September 21, 2006

photo by Jorge Gomez
Staff Sgt. David Doris, Aerial Delivery and Field Services department instructor, explains the features of the modern personnel parachute system to former riggers from different parts of the globe Saturday.

Global Riggers Drop in Schoolhouse
by Jorge Gomez
Staff Writer

Nearly 80 former U.S. Army and international riggers visited the Aerial Delivery and Field Services Department and the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum Saturday as part of the International Parachute Rigger Air Dispatcher reunion in Fredericksburg.

Members representing the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada joined their American counterparts from the Red Hat Chapter Association of Quartermasters to tour the school facility and museum.

“The reunion is a social gathering of guys all over the world who do the same job,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jim Kennebeck, Red Hat Chapter vice president. “For some of them it’s a first time coming to this school.”

Morgan Toia, a former rigger sergeant with the New Zealand army, said he was impressed with the size of the school.

“The facilities are huge and unbelievable,” Toia said. “I was surprised to learn that they also packed personnel chutes, I thought it was the Air Force who did those.”

Riggers in New Zealand use the same parachute system. They send their senior instructors to this school who then take back that knowledge and teach the basics in New Zealand, Toia said.

Bill Campbell, a retired captain in the British army, said he was struck by the “squeaky clean” appearance of the school.

“I prefer the smell of the old hangar,” Campbell said. “There’s a certain feeling to the old that is better.”

Campbell said that in the United Kingdom civilians do most of the parachute packing and he was surprised to learn that military members pack the parachutes in the U.S. Army.

Retired Sgt. 1st Class Wagner Baskett, who took the rigger course here in 1968, said the equipment now is easier.

For example, they use to secure the cargo on a platform by running a lace through many holes.

“It was very time consuming,” Baskett said. “But now, they just use a nylon webbing to run across the cargo.”
“The parachutes are simpler to put together,” Baskett said.

Upon trying on a personnel parachute, Baskett said, “It’s a Cadillac. They’re lighter and more comfortable.”

Baskett said he especially liked the new air-conditioned facility in contrast to the old and hot building he worked
in.

“At night it was cool, but then you had to sleep in the hot barracks during the day,” he said.

Baskett said he loved being a rigger because he was jumping out of airplanes all the time, and he stood out from everybody else.

“We were the elite, and we wore the coveted red hat,” he said.

After learning about the various parachute systems available for personnel and cargo, retired Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jessie Moore said, “it would be a tremendous task to teach all these systems.”

Moore was a rigger instructor here from 1966 – 1970. He said they were primarily concerned with teaching how to pack a main and a reserve parachute.

“Now it seems like they have 10 to 12 systems to pack,” Moore said. “It would be tough to keep abreast as an instructor. The technology is great, but the drawback is that you have to be versed in the technology to take care of the equipment.”

He said he liked all the changes and improvements he saw in the school but was most impressed with the Soldiers.

“I’ve met some of the Soldiers who come out of this school, and they are the most professional and dedicated I know,” Moore said.

Even for Staff Sgt. David Doris, ADFSD instructor and operations noncommissioned officer, the tour was a learning experience.

“These veterans shared with me a lot of stories of what they went through,” Doris said. “I provided the background information on our current systems and facilities but they were the instructors and NCOs who made our field grow into what it is today. I feel honored to be part of what they started.”

With more than 50 instructors assigned to the schoolhouse, ADFSD graduates about 700 students per year in the areas in parachute packing, aerial delivery and air equipment repair, said Master Sgt. Anthony Green, Aerial Delivery Division noncommissioned-officer-in-charge.

by Jorge Gomez

Retired Sgt. 1st Class Wagner Baskett and retired Col. Walt Tanner, members of the Red Hat Chapter Association of Quartermasters, observe the features of a modern personnel parachute during Saturday’s visit to the Aerial Delivery and Field Services department.