Tryouts 2011: Jacket Day and Graduation

Jacket week and graduation! This past Friday we finally got our coveted Golden Knight wool jackets! Jacket day started off at 3: 30 AM. The cadre woke us up and we started a little physical training. We did a few exercises and went on a 2 mile run. After PT we got cleaned up and headed for the drop zone. We were treated to a breakfast at the Waffle house before we got to the DZ.

Once at the drop zone it seemed like a normal training day. We prepped our gear and started dirt diving our days jumps. But as we were getting things situated one of the Golden Knight planes came over head and dropped a small white box. The cadre hollered “Go get that box and bring it back here!” Was this our jackets? We ran for all we were worth. When we returned with the box we opened it only to find that the cadre had filled it with “fake” jackets. We were demoralized.

So we went back to our gear and were told to “Get it on!!” We rigged up and went to the plane for our daily dose of jumping. Jacket day, it seemed, would have to wait.

After our jump we were packing our parachutes when another plane came overhead and another box came out the back. Once again the cadre hollered for us to go get it. This box fell from 2,000 ft. and then a white parachute opened up and it landed softly in the middle of the airfield. It was very heavy and we were pretty sure the cadre were just messing with us again. When we got the container back to the DZ we opened it and inside was a box filled with our jackets! Cheers and laughter was probably heard all the way back to Bragg! We did it, we made it. We were now Golden Knights!

Fast forward to Wednesday, our graduation day. The skies were clear and Carolina blue. We knew what we had to do and we knew the whole Team was watching. The cadre had their own pass witch left it up to us to pull off a mass formation on our own. We were up to the task and as we exited the C-31 Troopship we nailed it! We all made it to the target and the cheers from the crowd made us puff with pride. We had our names called and made a formation to be knighted. As LTC Martin came to each of us and we took a knee for the official knighting we realized our dream of becoming Golden Knights had come true.

The 2011 Tryout Graduates are SSG Curtis Haugen from Fort Bragg, NC; SSG Brian Karst from Fort Shafter, Hawaii; SSG Jonathan Lopez from Fort Benning, GA; SPC Martin Gerald from Fort Bragg, NC; SGT Timothy O’neal from Fort Bragg, NC and SSG Kevin Presgraves from Fort Campbell, KY. Thanks to all of our friends and family. Without your support we would have not made it. A special thanks to the cadre, without whom our dream would not come true. We look forward to meeting our new teammates and seeing you all on the road at Demo’s all around the Country. Blue Skies!!

Tagged as: 2011 Tryouts