Children run toward a package dropped out of a C-130 near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. About 100 paratroopers from the US, Germany and the Netherlands participated in a holiday training jump to give them experience jumping with personnel from other nations and to hand out toys to local children. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
Children run toward a package dropped out of a C-130 near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. About 100 paratroopers from the US, Germany and the Netherlands participated in a holiday training jump to give them experience jumping with personnel from other nations and to hand out toys to local children. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
Paratroopers land near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
A German soldier lands in a field near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
U.S. and European military personnel parachute to the ground behind a U.S. Air Force C-130 near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
U.S. and European personnel land in a field near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
Paratroopers jump from a U.S. Air Force C-130 over a landing zone near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
A paratrooper walks to a rally point after parachuting from a C-130 near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
Paratroopers land near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
U.S. paratroopers walk to a rally point after landing in a field near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
Paratroopers jump from a U.S. Air Force C-130 over a landing zone near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
U.S. paratroopers help a German soldier in a landing zone near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
Children greet a paratrooper after a jump near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. About 100 paratroopers from the US, Germany and the Netherlands participated in a holiday training jump to give them experience jumping with personnel from other nations and to hand out toys to local children. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
Santa Claus reveals a box of toys near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
Soldiers from the 16th Sustainment Brigade hand out toys to children near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
U.S. Army Sgt. Katelyn Garrett, a parachute rigger from the 5th Quartermaster Theater Aerial Delivery Company, hands out toys near Alzey, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. (Michael B. Keller/Stars and Stripes)
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – A group of paratroopers spread holiday cheer to local children on Wednesday and won themselves qualification to wear foreign jumping wings when they landed in a field here to deliver Christmas presents.
Santa, the event’s main draw, did not qualify for his wings because he couldn’t get out of the plane.
About 100 paratroopers conducted a series of static and free-fall jumps this week run by 5th Quarter Master Theater Arial Delivery Company, based at Rhine Ordnance Barracks. They came from the Army, Marines and Air Force, along with jumpers from Germany and the Netherlands
Wednesday’s culminating event was a low-level cargo drop of toys, followed by a free-fall by Santa Claus from a C-130 in front of a group of screaming, happy German children. If only the jump had gone according to plan.
The drop time was pushed back an hour because of bad weather. When the planes did finally arrive and two crates popped over the drop zone, a group of about 70 fourth-graders a public school in Flomborn began running down a road to intercept the crates, briefly delaying the jump.
Once the children were cleared from the drop zone, two Air Force C-130s and a German C-160 began making passes over the field. Chute after chute opened, but the man in red was nowhere in sight.
Santa couldn’t safely make a free-fall jump because the cloud base was too low. If he had done a static-line jump, as had everyone else, he would have likely landed in a pile of mud. Instead, he made a delayed appearance in the back of a cargo truck.
The paratroopers, who contributed the gifts themselves, then handed out the presents to the group of children, some American, some German. One solider said the event was “awesome.” The girl who got his gift was crying because it was so cold.
The U.S. jumpers from this week’s training activity will qualify to wear foreign jump wings, a coveted distinction among paratroopers. The wings are awarded for jumping under direction of a foreign jumpmaster, for jumping from the plane of another county, or for using a foreign parachute.
Part of the payoff in the training, paratroopers said, was comparing notes and jump techniques.
“It’s really great because it helps get everybody on the same page,” said Staff Sgt. Brent Gogin of 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment.
First Lt. Kelly Washington, of the 5th QMTADC, said jumping out of a German plane was different than it is from a U.S. plane.
“You have to be more aggressive,” he said. “You have to clear the plane yourself, so you have to make an aggressive exit.”
morris.william@stripes.com Twitter: @willatstripes
