Jump Course (Part 3)

After the first jump the next 4 jumps became increasingly less fun. There were two more daytime jumps that we did with our gear and another two nighttime jumps with gear. What exactly is the gear we jump with you ask? There is a sack in which we place our gun and vest (which contains 6 magazines and two canteens), which we then close and tie to our leg and clip to our parachute. All-in-all the sack weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 pounds, not too crazy until you think about trying to jump with a 30 pound weight on your leg. Fortunately, we don't have to land with the sack attached to our leg. After jumping we release the bag which remains attached to us, but is connected to a 12 foot rope under us.
After the two day jumps with the gear I realized that there was only one big difference between jumping with the gear and jumping without the gear. After each jump we have to hike to the meeting point and then after everyone arrives we hike to the exit of the landing zone. When you add an extra thirty pounds to the hike, in addition to the parachute which itself weighs somewhere around 20 or 25 pounds, the hikes tend to get a little grueling. The especially fun part is if you are the last one out of the plane, meaning that you are the farthest from the meeting point. In the circumstance where you are the last one out the hike on the beach with gear can easily take 30 minutes.
Surprisingly, I found the night jumps easier than the day jumps. I don't actually think that the jumping or landing was actually easier, but I think that because each landing place is unique (and completely a product of luck, meaning you could land on a hill, a bush, or a road (as one of my friends had the displeasure of discovering)) I just seemed to get luckier at night.
By the end of the week my group of 8 had shrunk to 6. There was one person in my group who was too scared to jump the first time and did not continue with the course. The second person completed the first two jumps, but got injured in some exercises we did one afternoon after jumping in the morning.
When the course ended I was glad to be leaving. I enjoyed all of the jumps, but the drills and hikes were a pain in the butt. When all is said and done I am glad I did the course, but if I had it to do again I think I would have preferred to come later in my service like most of the soldiers there. The benefit of that being that you don't have to deal with your commanders bossing you around in your free time (which there is relatively large amount of free time).