Chapter 3:5 Airborne School: Physical Training

Fort Benning, GA March - April 2004

I briefly touched upon the physical aspect of what we had to do while at Airborne School. In Chapter 3:3, I discussed the grueling Army Physical Fitness Test (A.P.F.T.) we had to take on the first morning. I discussed a little about having to do pull-ups every time we entered and exited the barracks area. I briefly discussed the “airborne shuffle” and how we had to do that everywhere we went. Everything we did at Airborne School was about getting us as physically stronger as possible in a matter of two weeks, before our first jump in week three.

Fort Benning, Georgia in April, was like a twisted bi-polar weather system. Almost every morning for the first two weeks we endured a warm front blow through with thunderstorms pouring down on the installation. And as soon as it arrived, it was gone, leaving the air hot and humid. Our mornings started hours before the sun came up which was prime time for the early morning showers. Most days we waited inside the barracks until it was about time to be in formation. As soon as the Black Hats started to show up, we all ran outside in the downpour and formed up for P.T. And as soon as we were formed up and our Black Hat arrived, we were dropped for push-ups; every morning. Those rainy mornings were without a doubt run days. We ran in the dark, most likely clutching to our tactical red flashlights to guide our way. I don’t remember for sure, but we had to have done something to see where we were going. Maybe we just followed the reflector belt in front of us and that was our directional compass. Whenever we ran as a platoon it was the slowest people put to the front of the group to keep the pace. If someone fell out of too many runs, they would be disqualified from the course. But if you’re the pacer, and you fall out, maybe you weren’t qualified to be a paratrooper. I know the Black Hats gave a few people some leniency. Maybe it was because they were officers, maybe not. But one particular female officer, who stood somewhere around five feet tall, was always falling out. Most of the platoon gave her shit for slowing us down, but it was also our job to motivate her to keep going. She struggled for three weeks, and as an officer, it didn’t look good for her, but she eventually graduated from the course. It seemed that we would run for miles and miles and miles in the morning. I honestly don’t know how I never fell out of formation. I think adrenaline and fear kept me going. I struggled every day, but thankfully we ran at a rather slow pace, and all I had to do was keep up and not fall out. My lungs would burn every run day, but I was not going to get removed from the course. I think P.T. was the one thing I dreaded waking up to every morning. It never seemed to get better or worse; it just was.