6th Engineer Battalion HHC Arctic Sappers jump in Alaska

The 6th Engineer Battalion HHC Arctic Sappers put some pictures of their jump the other day at Malamut DZ in Alaska of their Facebook page. They let their families watch;

I jumped twice in Alaska in support of Operation Jack Frost in January 1976 to test the readiness of the units there to defend the new Alaska pipeline. We were the aggressors. It was probably one of my most miserable times in the Army. First, I joined the Army with the intent to get away from Upstate New York winters, so my first winter in the Army, they sent me to Alaska.

It was a nine-hour flight from 62 degree weather in Charleston AFB, South Carolina to minus 30 degree Fort Wainwright. We had inflight rigging which means we donned our parachutes and equipment in the aircraft. It was the only time I got airsick.

Then we jumped out over Fort Wainwright’s airfield. There was three feet of snow on the airfield, so I aimed for the runways, which were cleared because I didn’t want to hump all of my equipment through waist deep snow, and I hit like a ton of bricks. Someone lost their M1911 while they were in the air, so the whole battalion was on line searching for the pistol in the ass deep snow. Miraculously, we found it after an hour or so.

The second jump was on Husky DZ, somewhere near Fort Greeley. I don’t know, because I’ve never seen the DZ. I was the first man in the door with the platoon’s radios and M60 tripod in the WICI (CIWI?) bag which is just a big square canvas bag for the heavier, bulkier equipment. Since I weighed like 128 pounds in those days, they put me at the front of the stick (jumping order) because I couldn’t walk through the aircraft with the bag to get to the exit. Anyway, after my exit, I steered for the DZ, but I didn’t make it and went into the trees with the WICI bag in one tree and my canopy in the other, so I had me a big hammock. I had to deploy my reserve and use it to climb down to the ground. Thanks, Alaska National Guard pilots.

That began our five day field problem to attack a pumping station on the pipeline. We humped 500-pound ahkios (a big sled that we pulled like Iditerod dogs) up and down mountains to get to our objective. Meanwhile, our fellow aggressors, the SEALs, jumped on their objective without any humping.

Yeah, it was scenic, but not while you’re making tracks through the scenery.

Anyway, I’m glad for the families of that Engineer unit who got to see a nice Hollywood jump. But my memories of Alaska aren’t as pleasant.

Category: War Stories