All-Female Airborne Division Jump Mission

It is not natural for a completely sentient being to jump out of a perfectly good airplane suspended under a few meters of flimsy material that fits into a pack on your back, but that’s what you’re going to see going on in this video. This video is unique in another way too; every person in this Airborne jump training mission, from the pilot and crew of the C-17 to every last one of the 82nd Airborne Division jumpers, is a woman.

The video opens up with the huge C-17 and its crew preparing, taking off, and landing at the base to pick up the Airborne troops who are going to be participating in this training exercise. Then you will see the young women getting geared up, strapping on their chutes, and checking every minute detail. Finally, you will see them boarding the C-17 and watch the rear door slowly closing up. There is no getting off this plane now!

For the rest of the video, you will see the incredible attention to detail that the all-female C-17 crew gives to help ensure the successful jump. There is no hesitation among them. You can see that they are well trained, and their confidence and skill are evident. Everything inside that C-17 has a specific purpose, and you will see that as you watch what each of the crew chiefs and others is doing at every step of the mission before and after the jumpers make their leap of faith.

As for the all-female Airborne jumpers, they are all stone-faced and orderly. Having jumped before myself, I have somewhat of a sense of what may be going through their minds. This really is not natural. You are about the jump out of this huge C-17 into the chill air at, say, 12,000 feet. Sure, the chute packers know what they’re doing, you’re not alone, the others are going to do this same insane thing with you. It’s been done a million times before—but there is no escaping the thought that this is really crazy.

On the other side, there is the sense of the adventure of it all. It is an adrenaline rush. Really, it is the waiting for the order to jump that is the most anxiety-provoking. When the chute opens and you are all alone in that silence, there is a kind of awe that comes over you.

These young 82nd Airborne women do not hesitate when the jump order is given. Watch as each steps up and hands off her chute line to the C-17 crewmember and walks off into space.

Listen, this is no simple effort. It takes a special kind of attitude to want to jump out of an airplane, and not everybody has it. But these young women have it, and they do it flawlessly. What is amazing is how empty the C-17 cargo bay looks when they are all gone and the female crew performs the rest of their duties to retrieve the chute lines and to secure the doors again.

This is a very engaging video and reveals both the professionalism of our military and the quality and readiness of these women of the U.S. Army’s Airborne Infantry Division. We say, “Hooah!” to the all-female C-17 crew and the 82nd Airborne jumpers. “All the Way!”