Fastroping

[BadMuther]

I never got to Rappel from a live bird...and only got to fast rope from a live bird a few times.......It was fun with no RTO ruck!

[BRanger91]

I had the wonderful pleasure of teaching Air Assault for two years out of Drum and the best aprt of it was being able to get aircraft whenever you wanted it and start flying down a rope. At 90 feet I can rappell faster than a roper can thats for sure. Just go Aussie no braking involved. I think there is still a video of me eating shit full throttle floating around somewhere. That was a bad day.

[Steadfast]

In RVN I was sent by 2nd BGDE HHC LRRP's to Division's K/75th Pre-Recondo School where Rappelling was one thing I learned to do. However, I never rappelled into the jungle. I sure would have liked to do that fast ropping. Looks easy and gets you to the ground pronto! One thing I'de like to ask you guys is did you ever fast rope wearing an ruck with 80 to 100 lbs of gear plus your LBE & Rifle? I would think that slowing down with all that weight would be near impossible.

[Looon]

I never got to Rappel from a live bird...and only got to fast rope from a live bird a few times.......It was fun with no RTO ruck!

That sucks. We got to rope quite bit.

[BadMuther]

I never got to Rappel from a live bird...and only got to fast rope from a live bird a few times.......It was fun with no RTO ruck!

That sucks. We got to rope quite bit.

We roped I dunno, once or twice...maybe 3 times a year.........always from the tower....


Birds were REALLY fucking scarce the first year I was there (91-DS year)....

[Looon]

I only roped off of the tower a couple of times. Clinton really fucked shit up for you guys.

[Odin's Underling]

We started fast roping around 1980. Back in the day we started by just using tug of war ropes before we got the fancy braided ones. It was a real good way to insert on top of buildings if there was a lot of crap where the bird couldn't put down. We roped out of mostly blackhawks and quite a bit out of the Jolly Green Giants. You could get your whole platoon on the ground in around 20 seconds out of a green giant. Two ropes in the back and one up front by the crew door. There was no more rappelling out of birds once we got going on that. I always thought it to be useless anyways. We were told that the SEALS started roping first but for you James Bond fans out there you can see that it was done in the 60's in one of his movies. Can't remember which one but it was the one where he was impersonating a ninja guy in Japan and they had an assault team roping down the inside of a mountain. Roping is okay if your going in light, the more shit you have on you, you better have a good grip. That does'nt mean for you new guys to start jerking off either. Do some other hand strengthening excerises.

[Looon]

Most of our ropes were out of shithooks and CH-53s. On live fire insertions in the shithooks, if you were by the crew door waiting to hit the rope, the fucking mini-guns had a field day with your hearing.

[hit_it]

i agree. the only reason i went is because the school was on Campbell. i would have been a fool to pass on the opportunity when i know i needed the promotion points.

[Spartan]

We usually hydro-roped out of C-130's into water. It was kind of rough cause the pilots had to get down and hold the plane to within 50 feet above the surface of the water.

[rangercamaro]

At first Bn we did elevators all day two or three times during my era. I've came out of blackhawks and shithooks. I prefer the blackhawks. Less people to avoid. the only people we had roping with rucks and any weight was the 60 AG's. Thank god I had my gun by then. Those boys hated that shit. Hit like a bunkerbuster, shit flying everywhere. They exited first and #2 man waited til they were touching down before he got on. (gave em time to clear the rope in case they fell)

[Parabellum]

In RVN I was sent by 2nd BGDE HHC LRRP's to Division's K/75th Pre-Recondo School where Rappelling was one thing I learned to do. However, I never rappelled into the jungle. I sure would have liked to do that fast ropping. Looks easy and gets you to the ground pronto! One thing I'de like to ask you guys is did you ever fast rope wearing an ruck with 80 to 100 lbs of gear plus your LBE & Rifle? I would think that slowing down with all that weight would be near impossible.

Slowing down is impossible. Just hold on for dear life and hope the pilot doesn't move the ropes off the top of the building. You always need the be ready to do a proper PLF when fast roping.

[Spartan]

I didn't PLF away from the ropes this one time and Cutner - my roomate - landed with his boot right on my throat and PLF'ed away laughing while I tried to roll away out of the way of the Ranger following him.

Among the many things they showed in BHD I thought that insertion was painfully slow. Back in the day, we'd usually be aiming to hit the rope as soon as the guy designated to go before us hit his hands against it cause he'd be gone by the time you hit it anyway. But, if you're a big time Hollywood producer paying the Army a few $M to bring all thier birds to Morroco, you probably want to maximize the footage they appear in the movie.

[Looon]

At first Bn we did elevators all day two or three times during my era. I've came out of blackhawks and shithooks. I prefer the blackhawks. Less people to avoid. the only people we had roping with rucks and any weight was the 60 AG's. Thank god I had my gun by then. Those boys hated that shit. Hit like a bunkerbuster, shit flying everywhere. They exited first and #2 man waited til they were touching down before he got on. (gave em time to clear the rope in case they fell)

We also did elevators. Never did get to rope from a Blackawk, though.

[Bell]

I never fastroped. Shucky durn.

RLTW
Bell