Fastroping

Moving in and around an area of operations. Helicopters, Bikes, RSOVs, Zodiac's, etc...
AbnRgr289
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Post by AbnRgr289 »

Fast roping was the shit.....................Heel to K-pot baby!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
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toad
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Post by toad »

rgrpuck wrote: the front sight blade of the M-60 was buried flush into his thigh. OOOOWWWWW........ Needless to say he required a little stitching.

Same shit happend to me, but I ended up with a nice gash in my calf, I limped away thinking that fuckin hurt, then someone pointed out the fact that my pant leg from the knee down was covered in blood!!!! You could see the calf muscle!!! :shock: :shock:
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haz-mat
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Post by haz-mat »

Saltbitch wrote:
We roped (fastrope) into a heavily wooded area....once. Two fully loaded MH-47's worth of Rangers combat ineffective within 60 seconds. So much for impressing the OC's at JRTC....


Was that the same incident where the 3/75 commo NCO got killed?
_________________
Yeah that day sucked, luckily I was on bird one (the only one that didn't rope).We spent hours pulling guys out of the mud. The stupid JRTC OC's kept reminding us that the "war games" were still on. We told them to pound sand! By the way the commo guy was Harness and ironically it was his miles harness that killed him (got around his neck in the top of an oak tree). He was a good guy, bad way to check out!
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JohnDowland
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Post by JohnDowland »

Thought I'd add my 2cents after spamboy bumped the thread back up.

I much prefered roping to jumping. As an FO, you could be the last man out the door, and one of the first to impact with the tarmac if there was enough distance to make up the space; I hated falling like such a rock. Roped out of Littlebirds, Blackhawks, and Chinooks; thought all of it was great - except maybe the Chinooks. The rotor wash on those things would cause the rope to lay out nearly fully horizontal before the first man put his weight onto it.

I remember being first man on the rope one night, it was pouring down rain, the pilot's having trouble keeping the bird steady in the wind storm, I'm trying to keep my gear balanced while standing on this wet and oily tailgate with the weight of all my radios and shit, and the PSG is yelling at me to grab hold of the rope - I can't even reach the damned rope! I was holding onto the side of the bird, stretching out on my toes to grab hold of it, and all I can remember is looking at the ground 50' or 60' below and thinking, "If you miss the rope, that shit's going to hurt..." So I finally get hold of the rope, go blazing down, and at some point along the way realize that - WTF!!! - I no longer have the rope in my hands. The rope had gotten soaking wet by the time we hit it, and my wet leather gloves (combined with a weak-assed grip) had caused us to part ways. After landing on my back, and blowing three yards of snot out my nose, I could only think of one thing, "I've seen those fucking dogpiles before, and my ass is not going to be found at the bottom of one!" Hence, I engaged in a modified emergency fire drill, "Drop, Stop, and Roll out of the way before pigboy puts his front sight blade through your left testicle". The PL thought that I had broken my back for sure. He asked if I knew just how far I'd fallen, and I told him "about seven or eight feet." He said it was more like thirty. That was the only bad one though.

BTW, SB, were you on SSG Wr****'s bird that night. I was at preranger when that incident happened, but was told later by a FIST buddy who was on his bird that Wr**** had seen tracers going past the chemlights where the ground should have been, and he pulled the ropes. I always thought that was a squared away example of how paying attention to your surroundings will keep you from getting killed.

That was too bad about Harness; he was a great guy, and commo was never quite the same without him.
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KW Driver
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Post by KW Driver »

haz-mat wrote:Saltbitch wrote:
We roped (fastrope) into a heavily wooded area....once. Two fully loaded MH-47's worth of Rangers combat ineffective within 60 seconds. So much for impressing the OC's at JRTC....


Was that the same incident where the 3/75 commo NCO got killed?
_________________
Yeah that day sucked, luckily I was on bird one (the only one that didn't rope).We spent hours pulling guys out of the mud. The stupid JRTC OC's kept reminding us that the "war games" were still on. We told them to pound sand! By the way the commo guy was Harness and ironically it was his miles harness that killed him (got around his neck in the top of an oak tree). He was a good guy, bad way to check out!
yes. SGT Harness. I was a few K's away, setting in a SQD ambush to isolate the OBJ. I ropemastered our bird and it was my worst rope. we didn't even have the ambush set before we got an admin freeze due to mass casualties. we sat for hours while that was delt with, trying to get details from the OC net. I sat next to him on the way over to the birds. he was a good guy. and missed my his family. that was a hard memorial service.
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Ranger175csar
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Post by Ranger175csar »

I was at Polk when that happend...I like roping.... I loved the SAR team....

My first rope was pretty eye opening.. out the rear of a shithook, low hight.. 40ft maybe... I hit the ground running... rotar wash was heavier that I expected... just about face planted myself.... Side exits sucked, it was easy to get hung up on something, mini gun mount maybe??? door sill?? whatever it was usually weapon sling got hung up.

Best ride was the 53.. I loved that bird.


That Polk trip, was that superbowl weekend and when all got pretty piss drunk......or was that the year prior... I can remember JRT bleeds one inot the other.
Collins

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ninjaman
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Post by ninjaman »

Do they teach air assault/fast roping in Ranger school?
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Post by RangerX »

ninjaman wrote:Do they teach air assault/fast roping in Ranger school?
No. If you can't face plant from 50 feet up, then don't even think about doing it with a rope.

:roll:
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Re: Fastroping

Post by DJB »

Best ride was the 53.. I loved that bird.

Are you kidding? The AF used to bring 12 birds to JRX in hopes that 9 would fly on mission day. Those things suck. Not to mention throwing you around on take off and landing. Give me a 47 any day.
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OP-FOR
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Re: Fastroping

Post by OP-FOR »

I see now that everyone puts their boots on the rope. When I was in we were told not to allow the boots to touch the rope because of the boot polish. We also would try to catch the Ranger in front of us and get a dog pile going. One of the last fast roping I did in Bat was at Mckenna. Due to the incident at Ft. Polk we were told to "slow it down" and only allowed one Ranger at a time on the rope. This proved to be tough when fast roping out of a 53 with the rotary wash.

If you are not familiar with the Ft. Polk incident here an overview. The rope was hung in a tree in which when the Rangers resulting in a freefall into the swamp.

1 dead (Spc Harness)
23 wounded
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