Meeting my first Blackhawk

Yesterday was spent at the Sicily drop zone here at Fort Bragg.



Dad, I'm sure you have fond memories of this dz and the whole time I was imagining what you would have looked like paratrooping down :)

On this particular day a few of us wives were fund raising for our unit by selling hot dogs and sweets to the rear detachment (the handful of soldiers in the unit who stayed behind) as they waited for their turn to jump.





Anyone who has been around a paratrooper jump knows it's a lot of "hurry up and wait" so we were pretty popular until the bird finally showed up.

The bird ended up being a helicopter. I was surprised, I expected a C130 to land in front of me and instead a Blackhawk sneaks out from the tree line beside me and lands about 100 yards from where I stood.








Here is the rigger truck where all of the parachutes are issued.







A quick brief with an aerial view of the dz so they know where to land.






Six soldiers get loaded up...






And off they go!






One quick circle around the dz and everybody jumps!





Coincidentally Nathan called yesterday evening to tell me he had taken his first ride in a helicopter, a Chinook, on his way to another small firebase. He is going to be traveling around for the next few weeks so don't expect any of his emails any time soon. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll land somewhere where he can hook up his laptop.