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thedrifter
09-03-04, 06:29 AM
Move over Spider-Man, the leathernecks are coming
Submitted by: MCB Camp Butler
Story Identification #: 20049120158
Story by Lance Cpl. Brandon R. Holgersen



CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, Japan — (Aug. 24, 2003) -- “Wall on rappel!” a Marine shouts at the top of his lungs.

“Wall on belay!” another shouts back.

Zoom! A Marine zips down from the top of a 65-foot tower to the ground on an 11-millimeter rappelling rope.

This was the scene during the third training day of a recent Helicopter Rope Suspension Training Master Course where 20 Marines continued their journey on the way to becoming HRST master qualified.

“This is the high speed stuff you think of when you think of Marines,” said Staff Sgt. Jason L. Fry, a military policeman going through the training.

This training allows the military police’s Special Reaction Team to rappel into buildings or be inserted or extracted by helicopters, according to Cpl. Jerry Jensen, a military policeman with SRT undergoing the training.

The course is 10 days long and consists of one week of rappel tower training and one week of helicopter rappelling and fast roping.

Marines learn to teach their own units how to rappel in different situations, such as off cliffs or out of helicopter. They also learn to plan insertions and extractions by helicopters when landing is not possible. This allows the different units to perform insertions and extractions by helicopter as well as rappel off buildings and cliffs.

The Marines rappelled off a simulated landing skid, out of a hole that simulates those in the bottom of CH-53E Super Stallion and CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters and off of a flat wall, simulating the side of a building.

“When I was on the skid, I was thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to fall and I really don’t want to fall,’ but I decided to just do it,” said Sgt. Jaime Garay, a III Marine Expeditionary Force Special Operations Training Group Marine who was going through the course.

The students conducted four rappels at each of the four stations. Two of the rappels were done with a 30-pound combat load on the students’ backs.

“Sometimes we have so much upper weight that we flip over and hang upside down on the rope,” Fry said.

The Marines rappel off the tower for several days to build confidence, and it allows instructors extra time to fine tune each student before moving further in the course, according to Gunnery Sgt. Jerry D. Robertson, the chief HRST instructor with SOTG.

“It’s just like the rifle range. You have to go to grass week before you go to firing week,” Robertson said.

Essentially, this means mastering the safety and procedural basics on the ground before ever pushing off.

“(The instructors) take you to the tower first so you can get used to the ropes and rigging before using the same techniques on a helicopter,” Jensen said.

During the static tower training, the students set up rigging for the tower and acted as masters and belaymen for each other.

“When you master, you’re basically instructing someone how to rappel, checking their gear for safety and sending them down the tower,” Garay said. “The belayman is a safety precaution. If a Marine can’t stop himself while rappelling, the belayman will lock out the rope and keep the Marine from falling any farther.”

The Marines were tested and critiqued by their instructors for five days on safety procedures, mastering and rigging. They were also tested on their ability to set up any type of rope rigging in a time limit of eight minutes and tie 13 different knots, each in 30-60 seconds.

“Eighty percent of the knots they are tested on must be tied in 30 seconds,” Robertson said.
The knots are especially important when rappelling because they are the only things holding
the person up, according to Garay.

“The course is a trust builder,” Garay said. “You have to trust that the Marines you are working with know their knots and know what they’re doing.”

With trust in his fellow Marines and the help of his belayman, a Marine slams his feet to the ground runs backward until the rope runs out of his harness, and yells, “Wall off rappel!”

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20049120334/$file/Release0429-2004-01low.jpg

CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, Japan – Military policeman Cpl. Jerry Jensen rappels off the simulated helicopter skid at the rappel tower here Aug. 24. Jensen was among 20 Marines who underwent the Helicopter Rope Suspension Training Master Course to become qualified HRST masters. Jensen is with the Marine Corps Bases, Japan, Provost Marshal’s Office’s Special Reaction Team here. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Brandon R. Holgersen

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/318ED19C0989AE6185256F0300002E43?opendocument


Ellie