Yuma Test Center airborne soldiers sharpen freefall skills in Eloy

Yuma Test Center’s Airborne Test Force took its freefall training to Eloy, where soldiers used Skydive Arizona’s jump facilities to pack in more repetitions and keep their airborne skills current. The June 22 training effort centered on repeated skydives, not static-line jumps.

Airborne Test Force soldiers handle static line, military freefall, heavy drop cargo and parachute maintenance systems at Yuma Test Center, and the unit’s work supports Yuma Proving Ground, the Army’s premier test center that conducts developmental testing on nearly every piece of equipment in the ground combat arsenal.

Master Sgt. Donald Bullock said the Eloy jumps fine-tuned the team’s skills, and ATF Test Parachutist Program Manager Joe Castillo builds training plans for the unit. Bullock said jumpers need at least 400 jumps, along with Castillo’s other training steps, before they can move into a non-standard parachute, a regular skydiving-style canopy instead of a military one.

Bullock said the team could complete five to six jumps a day, depending on weather. Skydive Arizona’s nearly 90-acre Eloy campus includes a skydiving school, indoor skydiving center and climate-controlled packing area.

Yuma Proving Ground manages test operations at three locations, Yuma Test Center in Arizona, Arctic Regions Test Center at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Tropic Regions Test Center on leased land in Central and South America. Yuma Proving Ground is Yuma County’s top civilian employer, with more than 2,000 civilian personnel.

The U.S. Army Military Free Fall School is located at Yuma Proving Ground and trains elite special operations forces in HALO and HAHO parachuting over a four-week course. YPG’s history traces the site back to the Army Corps of Engineers opening the Yuma Test Branch in 1943, and Camp Laguna later trained more than one million soldiers during World War II. In March, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Melvin Bullard became the Airborne Test Force chief.