By Xhaxany Cuellar, Assistant Editor
Over the 2023 summer semester, Cadet Gabriel Alberto Feliciano, a Junior political science major and MS-3 (junior in ROTC) in ROTC participated in Airborne School in Fort Moore, Georgia. Airborne school is a training that prepares you to be a paratrooper in the United States Army and is also known as jump school. To be in Airborne school, you must be a certain height to reach the top of the C-130 (air force cargo plane), hold a 20-second chin up, and have the physical agility to run long distances for long periods. “You have to be able to stay attentive, stay awake, and be able to remember a lot of things. You also need to know how to rig and rug the parachute, and know the movements inside the aircraft.” stated Feliciano.
Feliciano participated in events that mostly took place in the pit during the ground week (learning the fundamentals of conducting a parachute landing fall), which cadets must be able to endure long periods in. Cadets learned how to conduct a PLF (parachute landing fall) and practiced how to do a forward appeal (looking out into a horizon and learning how to fall).
During tower week, Feliciano climbed a 34-foot tower, secured on a riser connected to a zipline, and practiced how to pull reserves in case of a parachute malfunction. Additionally, cadets did combat loads, where they had to put on a parachute with a 35 to 45-pound rucksack full of gear rigged to a harness and jump out of the tower. “That was a challenge, climbing up the stairs because you're in Georgia it's hot, and climbing these 35-foot towers that have steep steps over and over and over again,” said Feliciano. However, Feliciano's perseverance was fueled by his family and the people who believe in him. “ I couldn't let Captain Husky down. I couldn't let Mr. Cook down. I couldn't let my battle buddies down. There were so many people depending on me to get airborne wings that I couldn't fail. Even if he took me heatcating (heat stroke) or going to the hospital, I'm going to go and I'm going to jump and I'm gonna make it.” stated Feliciano.
In addition to tower week, Feliciano also did jump week. During jump week, Feliciano prepared for the actual jump itself. Felicano describes it as, ”running to the harnessed shed and picking up your parachute, rigging your battle buddy, then rigging (putting them on someone) you, and then you sit and you just wait.”
When asked to describe the feeling of jumping out of planes Feliciano said, “I don't care what anybody says. It is a scary moment. Because at the same time, it's not like when you're in a commercial airline where you put your seatbelt on and you feel the takeoff, like no, you're like sitting horizontally, and then you're feeling the plane go up on your left side. A C-130, It's one of the best army cargo planes in the world, right, so you're gonna feel every single bump. So a lot of times when you're in that plane, you just want to get off, but you have to zone out because then when they start giving… the orders of all stand-up, alright, hook up and they start giving you all like the go rounds. Now you're just scared. Scared out of your mind. Everybody, no matter who you are, everybody's scared.” For Feliciano, jumping was the most memorable experience because it was,, as he put it, “the most I've ever been scared out of my mind.” In addition to the jump, Feliciano also made some lifelong connections along the way. Having met some West pointers and prior service members. Feliciano mentions he still regularly communicates with the connections he made and adds ” that to make it a very good moment and persevere through the actual schooling, you have to have good connections.”
Furthermore, Feliciano offers advice to other cadets who may be interested in attending airborne school. He adds, ” You gotta be able to run, you have to be able to want it and you have to know where you want to be in your future. Because being airborne takes a lot more than just wanting the chest candy or just wanting the account,. you have to know what you want.” Hhe emphasizes that cadets must have a strong hold of their mental state and mentions, “You have to be able to zone out, you have to be able to just say you know what, forget fear, forget that I'm tired, forget that it hurts, forget that I'm sore, you have to forget all of that. And just understand that you're in there. For other people.”
After attending airborne school, Feliciano has zero fear of heights now and believes airborne school has better prepared him for the future. A great amount of mental agility goes into being in airborne school, which helped him to understand that no challenge can stop him. He hopes to one day be an infantryman in the airborne unit or be on jump status in that airborne unit.
