The Army

[dresherr 0]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to know everyones opinion on how good the Army's Parachute Riggers Program is. I will probably go into that profesion and I just want to know what it is like.

Thanks,
Richy D.

[hookitt 0]

Military and civilian rigging are not the same.

What is the desired result if getting the military rigger rating?

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[dresherr 0]

I talked it out with a recruiter and he said the best way to get into skydiving in the military is to first sign up for parachute rigging and go from there. I just wanted to know if he was right and if it would be helpful later on down the road.

[AggieDave 6]

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I talked it out with a recruiter

Step #1: Always question what a recruiter tells you.
Step #2: See step #1

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[JJohnson 0]

A recruiter is military speak for: Lawyer, used car salesman, snake oil peddler.....Email Chuck Blue, he can put you in touch with someone who knows skydiving and the Army.

JJ

JJ

"Call me Darth Balls"

[skydivinmartin 0]

I would have to agree. Not to call down all recruiters, but when I was in back in the late 1980s, there was a bit of a scandal about recruiters being on a quota system - some will tell you anything. The one I dealt with was not helpful to me.

I am not sure military rigging is a great way into skydiving - I believe they are all jump qualified, but some only work with cargo drop gear and are not necessarily stationed at Ft. Bragg or other bases with large airborne units. And I don't think there are so many military skydiving clubs that subsidize jumping. Looking back on my enlistment, I think it could be very difficult to actively jump during the first few years of your enlistment (at least) on an E1 to E4's pay without some kind of club support - we didn't have one at my duty station, even with a Ranger battalion nearby.

You will get great, free rigger training, though. I got a civilian rigger rating supervised by Canadian military rigger, and they are great riggers - really good opportunity if you want to be a soldier.

Definetly ask Chuck Blue or someone else with a lot of service experience!

Martin

[darkwing 4]

Maybe email the golden Knights and ask them? I am a rigger, and a loooong time ago, when in the Air Force I looked in to their rigger program. It struck me as pretty much useless for a civilian. Although the army probably has a much higher percentage of riggers actually doing personnel parachutes.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[Samurai136 0]

If you mentioned to the recruiter that you always wanted to fly helicopters they'd let you know you could be flyin' an Apache shortly after basic training.

A friend from work was considering joining the Marines. He had seen too many commercials. I explained to him that he might end up standing guard at a U.S. Foriegn Embassy in scenic Uraguay.

Ken

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken

[LouDiamond 1]

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Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to know everyones opinion on how good the Army's Parachute Riggers Program is. I will probably go into that profesion and I just want to know what it is like.

Thanks,
Richy D.

Why are you choosing that MOS? Is it for advancing your personal interests in parachuting or because it's something you can relate to out of all the other MOS's?

Let's get something straight, the military can take anything and make it painful and boring...yes, even sex. parachuting in the military is nothng like recreational skydiving...apples and oranges.

Riggers work like slaves, it's not an easy job. Unless your in a billet that requires HALO jumpers chances are you will never go to HALO school or have anything to do with square chutes. Promotions bottle neck for riggers around Sgt/SSG

The members of my 4 way team are riggers and they are always busting their ass at work. My advice, don't mix business with pleasure. Pick a MOS that best suits what you want to do while in or that can help you with what you want to accomplish when and if you get out after 3,6, or 20 years. Of course a lot of the jobs available to you will depend on how well you did on the ASVAB and what your GT score is.

Don't get hood winked into a MOS just because a recruiter tells you it's what you want to do. Do what you want to do and if you don't like the options offered you, walk away and come back when they offer you what you want. Trust me, they will keep in contact with you....kinda like the JW's

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[LouDiamond 1]

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If you mentioned to the recruiter that you always wanted to fly helicopters they'd let you know you could be flyin' an Apache shortly after basic training.

A friend from work was considering joining the Marines. He had seen too many commercials. I explained to him that he might end up standing guard at a U.S. Foriegn Embassy in scenic Uraguay.

Ken

US Foriegn Embassy? Do we have any US Embassies in the US and since when are our own Embassies foreign? LOL just giving you a hard time. Besides there is nothing wrong with Uruguay, they have some hot women there. Most of the Marine Embassy guard details live pretty large compared to other Marines, it's the literal briar patch if you know what I mean.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[JohnPolk 0]

A recuiter will tell you anything you want to hear. they were trained by the military to be good at it too. Why not pursue rigging the civilian way if your interested in it. its not like its expensive of that overly difficult to do if your motivated.

[councilman24 36]

The only good rigging job in the "military" I've heard of is one that a friend has. She's one of the riggers at the Air Force academy for the cadets. Civilian government bennies and pay, modern sport gear to work on, free jumps out her front door, and dozens of cadets to mother. Not that I'd be into mothering (maybe some fatherly advice) but sounds like a dream job for a civilian rigger. Looked them up once, Fabric technician I think was the job. Forget the recruiter.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[LouDiamond 1]

1 problem, he's going Army and he would still have to deal with a recruiter regardless of branch.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[councilman24 36]

Doesn't need to any branch! Especially just to get into the parachute business.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[LouDiamond 1]

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Doesn't need to any branch! Especially just to get into the parachute business.

Well that digresses from his original question.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[dresherr 0]

The only real reason I wanted to go into the Army was because I heard all this great stuff about the Golden Knights. If I could get into the parachuting business any other way sooner and get more out of it I would. The Army is just a back-up plan. Thanks for all the info guys. I will seriously take it into consideration!

Fly Safe

[Ron 7]

Only go to the service if you WANT to be in the service.

Any other reason and the "powers that be" will hate you for it.

My command hated the fact I tried to go to the GK's....and they went out of their way to make life bad for me.

The GK's didn't like that I enlisted to try and become a GK.

For some it worked....for others not.

But anyway I did 3 years, had a good time looking back, and left with a 40% disability.

Ron

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[riggerrob 558]

Don't believe anything a recruiter tells you unless you have it in writing.
For that matter, don't believe anything anyone above the rank of corporal tells you unless you have it in writing.

[SkySlut 0]

The GK are essentially recruiters...they are PR guys for the Army. I had the opportunity to do a 4-way with them, which was amazing by the way, and they were totally onto me to join the army, blah, blah, blah. I actually considered it for a while. They do have a pretty kick ass life in the army, as far as army guys go, but I didnt feel like enlisting for however many years just for the OPPORTUNITY to become a GK. No Gaurantees with the Army. With my luck I would have been stuck digging latrines on the front lines somewhere.

[LouDiamond 1]

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Don't believe anything a recruiter tells you unless you have it in writing.

That's good advise in any arena.

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For that matter, don't believe anything anyone above the rank of corporal tells you unless you have it in writing.

This makes no sense what so ever. Thats like saying don't believe anything anyone who has more than 25 jumps tells you.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

Back to the original question:
Army riggers work like slaves. If they are assigned to a unit that does a high volume of jumps, then a lot of times they work round the clock in three shifts. The only opportunity you are gonna get to start "skydiving" for free is if that unit also supports MFF operations. Then, the MFF rigs don't get packed until they meet mission with the SL rigs. The HALO riggers at the SWC rigger shed get their shot at freefall school based primarily on how long they have been working in the shed. You will not be seeing MFF school as an army private. Still, should you like a sort of "assembly line" job, then you may just enjoy life in a pack shed. We have a lot of young army riggers jumping in the military clubs. They come around because they were led to believe that they would be skydiving at work soon after arriving at their permanant duty station; such is not the case. About the only military club/demo team around now that trains people from just off student status to become skydivers at no cost is the 82nd Parachute team. Ron Hill made quite a few jumps with those guys when he was a poor army private, living across the road from Raeford DZ. It was a way for him to stay moderately proficient at skydiving while padding his logbook with the demo experience that some think the GK's look for. The truth of the matter is that the 82nd team is where the GK's get the great majority of their tryouts. This year's tryouts absolutely decimated the 82nd team, leaving them barely able to function without outside support.

As far as rigging jobs go on the GK's (and certain other much-sexier places), they are generally few and far between, being filled primarily by injured members of the demo teams, or someone the team really liked, but was injured in tryouts.

As Scott said: the promotion rate for riggers is really slow. The rigger we have on the USASOC parachute team has been in the army 12 years and is still an E5. By comparison, I made E7 in 8 years.

PM me for more info.

Chuck

[riggerrob 558]

"

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For that matter, don't believe anything anyone above the rank of corporal tells you unless you have it in writing.

This makes no sense what so ever. Thats like saying don't believe anything anyone who has more than 25 jumps tells you.

[dkearns 0]

or like freind of mine in the beutiful Central Republic of the Congo.

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Or at the gates of the soon-to-be American Palace in Bagdad