USAFA Jump Program

Here is a nice article from Airman Magazine about the AM-490 program at USAFA. Many of our new members here might enjoy reading about this upcoming opportunity at the Academy.

http://airman.dodlive.mil/2014/05/standing-in-the-door/

Stealth_81

Thanks a ton for this one. My DS has talked about this for 2 years now (1 year HS and 1 year Prep) He really wants to make one of the teams in the future. Going to pass this one on.
 
Never thought I'd have the guts to jump when I went to USAFA. After a year of maturing, I decided to do it and have no regrets! While I was never the type to continue on with it, I'm proud to say I stood in the door and jumped five times. The training was one of the best training programs I ever did in the Air Force and it sure instilled more confidence than I ever thought it could. :thumb:
 
Never thought I'd have the guts to jump when I went to USAFA. After a year of maturing, I decided to do it and have no regrets! While I was never the type to continue on with it, I'm proud to say I stood in the door and jumped five times. The training was one of the best training programs I ever did in the Air Force and it sure instilled more confidence than I ever thought it could. :thumb:

All I can say is "wow" coming from you that says a lot. I've read and followed a lot of your post here and for you to say something like that it must have been big. You're earned a lot of "street cred" in my book and now I really can't wait to hear my son's stories when he gets there.
 
Here is a video of the WOB (Wings of Blue) during their spring break in AZ

Here is last years WOG (Wings of Green) who will be training the AM490 class this summer (they are now WOB's) in the above ^^ video.
 
I never had the grades to get AM490 (not sure now, but back when...you pretty much needed a 3.00 or better unless you were a firstie). So I did it the "hard" way; I went to a lovely little Georgian place called Fort Benning.

AIRBORNE!

After that, I was hooked! Ended up skydiving through my "C" license and then got stupid; rode my reserve due to my stupidity, sold my gear and haven't jumped since.

BUT...I've been getting the urge...

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
Do you have to be a firstie or can you any year? What are some requirements to participate in the program?
 
The first opportunity to do Jump is the summer after your Doolie (Freshman) year. You will put your choices in for Jump, Soar (flying gliders), Space and Missiles, RPA, and maybe one other that I can't remember. You will rank those by preference and will get your first, second, third, etc choice based on class standing. My son wanted Jump but ended up with Soaring instead. If you want to make the Wings of Green and Wings of Blue teams you will need to get Jump during the first summer so it's up to you to do well enough in classes to get first choice.

If you don't get Jump at this time, you will have a second opportunity as a Firstie (Senior year) to take it as an academic class, provided you have room in your schedule and the class is not full. My son was able to take both Jump and Powered Flight as a Firstie because he had validated enough classes earlier.

Stealth_81
 
My DS will be in Jump this summer and is very excited. Not sure why anyone would want to leap from a perfectly good airplane but what do I know... He has dreams of being on the Wings of Blue and has since last summer during BCT when he saw the demonstrations. He has performed better than we could have ever expected at the Academy so far, so hopefully he will manage to make the team.
 
I never had the grades to get AM490 (not sure now, but back when...you pretty much needed a 3.00 or better unless you were a firstie). So I did it the "hard" way; I went to a lovely little Georgian place called Fort Benning.

AIRBORNE!

After that, I was hooked! Ended up skydiving through my "C" license and then got stupid; rode my reserve due to my stupidity, sold my gear and haven't jumped since.

BUT...I've been getting the urge...

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
I want to go there if possible! Is that opportunity still available to USAFA cadets? My brother is in Army Airborne, so obviously he went through their school in Ft. Benning. I think it would be cool to receive the same training he did!
 
Also, what are the requirements one must meet to make Wings of Blue/ Wings of Green?
 
I want to go there if possible! Is that opportunity still available to USAFA cadets? My brother is in Army Airborne, so obviously he went through their school in Ft. Benning. I think it would be cool to receive the same training he did!

Not for the last few years. There's a possibility it (as well as sending USAFA cadets to Air Assault) could start again, but I wouldn't count on it. As far as getting onto WoG, you have to make it through their tryouts and keep your GPA above a 2.6 (I think.) They change the process every year for trying out, but it's really heavily based on personality, if you already meet the minimum academic/physical/medical requirements.

AM 490 is a blast. As others have said, really push yourself for good grades and PFT scores first semester, so you have a good chance of getting it for the summer after freshman year.
 
The first opportunity to do Jump is the summer after your Doolie (Freshman) year. You will put your choices in for Jump, Soar (flying gliders), Space and Missiles, RPA, and maybe one other that I can't remember.


Stealth_81

I know what Jump and Soar are, but what do Space and Missiles and RPA entail?
 
Quick note- Space is a one week summer program, UAS (the RPA one) is two weeks, and there's also a one-week cyber summer program. Jump is two weeks and soaring is three. Basically, you can get some combination of these programs during your 3 week airmanship summer period-or, you could end up with extra weeks of "support." So, you could end up with jump and space, jump and cyber, cyber and UAS, UAS and support, cyber and support, etc. You won't get another program or support if you do soaring, however, since you'll belong to the soaring program all three weeks.

I did space and jump last summer-I found jump to be a lot more exciting, but space is a decent program too. Last year we visited active duty space officers on a local base, did some hands-on activities, and got a chance to earn space wings in the USAFA FalconSAT program.

I didn't do UAS, but it's basically two weeks of learning how to use all the systems and get certified through that program as well. There's a school-year version of UAS training you can do if you're interested.
 
My DS went through Jump this past Fall Semester, it was one of his highlights and his lines actually tangled up on his first jump and he went through the EPs without a hitch like a robot and it worked! But I tease him that he didn't go through the "real" Jump School...Ft. Benning :rockon:...since that's where I went through to earn my Jump Badge as a AFROTC cadet. He does counter that all of his jumps were free fall compared to my Static line jumps. BUT...I wonder why USAFA doesn't include a night jump? As I recall...I had to do one night jump to earn my Jump Badge back in my day. I guess closing your eyes for a few seconds can count as a night jump huh?:jump1:
 
I didn't realize that USAFA had stopped the Airborne route? I'll have to look and find out when that happened. Waaay back when I was a dink, dodging velociraptors on the T-Zo...it was a pretty popular program!

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
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