[MilCom] Silver Wings parachute team

[Mike Riffle]

Here's some info about the US Army Silver Wings parachute team that jumped
at the Thunder In The Valley Air Show this past weekend:

http://www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/TNSarchives/March04/033704.htm

Some observations I made during the show

The team consisted of a lead jumper carrying the American flag, followed by
a 4-person diamond formation and photographer.

The team used a SINCGARS for their comms with RAVEN 22, the jump UH-60. I
could not find their initial comms with RAVEN due to an oversight on my
part, I was only searching 30-50 MHz instead of the full 30-87.975 MHz
range. As a result I did not find any of their comms until after the lead
jumper was on the ground, then I found them using 34.65 MHz to coordinate
the mass jump. Here are a couple photos of the SINCGARS they were using:
http://www.geocities.com/kc8mzm/photo/sincgars.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/kc8mzm/photo/ground.jpg

Communications between ground personnel was with an FRS radio on channel 10
(467.6125 MHz). Despite hearing an Inter-Squad Radio frequency passed during
the Saturday show I could not find any activity on the ISR frequencies.

Once the lead jumper was on the ground he narrated the remaining jump via
a wireless handheld mic. For future air shows I will have a list of the
wireless mic frequency ranges, my memory failed me on this one.

The lead jumper had a different parachute than the other jumpers:
http://www.geocities.com/kc8mzm/photo/lead.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/kc8mzm/photo/others.jpg

The photographer had a different uniform than the other jumpers:
http://www.geocities.com/kc8mzm/photo/photographer.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/kc8mzm/photo/uniform.jpg (the soldier in this
photo is "Sergeant Saint" mentioned in the lead article)


Mike Riffle
Cataula, GA
http://www.geocities.com/kc8mzm