U.S. Army Parachute Team - The Golden Knights

We are camped on BLM land at Imperial Dam Recreational Area, which is adjacent to the Yuma Proving Ground, where the U.S. Army Parachute Team practices during the winter. From our rig we have seen the parachute team fall from airplanes in the distance. Well, today we got to see it up close and personal. After obtaining a pass, the public is permitted to come to the landing site and watch the team practice their jumps.

Here is a picture of one of the teams getting ready to start their jumps.



The first thing we see is the plane climbing up, up, up. Then we see the jumpers and their trail of smoke. Actually, at this point we see just the smoke, but we know the jumpers are in there somewhere. (The jumpers have a device on their ankles that emits pink smoke.)

Then the jumpers break away from their formation. It is hard to see in this picture, but the small black dots in the center are jumpers. There is also a jumper at each end of the line of smoke.


And then we see the first jumper after he opens his parachute.


He gets lower and lower...

...and lower.....


And then he lands...as simple as that. They all make it look very easy...just a little squat as they touched the ground.


Here is another team doing the star formation. Again, it is hard to see in this picture...


... So, I enlarged it so you can see the jumpers.


Then it got crazy! These guys were flying everywhere & criss-crossing each other. The red parachute says Army Airborne and the yellow one says Army.


And here they are on their way to the ground. Again, they sure make it look easy!

And after each jump, each team member must repack his parachute and get ready for another jump.


We watched the jumpers for about 3 hours and saw many, many jumps. They had some folks who were jumping tandem. We never did figure out who the second person was on these jumps. I have never had an inclination to jump out of a perfectly good airplane; however, if one of these guys had given me the opportunity, I would have "jumped" at the chance! No pun intended!