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McChord Field and Fairchild AFB Airmen conduct joint training

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Russ Jackson
  • 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  In the early hours of the morning of Nov. 24, a McChord C-17 Globemaster III aircrew departed McChord Field for Fairchild Air Force Base in the hopes of conducting some joint Air Force training.

Crewmembers from the 7th Air Squadron met just after 5 a.m. to conduct their mission briefing to discuss each Airman's role during the flight and what training they would need to accomplish.

Capt. Mike Lewis, 7th AS pilot, gave the brief as the mission's aircraft commander.

Lewis informed the crew they would be flying to Fairchild AFB to pick up jumpers from the 22nd Training Squadron and conducting static line jump training. The jumps were to take place over Fairchild's airfield.

The crew then went to the jet, readied it for take-off and launched into the clear skies above Mount Rainier.

Upon arrival at Fairchild AFB, two jump masters from the 22nd TRS made their way onto the jet and introduced themselves before giving a jump brief to the McChord aircrew.

The 22nd TRS is part of the 336th Training Group at Fairchild AFB. They are the sole unit responsible for training the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape specialists who in turn train more than 6,000 students a year from their base.

On this day, the squadron was conducting joint training with the McChord aircrew to keep their member's training current.

"We're preparing a good handful of our individuals for currency and we're also preparing a handful of our individuals for our combat control jump master course where they need a certain amount of fixed wing [jumps]," said Staff Sgt. Raymond Caballero-Perez, 22nd TRS parachuting shop NCO in charge. "We're getting them their numbers and we have a handful of individuals that will be staying proficient with these fixed wing operations [because of today's training with McChord's C-17]."

After Caballero-Perez briefed the McChord crew, the Airmen began to load onto the jet as he conducted his final jump master inspection. Once they were seated, the C-17 took off and prepared to drop.

Senior Airman Brock Wranik, 7th AS loadmaster, donned a parachute and made his way to the back of the jet and opened one of the side doors. He made sure to give Caballero-Perez countdown times at 10 minutes, six minutes, two minutes, one minute, 30 seconds and the final 10 seconds.

Once Caballero-Perez was given the green light to jump, he guided his first group of 12 Airmen as they lept from the C-17 at 1,000 feet for their static line jump. Once they were all out the door, the C-17 made a second pass and the next 12 jumped from the aircraft, including Caballero-Perez.

Because of McChord's aircrew from the 7th AS, the members of the 22nd TRS were able to maintain their currency for jumping out of fixed wing aircraft. Thanks to Fairchild's SERE Airmen, the McChord aircrew was able to maintain their own proficiencies for dropping jumpers onto their designated drop zones.