View Full Version : Pre-Jump School
I was a corpsman with the 1st Med BN. 1st FssG @ Camp Pendleton.
I was not a recon corpsman, but our Senior Chief was.
He got four spots for his corpsman in the Pre-jump School on board Camp Pendleton in 1985.
I've checked into it some, and I don't think this school exists any more.
I forget how long the school was, but I know the 1st week was fashioned like the SEAL HellWeek. IT WAS KINDA tough.
I made it through the week, ad I have a certificate to show I went through the Pre-Jump School.
I wonder is there anybody out there who knows anything about this HellWeek.
HM3doc
DocGreek
01-24-09, 02:07 PM
HM3doc.....WELCOME ABOARD!!!!! GREAT, to have another Corpsman on site! Try to pick on the Grunts, as much as possible.....makes this site much more entertaining!!!......AND...THEY LOVE IT!!!....SEMPER FI, BRO......Doc Greek
yellowwing
01-24-09, 02:21 PM
Welcome aboard Doc King! Sometimes we need reminding that whatever training our Grunts go through, you are right there with them!
Thanks for the welcome aboard. I take it you were wtith the Marines too. I wonder when and where?
I am thinking this posting may be going to yellowwing. I got another message from another doc. I was noticing something about Winnipeg. Are you in Canada?
thewookie
01-24-09, 03:51 PM
I was a corpsman with the 1st Med BN. 1st FssG @ Camp Pendleton.
I was not a recon corpsman, but our Senior Chief was.
He got four spots for his corpsman in the Pre-jump School on board Camp Pendleton in 1985.
I've checked into it some, and I don't think this school exists any more.
I forget how long the school was, but I know the 1st week was fashioned like the SEAL HellWeek. IT WAS KINDA tough.
I made it through the week, ad I have a certificate to show I went through the Pre-Jump School.
I wonder is there anybody out there who knows anything about this HellWeek.
HM3doc
Pre-jump school is that like pre-mature ejaculation?
I don't know if it's like premature ejaculation. I was just a humble NAVY hospital corpsman. The PRE-Jump school was a MARINE CORPS thing. lol.
AND the thing is I may have been
Navy, BUT I did t he MArine COrps thing. Passed the Marine Corps PFT to get in the school. IN FACT I maxed the PFT. How did YOU do on the pft. . . . Wookie?:=)
ggyoung
01-24-09, 05:40 PM
MARINES Lets hear it for our NAVY CORPMEN. GET SOME
Yessir, and I am saddened I got out when I did. I was really disheartened during Desert Storm. I had been out not long, and I knew I had training for the desert warfare. I am just sorry I was not able to take part. I AM PROUD TO BE AN HONORARY MARINE!
thedrifter
01-24-09, 07:31 PM
Welcome Aboard!
Ellie
Zebra29er
01-24-09, 07:48 PM
HM3doc.....WELCOME ABOARD!!!!! GREAT, to have another Corpsman on site! Try to pick on the Grunts, as much as possible.....makes this site much more entertaining!!!......AND...THEY LOVE IT!!!....SEMPER FI, BRO......Doc Greek
Yea Doc . but it would be mighty boring in here with out the Doc's and the GI Gin LOL
Thank you Ma'am. It is an honor.
have a good day, and don' worry, be happy.
HM3doc King
Sgt Leprechaun
01-25-09, 07:35 AM
Welcome aboard, Doc!
Most units that send Marines to Airborne School conduct a 'pre jump school' program. I went through a six month 'pre jump' school in 1984 prior to my going to Ft Benning in August of 1984. Didn't get a certificate but it's certainly plausible that one would have been issued for a larger school.
Good mornin' leprechaun,
I take it you were a recon marine.
I am just wondering where did you got to the pre jump school?
I will be honest, None of us corpsman from 1st Med BN. who went through the HellWeek went to Fort Benning.
We were Medical Battalion, and there was really no need for us corpsmen to be jump qualified. Just our senior chief, who was a recon corpsman before he got to Med Bn, had been a recon corpsman, and he got us in to the pre jump school. We went through the HellWeek, and I think we all made it. I know I did. We went to to two or three classes after that 1sty week, learned things like you fall at like 500 feet a second free fall, and such, but we did not get any slots in jump school, NO NEED for us.
I am just wondering if anybody else can back me on the HellWeek. I think it was like the SEAL HellWeek.
HM3doc
1stRad2671
01-25-09, 11:25 AM
I've never heard of such a thing. What's it supposed to accomplish? It's not like the airborne school is hard.
Sgt Leprechaun
01-25-09, 11:36 AM
Again, the idea (back in those days) was to keep Marines from going to the school and failing out. (It did happen, believe it or not).
No, I wasn't recon.
Zulu 36
01-25-09, 12:24 PM
When I was in, there were very few jump school slots and most went to Recon and then rest to ANGLICO. The recon units ran what they called a "Junior Jump" course. Mostly unofficial, but they ran all people with slots for Ft Benning through an intense PT program and parachuting ground school. As Sgt Lep said, it was to prevent Marines from failing out at Benning. Usually the JJ courses went for about 3-4 weeks depending on how physically fit the people were when they showed up. JJ courses wanted to send Marines who could do Ft Benning PT in their sleep.
They did everything Benning did except jump from towers or aircraft, plus stuff like get dragged behind jeeps trying to disconnect parachute risers from harnesses, etc. As a rule, Junior Jump courses kept the Marine failure rate very low at Benning (and mostly due to injury) and very often caused Marines to be #1 in their respective classes, which pi**ed the Army off no end.
I am advised that these days at Benning, the classes are often divided at PT time into an regular Army group, and a group of Marines, SEALS, Rangers, etc. The Regular Army group can't keep up with the others who want to do (and can do) more rigorous and faster PT. Got to protect those fragile egos, I suppose.
FistFu68
01-25-09, 12:33 PM
:usmc: DURING MY ERA JUMP SCHOOL WAS A BEAR THATS BEFORE THEY LET WOMEN INTO THE AIRBORNE THEN IT BECAME A WUSS!!!ASK SKIPPER HE WAS A BLACK HAT,I'VE SEEN THE SO CALLED "ELITE" OF EVERY BRANCH FALL OUT!!!GRADUATE OF CLASS 40 AND PROUD OF IT :usmc: :iwo:
Sgt Leprechaun
01-25-09, 12:35 PM
Interesting about how it works nowadays, thanks!
And, yeah, the Army hated us, we'd ace the PT hands down (again, our CO was a hardass and demanded we do pre jump for six months), the Marine I went with took the unit record for pushups (125 in a minute) and I took the record for situps (210 in a minute or something like that, it was a bunch LOL). We'd run 8-10 miles in 'boots n utes', and they required us to take the semi annual PT test in the same (I did 3 mi in 19.00).
No way any of us were gonna fail.
Rocky C
01-25-09, 01:09 PM
Welcome Aboard HM3doc.
You guy's Rock!!!
Semper Fi, Bro.
ps. Doc Greek is the best. He's a funny B***tard. I think the only time I smile all day is when I read some of his posts.
ok. I gotta go. I should have taken the Blue pill instead of the Red one!!! HA!!!
Rocky
Okay, thanks lepruchaun. Yeah I think I remembr that there were a number of Marines drop out of the HellWeek. It was not as hard as the S.E.A.L HellWeek because they dinna keep us awake for all week.
BUT then maybe you remember this?
Not recon? Why did you go through the pre jump school?
HM3doc
I thought the max on the 3 mile run was 18 minutes. That' what I shot for before I got stationed with the Marines. That was what I did it in, 18 minutes.
I haven't ben able to run even one foot much less two in twenty years. I had a pretty bad car wreck. Messed me up somewhat.
I'm not sure whether the schol I went through was recon or Angico. The motto on the certificate they gave us docs reads something like "Lightning from the skiy, Thunder from the sea".
Ooorah, semper fi! "I wanna be a recon ranger, livin' a life of death and danger".
THANKS for all the input Marines!
Until next time just remember, don' worry, be happy.
HM3doc
Yeah, the course I went through was some super intense PT. . . . ALL Day starting at like 0500. We got drug behind the jeep, we carried the devil dog log when we ran in boots and utes and passed it back, then the corporaks would run up to us running in formation and have us "go do a hun\dred on the fire hydrant" (pushups), then we'd catch back up and get back in formation without missing a beat. And the list goes on.