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 Veteran parachutists Head Jump
School at Campbell 2nd in Nation
Fort Campbell Aug 1 (Special) --- Fort Campbell will add a new school to its training activity here next week and will then qualify its own parachutists.
The parachute school will be the second in the nation; the other being at Fort Penning Ga. Prior to the opening of the Campbell school paratroopers stationed here received their jump training at Benning. The course is divided into two sections, a parachute training course similar to 'the basic airborne course at Benning and the jumpmaster school. A
jumpmaster is a highly trained man who gives all the commands to parachutists in a plane. Students will receive an intensified three weeks course for jump school training and two weeks fop Jumpmaster training. The course opens August 7.
During the first week of the parachutists course the volunteer students will receive their introduction to the airborne. They will undergo many hours of physical training designed to harden them for the severe physical strain of parachute training and the rigors of ground combat. They will also receive intensive instruction on various training devices that will teach them various phases of parachute Jumping.
The first of these training devices they will encounter will be the
PLF or Parachute Landing Fall platforms. Students climb up on a platform raised about four feet from the ground. They practice jumping from this platform under the
supervision of instructors who teach them the proper method of landing.
They will also receive instruction in a suspended harness device. This consists of a parachute harness which suspends the novice jumper above
the ground. The student is then taught how to guide the direction of his descent by pulling the straps that connect his body harness to the parachute.
This enables the parachutists to guide themselves away from other jumpers and thus avoid tangling together in the air.
It also teaches them how to glide away from ground obstacles as they prepare
to land.
Another basic training aid used in the course is what the paratroopers call a mock door. This is simply a replica of an airplane built out of wood complete with seats, anchor cable and other equipment in an airplane. The student
jumpers are carefully drilled in the technique of jumping as groups [exit] out of the plane at roughly one second intervals. |
Maj. Oscar E. Davis, who has been designated commandant of the school, will supervise all activities of the two courses. Major Davis is a graduate of the Basic Airborne School at Fort Benning and later served in the school as head of the Specialists Training courses. This included supervision of the Demolitions and Pathfinder and Signal courses In the latter part of 1944. Major Davis served with the
541st Parachute Infantry Regiment and later with the 11th Airborne Division in the Philippines. Major Davis is rated a master parachutist (A master parachutist is a veteran parachutist who has met many rigid requirements. The most outstanding requirement is that a master parachutist must have made a minimum of 65 parachute jumps.) Maj. Ben
Delamater has been designated executive officer for the new training courses. Prior to joining the 11th Airborne Division, Major
Delamater served with the 508th Parachute Infantry in the European theater of operations. He is also qualified as a master parachutist.
Operations officer for the new school is Capt. Peter Kelly. Captain Kelly served with the
508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Europe and .participated in the parachute assault on Holland. Later he served with the Airborne School at Fort Benning before being transferred to the 11th Airborne Division in Japan.
While with the 11th Airborne Captain Kelly was associated with the divisions jump school at Yamoto, Japan.
In charge of general subjects at the school will be Capt William M. Miley,
Jr., son of Maj. Gen. William M. Miley, former commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division and Fort Campbell. Captain Miley served with the 511th Airborne Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division throughout the war in the Pacific. After the war Captain Miley was assigned to the Airborne School at Fort Benning where he served as an Instructor. The ground training which includes the physical training and training devices is under the command of Lt Eugene Sprague. Lieutenant Sprague has the distinction of being one of the only two men in the United States Army to have attained a perfect score of 500 points on the
Army's physical fitness teat. This test is given to every man who enters Airborne training. Lieutenant Sprague accomplished this feat while with the 511th Airborne Infantry of the 11th Airborne Division in Japan.
In addition to the introduction of the airborne courses at Fort Campbell other training at the camp has been Intensified. The Department of the Army
has recently lifted the peacetime restrictions on the use of live ammunition in training exercises and henceforth all troops including paratroopers of the 11th will be exposed to overhead fire of machine guns mortars and artillery in their tactical training exercises and to accustom soldiers to battlefield sounds.
[Nashville Banner, Nashville, TN, 01 Aug 1950, Tue, Page 1]
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