Page 60 - RADC Bulletin 2021

ACHIEVEMENTS
wings, it was a truly great feeling though hard to stand perfectly still on a 6” crash matt; the person who proposed this was having an off day.
Round two of restrictions and lockdown meant that the opportunity to become
CR (Combat Ready) converted happened in May ’21. With a brief 60 min refresher
at Colchester, it was back to Brize to be loaded up onto a C-130. Luckily for me the CO of 16 Med Regt is our own RADC Lt Col Woodward-Court, so it was great to have a familiar face on the plane.
C-130; it’s bigger, it’s sturdier and it feels 1000% more like the real thing. The day jump was great, all be it very fast crosswinds; for me, it was confirmation that it was fun rather than just lucky on BPC. The night jump got a little more interesting; as I was the last man
in the stick, I saw the first and second man exit the plane perfectly fine. The third though stumbled at the door and fell to the ground, then stood up to fall again. Finally standing up he didn’t look to step out of the plane, more dribble out with his headfirst below his feet; poor chap.
It was my turn and fully committed to the exit, at the same moment two dispatchers grabbed me before I jumped out and landed on the M40. One man’s misfortune meant my luck; I was the first man out the next jump, enjoying not being stuck inside the plane before, but looking out of the open door for 5 minutes. They scream “RED ON!”, you snap into action and again throw yourself into the windy darkness.
Now this isn’t meant to be a solid journal on the greatness of jumping, though it is
great! From the experiences I had, every time we jumped someone got injured. This ranged from minor sprains to several broken feet and legs; on one occasion we got some experience of seeing someone on a fentanyl pop. As another advisory they also made you re-jump if you forgot your drills and
just got lucky with the exit and landing, the instructors were rigid from start to finish and an excellently run course.
I would advise anyone that wants
more from the Army; P-Coy, BPC and CR conversion are excellent courses. I have met lifelong friends and seen another brilliant side to the RADC career pathway. If you would like to know more or even discuss coming down to 16 Med Regt to see what it’s like, please do get in contact.
58 RADC BULLETIN 2021