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Four Days, and Knights

Last year, at the Pacific Airshow, I wandered out onto the airfield at Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos. My buddy, Rob Wilson (CW5, ret., helicopter pilot, aka “Mr Wilson”), is safety director. He gave me the heads up to go meet the US Army Parachute Team, better known as the Golden Knights. So I did. I had a weird deja vu of having photographed them at some point several years earlier, from inside a plane or helicopter. But that was impossible. I eventually figured out that I had somehow been the keeper of videos one year, and the memory was of watching an Army photographer’s work of the Knights jumping out of a plane. Now I was talking to SFC Ty Kettenhofen, a demonstrator on the Gold Team (there’s also a Black Team and a Tandem Team; more on that later). According to Ty, while the Gold Team and the Black Team share the same mission, the Gold Team is the best of the teams. I asked if I could go up with them, not to jump, but to photograph. I explained who I was, and that my mission is to promote their mission. He wanted to know if I had press credentials, and that he’d check with his boss. Off he went. When he came back, it was thumbs up, and be ready to rock n roll early the following morning, which was Sunday. Definitely oh-dark-hundred, though I don’t remember exactly. My excitement was on the same spiritual plane as being asked to fly on a Blackhawk or go eat BBQ with original 40 years in the desert Moses. The following morning, I got this text:

“Hey Louie! If you haven’t heard the Airshow was canceled today due to an oil spill. Sorry this thing didn’t happen. Reach out to us next year and we’ll try to make it work.”

What could I do? I waited a year and reached back out to Ty. Ty wasn’t going to be at the show this year, but he put me in touch with SFC Morgan George, team leader of the Black Team. Morgan reached out and arranged for me to shoot the Knights for all four days of the show. On the ground and in the air. He connected me with Megan, who’s with the media section for USAPT. Ready set go.

I fired off a list of questions to Megan, who answered them in full and got me bios on the nine jumpers. Because of the tight timelines, I didn’t get a chance to interview the team the way an actual reporter would. But I learned from SGT Orozco that night jumps are scary. You can’t see where you’re going. The fact that he’s jumped over 1075 times tells me that if Orozco says it’s scary, it must be one helluva scary. Off the job, he enjoys sewing and cooking, along with hiking and skydiving. The sewing serves him well as a parachute rigger, and I hear that his cooking is other worldly. He either started or continued a tradition of cooking for the team.

SFC Morgan George, the team leader, is clearly at ease in his role. Not just managing the team, but herding the civilian cats and making us feel like part of the family. He’s comfortable on camera, striking wonderfully natural poses, or giving me the shots I need by just doing his job. Comes from Raeford, North Carolina, a town near Ft Bragg with about 4900 people in the Upper Cape Fear Valley. Off the set, he’s into skydiving, hunting, and mechanics. On the third day, when I tried to fit too much in by scheduling a job prior to expected departure, both he and Megan apologized profusely and repeatedly for giving me the wrong time. I would’ve missed the flight, regardless, but they got me a show pass and special parking for the zoo that was happening down at the beach. Turns out I couldn’t run that particular gauntlet, the traffic was just too thick. I saw the last jumper jump, and the Dash 8 head back to JFTB. Let’s rewind, I haven’t even talked about Day One yet.

Day One, I covered the guys from the ground. Jason in the boonie hat as handler to keep me from doing stupid, unsafe things. Megan there, too, shooting photos and video on a monopod. We drove a couple of hundred yards from the Dash 8 to the landing zone, an ideal spot to observe the jumpers and the crowd set back behind metal barriers. SSG Logan Maples was going to be demonstrating a special maneuver I don’t quite understand but didn’t want to miss. Something that made more sense if you were landing on water, with fast horizontal movement at or near ground level. Wanting not to miss something and actually not missing something are two different things, unfortunately. I missed it and will have to get back to you with what, exactly, I missed. I will also need to ask Logan what canopy swooping is. It’s one of his hobbies, and I’d like to hear his take rather than Google’s.

Guys were dropping from the sky with those giant black and gold chutes, popping pink smoke, landing right on target. Ready for Day Two.

Day Two starts with a job in Pasadena, and I’m in and out of there just as fast as I can. I make it down to Los Al with a decent amount of time to spare. I’ve got my jacket, required for the flight. I’ll be sitting by an open door in the rear of the Dash 8. Spot #1, best spot on the plane for catching the guys on their way down. Turns out the one with the most cameras wins Spot #1. I learn this on Day Four, when I outgun Jackson, one of the official show photographers, who’s only got one camera. He’s super cool about it, and I feel briefly guilty for not offering him the seat. But dammit, I’m older than you, and I’ll come up with however many excuses I damn well please to always get Spot #1 if I can help it. Sorry, Jackson.

I’m not a natural flyer. Even commercial airliners make me nervous. The only thing holding them up is air, and air is naturally untrustworthy. Kiss the sky all you want, it’s not going to kiss you back. SSG Gabe Colon gives us the safety briefing and has us sign releases. Nobody’s got a pen, but Colon scares a couple up. He conjures a hoodie for one of the civilians whose jacket isn’t adequate. We’re going up to 10 grand, where it’s cold with an open door. I’ve got my jacket, which I forget to put on after the dirt run, when the guys practice their demonstration. I’m already strapped in six ways to Sunday, which is also when Colon will remind me not to do what I did on Friday. He brings me the jacket and helps me maneuver the gear and the straps till all is once again right with the world. We are not to adjust the straps, certainly not release them. If they’re too tight or too loose, call on one of the team members to fix it. Make sure you don’t have anything loose in your pockets to fly out the door and land on somebody. Here’s how you unplug your ears the right way. These are the symptoms of hypoxia. If you’re having trouble clearing your ears, or you’re suffering from one of the symptoms of hypoxia, don’t gut it out, tell the team so they can level the aircraft or descend, or even abort the mission. Did you scuba dive in the last couple of days? Breathing troubles? Heart?

Up in the air, team members take turns at the rear of the plane, assessing conditions. Morgan fakes losing his balance, but Orozco’s there to catch him. The Navy Leap Frogs are up with us on Day Two. I’m not sure why. Did they lose their plane? Was their pilot reassigned to a crayon drop? Army and Navy watch out for each other, they’re family. And the Dash 8 can carry them all. The Leap Frogs don’t join us on Day Four. Either they found their plane or wandered off, but nobody’s saying.

The Golden Knights are on tour 265 days a year. The assignment is four years minimum. Each of the jumpers has at least one hundred jumps prior to being considered for the team. They train and train and train. Preparation, checklists. Repetition. They could rattle off every step, backwards and upside down. When the moment comes, out the door they go.

Back on the ground, Mr Wilson takes me along on a FOD sweep. That’s foreign object debris, and it can easily turn into foreign object damage. We clear branches, twigs, and rocks from the various runways. And stop to catch the Thunderbirds as they take off. Murphy hollers at me to wear ear plugs at various points throughout the day. I had several boxes in my pocket, but those pockets had to be emptied into a less convenient backpack so the keys and phones and earplugs wouldn’t fly out the door. Murphy makes sure to get me some more, so I’m good by the time we hit 22 Left and those screaming Thunderbirds. Mr Wilson reminds me we’re in a hot zone. We don’t find any killer FOD like airplane parts. As we complete our loop, returning down Alpha, Mr Wilson reminds us not to photograph the aircraft just east of the main show.

The Golden Knights are the US Army’s ambassadors. They jump all over the country and compete internationally. Their ranks include SFC Danny Hellmann, who’s served eight tours in Afghanistan. His awards fill a page, including two Purple Hearts. They bring civilians along for the ride. Pour yourself a drink and raise your glass for the US Army Golden Knights.

The Day I Jumped From Uncle Harvey’s Plane

Jumping out of airplanes is the thing.

Operation Hurricane Relief

This came in via one of my BBQ heroes, Harry Soo.