Newly trained jumpmasters forged in Alaska

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Matthew Winstead
  • 4-25th ABCT Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  "Stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door..." For 53 recent graduates of the U.S. Army Jumpmaster School, the true meaning of that familiar cadence became a little clearer.
On May 5, graduates of a Jumpmaster MobileTraining Team from the U.S. Army Advanced Airborne School stationed at Fort Bragg were awarded Jumpmaster status at the Colonel Archie T. Van Winkle Marine Corps Reserve Training Facility on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. This allows them to conduct all of the critical and
essential duties inherent with the title.

"This course is very demanding," said Army Staff Sgt. Sean Kennedy, a Jumpmaster instructor with the MTT. "You're gonna have to want to be here in order to graduate. We want our Jumpmaster graduates to be the very best, so we make this class hard for them."

Subjects like proper nomenclature, pre-jump, and aircraft safety are just some of the areas which demand mastery before a course instructor, also referred to as a "black hat," will pass a student.

"Being a master at this is extremely important," said Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Flickeinger, a black hat with the MTT. "A lack of knowledge on the part of the jumpmaster can result in the loss of someone's life. With this course there is no room for uncertainty, the students either meet the requirements and graduate, or they don't. There are no grey areas."
Jumpmaster students are trained over and over to become meticulous and attentive to even the smallest details. This is especially true when it comes to conducting the Jumpmaster primary inspection of a jumper's parachute harness. Also known as the JMPI, this check consists of a full physical inspection of every inch of the parachute harness just before a jumper boards an aircraft.

"JMPI is very difficult, but it needs to be," said Sgt. Amber Newcomb, an intelligence analyst with B. Company, 425th Brigade Special Troops Battalion.

Many service members in the military are airborne qualified, but far fewer are jumpmasters, the essential link to conducting a safe and successful airborne operation.
A jumpmaster's responsibilities begin well before the actual mission. Their absolute control starts during two blocks of training called pre-jump and sustained airborne training, both of which are required no more than 24 hours before every jump.

From that point on, jumpmasters control the jumpers in such a way as to minimize their exposure to anything which could compromise their safety or cause damage to any of their airborne equipment. This control peaks once the official JMPI has been completed.
"The JMPI is where the Jumpmaster tells the jumper that he has checked the equipment and they don't have anything to worry about, this instills confidence in the jumper that everything will be all right," said Army Sgt. 1st Class Herman Hodges the, MTT Tower Committee chief. "The 'seal of approval' at the end of the JMPI (a slap on the buttocks) is the official way of saying that 'you've been checked' and none of their equipment needs to be changed from its current condition."

After the completion of the graduation ceremony, the newly minted jumpmasters returned to their units and were eager to put into use the knowledge that had gained during the three weeks of training.

"Getting a new generation of Jumpmasters up and running also brings current techniques and updates to a unit," said Army 1st Sgt. Stanley C. McQueen, first sergeant for A Battery, 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment. "If anything, I want to pass on my greater appreciation for diligence and attention to detail that I was able to refine thanks to the jumpmaster class. These are qualities that are vastly important in all things military, and not just jumping."