th Quartermaster Detachment (Airborne), 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, uses specialized tools to pull the lines of the parachute to the deployment bag, April 4. This portion of process is called "stowing the lines." (U.S. Air Force photo/Johnathon Green)

Riggers relied on for parachute packing

Published April 23, 2012
By Johnathon Green
JBER Public Affairs

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- "I will be sure always" is the United States Army rigger's code - it is the life of a fellow Soldier they hold in their hands. The 4th Quartermaster Detachment (Airborne), 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, the Black Sheep, is just one of the units with the skilled and dedicated hands here at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson that performs this duty.

"It's a long process," said Sgt. Ramon Charriez, an inspect process, or IP, with the 4th QM. "After a chute actually gets jumped, we shake them out,... they go up here on the pack tables, only the non-commissioned officers, E-5s and above, are the IPs, and we inspect the chutes with the four packers."

During the packing process, there are different rigger checks that need to be made depending on what type of chute is being packed and the packing regulations for that particular parachute. Each parachute packer has to stop at certain stages; an IP goes over to check that it is being done correctly and only then can the packer continue on to the next stage, Charriez said.

"With the IP process, a lot of the malfunctions are caught there," said 1st Lt. Stephen Gagin, commander of the 4th QM. "Then you also have the (jump master parachute inspection) process that the jump masters go through prior to (a) jump where they actually inspect the outside of the parachute. We also, internally, have our own systems where once a month we pull about 10 percent of the parachutes down and rip them apart, and the chief warrant officer goes through them and the shop foreman goes through them looking for malfunctions, looking for errors. If a person has a serious error, they are automatically decertified and they go back to retraining. If they find minor errors, how many they are, what they can cause for that jumper coming out of the plane, they will be decertified and have to be recertified later."

"We also have a real cool check...Hey, you just packed that parachute, put your name on it, you're jumping it on the next one." Gagin continued. "It keeps it real for that guy because at any time we can say 'Hey you're jumping that one.' There's enough checks and balances in there."

Training to become a rigger is hosted at Fort Lee, Va., Charriez said.

"Rigger school is three weeks for the packing portion...where you get one hour to pack a chute," He said. "When they get here, they are actually on the tables for about two months dry packing. After two months of dry packing, they get certified by a warrant officer or shop foreman.

"After we see that they are up to par, ...they get certified, then they go ahead and start packing," he continued. "We'll go from their quota of five chutes the first time, all the way to the whole 25, which is as much as one parachute rigger can pack in one day."
Gagin said a dry pack is a parachute that is used to learn all the steps to pack a chute correctly with no intention for that chute to be used for a jump.

The 4th QM packs seven main types of parachutes. Two of them are personnel chutes, three are for small cargo and two are for heavy cargo. The T-10D and the MC-1 are personnel chutes. The T-10D is designed to get Soldiers from the aircraft to the ground, while the MC-1 has maneuvering capabilities. Each of these chutes has a reserve chute. The T-10D, commonly called a "light pack," is the most frequently used parachute and weighs approximately 35 pounds. The T-11 parachute will replace the T-10D, which is a bit lighter, and they will start arriving here in February 2013.

The cargo parachutes are the G-11s and G-12s and they are considerably larger and heavier. They weigh about 250 pounds or more. Each of these parachutes takes four to five Soldiers to handle and an hour to pack.

"There's a lot more work that goes into rigging a (Small Emplacement Excavator) or a bulldozer to come out the back end of an airplane," Gagin said. "There is a lot more recovery work that goes into it once it's on the ground. The personnel (parachute) guys get a lot of the kudos because it is actually somebody's life that is in their hands, where you can replace a piece of equipment, it's not going to be pretty, but you can replace it, you cannot replace a person's life."

The heaviest object the 4th QM riggers had to prepare for a drop was a D-5b bulldozer that weighed in at 36,000 pounds. It took eight G-11 parachutes to get it safely to the ground.

The 4th QM supports the 2nd Engineer Brigade, the Alaska National Guard and other U.S. Army Alaska units. They have anywhere from three to six jumps per month with 100 to 150 Soldiers per jump. When the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, is here, these numbers nearly double.

"Riggers, we're very rare," Charriez said. "The best way to call it is that we have a ... sense of pride when it actually comes to packing. You'll see it on the pack tables; you already hear it, the yelling and the screaming. That is how we show our happiness and gratitude packing the chutes."