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The first line of the Rigger’s Pledge says, “I will keep constantly in mind that until men grow wings, their parachutes must be dependable.”
Soldiers of the 5th Quartermaster Company, 21st Special Troops Battalion, 21st Theater Sustainment Command kept this line in their head as they packed more than 450 static line parachutes for the participants of Jump Week 2011.
“The 5th QM partnership is paramount to Jump Week,” said Staff Sgt. Myron Austin, 435th Security Forces Squadron airborne coordinator. “Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to host Jump Week.”
Jump Week isn’t their only big event of the year where they partner with Air Force units; they also ensure 450 dependable parachutes are packed for events like Normandy and Operation Market Garden. Normandy commemorates the anniversary of the D-Day invasion and Operation Market Garden commemorates the Allied air drop in support of liberating the Netherlands during World War II.
Supporting joint operations with Air Force and international units is only a part of what the 5th QM is responsible for. (They sustain enough parachutes to support U.S. African Command and U.S. Army in Europe.)
“We have 84 Soldiers assigned to this unit,” said Chief Warrant Officer Scott Bockelman, 5th QM Det. senior airdrop systems technician. “One person packs a parachute at a time taking, on average, 18 minutes per chute. They are required
to pack 25 a day.”
Bockelman added that, at most, eight Soldiers can pack parachutes at one time and must have one E-7 or above to observe the packing process.
Though to some units 84 soldiers seems like a large number, it gets slim from time to time, said Capt. Robin Eskelson, 5th QM Company commander.
“We support every unit in the KMC plus AFRICOM and USAREUR,” Eskelson said. “Sprinkle in leave time and additional duties required by the Army makes it tough to have all of my Soldiers in the same place at one time.”
To help the planning process, the 5th QM riggers have a forecast of all upcoming major events. They forecast man hours versus the amount of parachutes to be packed while sprinkling in Army duties that are still required by all members. Not forgetting the heavy drop parachutes they have to pack as well.
With all this workload riggers could get overwhelmed, but there is no room for stress when it comes to packing parachutes.
“There are no down days for riggers,” Eskelson said. “Every rigger has to be on their game every day. Lives are in our hands.”
Riggers know that they must pack each parachute as if they were going to jump with it themselves, because they just might have to. Bockelman said this assures quality control.
“Each one of these Soldiers who packs a parachute must be on jump status,” he said. “They must be able to jump with the parachute that they packed at any given time.”
It isn’t all about packing. These Soldiers also handle all of the maintenance for the parachutes.
This mostly includes sewing holes or rips in the canopy due to operator error after the jump is completed.
“We predict 10 percent maintenance for every airborne operation,” Bockelman said. “For this year’s Jump Week, we are predicting at least 50 parachutes will need some sort of maintenance.”
Twenty of the 5th QM riggers jumped in this year’s Jump Week. They have packed every parachute with one line in their head. It is the last line of the rigger’s pledge.
“I will be sure ― always.”
