 been known as the home of the airborne soldier, those who follow the sport of skydiving or are themselves freefall parachutists, as home base for the masters of that spectacular trade. Welcome to Fort Bragg. I'm Captain Bob Good, executive officer for the United States Army Parachute Team, the Golden Knights. The Golden Knights possess world supremacy in freefall parachuting for the United States and the free world by holding more freefall parachuting records than any other group. For the next half hour, we'll take you on a tour for a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to be a Golden Knight. But for right now, I'd like to show you the trophy room. These are some of the trophies that your Army parachute team has accumulated from all over the world. They represent the very best in all possible phases of parachuting competition, both nationally and internationally. We're not a big unit as Army organizations go. 52 men make up the entire team. This breaks down into three teams for freefall demonstrations and competition. But you'll see all that later. Right now, maybe you're wondering how a man gets to be a member of the Golden Knights, what the requirements are. Well, a man must first of all be a volunteer. He must be a qualified military parachutist, and he must have over 200 freefall parachute jumps to his credit. And he must last but not least have an outstanding record for both conduct and efficiency. Now, let's show you just how we operate. This is headquarters. It doesn't look much different from a couple of hundred other orderly rooms here at Fort Bragg. But for us, it's home. From here, the coordinating is done, training is scheduled, demonstration jumps arranged, and the national and world competitions planned for. Now let's take a regular training day. Freefall parachuting is not a thing to be done haphazardly or off the cuff. Detailed briefing sessions before each jump ensure that every man scheduled to step out into empty space knows exactly what he's to do and where and when and on whose signal. Only then is he ready to get into his working gear. In addition to jumpsuit and boots, this means a fitted helmet, a main parachute in back, and a reserve chute in front. Mounted on the reserve chute where he can see them at a glance are the two essential instruments of the sky diver, his altimeter and his timer. In the case of the Golden Knights, another standard item of equipment is at the lower end of this lanyard, a bracket of smoke grenades to mark the jumpers trail across the sky. Check and double check is the rule, and no one objects to the time it takes. On the way down is no place to find out you've forgotten something. This is a team effort all the way, and the pilots of the Golden Knights are a vital part of it. They don't get much spotlight, but just try getting to 14,000 feet without one. At ground level, wind speed and direction are precisely measured and reported. A smoke grenade like the ones the jumpers wear lets them see from above the direction and velocity of ground winds, and from the jump aircraft, specially designed streamers are dropped. They fall at almost exactly the speed of a jumper with this canopy open, giving a highly reliable indication of how much drift can be expected. Everything is ready. The word is passed to the aircraft by a free fall baton pass used if necessary. This, however, is extremely unlikely. Each man packs his own chute. Hand toggles control the flow of air through the slots of the special paracommander canopy. Because he's going to do what's called a cutaway, popping his first chute at 3,000 feet, he then unhooks both sides of it. He lets one side go and holds the other with his hand, a deliberate streamer. Then he lets go back into free fall to open up again at 2,000 feet, shape in the sky, first tracking in opposite directions until they're two or three miles apart, then turning and flying toward each other to crisscross at flashing speed in mid-air. Coming up calls for four men. Their objective, precision formation flying without benefit of an airplane. At terminal speed, around 130 miles per hour, they streak toward the earth, interval to pull their rip cords simultaneously. Okay, gentlemen, if you'll give me your attention just for a minute, I'll give you a brief critique on the jump that you just made. I watched each one of the passes on the telemetry here, and I have a real good idea of what each one of the jumps looked like. For the pilots, they flew real fine orbits. They were about four and a half minutes between each pass, exactly what we want for the regular show. On the two-man baton pass, he came together within a thousand feet out of the aircraft, a real good smooth hookup, real fine show, and the spot was right on the money. The cutaway. And that's the way it goes. They'll repack, go up and jump again, and they'll do it better. Then they'll repack again, and they'll do it perfectly. These people are professionals, and for them doing it almost right is just not good enough. There's too much pride in the unit, and they keep after it until they do it perfectly. It's pretty hard to pin down. What makes the Free Fall Parachute so hung up on the sport is that in all my duties as an officer, which have been many and varied, it's been the most thrilling, exciting, and rewarding experience I've ever encountered. But if you ask other members of the team, you'll probably get different answers. I like Free Fall Parachuting because of the challenge of the unknown and the thrill of competition. I like Free Fall Parachuting because of the challenge for self-proficiency and the endless phases of research and development. For me, it's the honor of representing the United States Army before my country and the world. Being involved with Free Fall Parachuting of this caliber is an opportunity offered to only a select few individuals within the Army structure. I like to jump because it is a challenge in keeping my country on top in the world of Free Fall Parachuting. Of course, these are all purely personal answers to the question why Free Fall Parachuting. But the military applications and implications of this sport, quite apart from our public relations role, are important. For example, there's the tactical application called Halo, which stands for high altitude, low opening. Picture a dark night. If you were a hostile sentry, you'd never know that this tactical team was arriving. Using the Halo technique, they jumped from an aircraft flying so high it couldn't be seen or heard. They stayed in Free Fall, keeping together, homing on their target till the last minute. Now, they land silently, with no problem of regrouping or finding one another on the ground. The technique is the experimental. The experimenters are the golden knights. Also experimental is this dark shaped canopy known as the flex wing. Highly maneuverable. It's like a glider and shows promise for use with men or cargo. Then there's this odd configuration. It's called the parafoil, and its wing-like shape is kept in something like an inflated condition by the flow of air through and around it. As you can see, it has a remarkably flat glide ratio and is highly controllable. In fact, with a cargo load, it can even be guided from the ground by radio. The possibilities in terms of air supply are being explored. Another possible value, a pilot ejecting over hostile ground might be able to glide many miles towards safety with such a canopy as the parafoil above him. Search and development, competition, and public demonstrations. All things considered, we don't have to worry about finding something to keep us busy. These are some of the competition trophies, but only a small portion of our time has spent competing. A great deal of the time is spent traveling around the country and outside the U.S., giving freefall demonstrations. It's always fun, hectic, but fun. The location is very widely, but typically it looks like this. At some 150 locations each year across the nation and overseas as well, the Golden Knights perform for the public. This is the United States Army parachute team, the Golden Knights. Ours is a story of men who like to jump out of planes, men who are dedicated to the proposition of plunging thousands of feet above Mother Earth to bring the story of our new action army to the nation and to the world. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Staff Sergeant Bobby Rennie, member of the Crack United States Army Parachute team, the Golden Knights. Today is my privilege to narrate for you the 966 live demonstration consisting of various aerial acrobatic maneuvers and precision parachuting accuracy performed by the finest freefall jumpers in the world today. Okay, everybody listen up for the weather briefing. Pretty good. It shouldn't be any problem. Everybody getting right in on target today at 500 foot 50 degrees 12 knots at a thousand foot is 70 degrees at seven knots. During today's demonstration four passes will be made over the target area to include the baton pass, the cutaway, the diamond track, and the world famous four man formation. The target located to your immediate front is used strictly as a reference point for the jumpers and jump master in the aircraft to identify the proper landing area. The jumpers are not attempting to hit the target. They are required to turn their parachutes into the wind and make a demonstration type landing whereas in competition jumping they do attempt to hit the target. The initial pass today will be the baton pass altitude at this time 13,500 feet. Aircraft is in balance. The jumpers are away. Smoke is on. The level at this time coming in to mix the hookup. That'd be all the United States Army Parachute team, the Golden Knight. Rate of descent slowed by over 100 miles an hour on opening of the parachute and the stand-up landing by the parachute. Ladies and gentlemen if once again you would please direct your attention to the DC aircraft inbound for the second pass of today's show. On this pass there will exit one jumper. The cutaway will be performed for you to show you the deliberate malfunction and recovery of a malfunction parachute. The jumper is away at this time. Smoke is on. This jumper wearing three parachutes will activate one at 3,000 feet actually called streamer. And there you see the orange and white canopy being deployed above the jumper's head at this time. The jumper is releasing the left side of the canopy at this time holding onto the left side of the canopy with his hand. Right side is being released at this time and there you see the actual streamer of the parachute being made. There you see the release of the cutaway. The jumper is back in the free fall once again. Right hand in for the ripcord pole and there once again the black and gold of the United States Army Parachute team. The Golden Knight. This is approaching overhead once again for the third portion of today's demonstration, the Diamond Track. Jumper's are away at this time. Notice the middle amount of time it takes to separate these two people. One jumper going right of line of flight. The other jumper going left. Jumper's have reached their turn point. The turn has been made by Jumper on right. Jumper on left making his turn at this time. There you see the two jumpers are coming closer and closer together speeds 160 miles an hour and there they actually cross in the air. We're approaching overhead for its last half of the day. This is the final event and the one which we personally feel is the most colorful. Four man formation where four human bodies will fly through the air like four airplanes. Jumper's are presently away at this time. Formation leader has set up his slide. Left wing man moving into his position. Right wing man coming up shortly behind. Plot man coming in fast and furious. Has taken his position to make the Diamond Formation. It's formally presented to a prominent member of the audience. General I'd like to present to you Sergeant Smith. Good afternoon Sergeant Smith. Good afternoon. Pleasure to see you. On behalf of the Empire United States Army Parachute team it's my pleasure to present to you as the team's battalion. Thank you very much for the presentation. Very welcome sir. I'd like you to meet the rest of the jumpers. Competition jumping is something else again. We wear a black jumpsuit like the one I have on and there are several categories of competition jumping. There's individual style jumping, individual accuracy and there are team accuracy events. So you'll know what you're about to see when we take you to a national parachuting championship. Let me explain about style jumping. Style jumping is simply completing a series of pre-assigned turns and back loops while a man is in free fall. The maneuvers are done against the stopwatch which are followed on the ground through a telemeter just like in running a hundred yard dash the fastest man wins. In accuracy events this is what we use. The circle exactly 30 feet in diameter and it's filled with soft sand. In accuracy competition the object of the game to land exactly on this disc right here. 2,500 feet in altitude. Put your foot exactly right on top of the disc as you land. One final thing unlike style competition in accuracy jumping there's no free fall involved. The canopy is open almost immediately after the jumper exits the aircraft on what we call a hop and pop. Now with that bit of background in mind let's go to a national parachuting championship. The world of sport parachuting competition is a close knit fraternity. A lively combination of casual informality on the ground and intensely disciplined concentration in the air. One occupational hazard of competition events is the high incidence of cricks in the neck. While a team member is able to bring along his own personal equipment checker right in the tie how many can check out a sport jumping rig with the obvious drama of demonstrations. The competition events run their course in a kind of low-key intensity ordered to anyone skilled enough to guide himself directly to it from half a mile up. If you dig it it's pretty exciting but to each his own all the totals are added up. Major plumber as president of the United States Parachute Association I want to offer my sincerest congratulations to you and your fine bunch of men who have picked up 81 81 new world records as issued and approved by the international awarding body the FAI. All right thank you very much Dr. Fitch. It happens every time the excitement and the action end for the time being and it's time to head for home or on to another show or competition a brief time to relax stretch your bones and let the pilot do the work maybe even catch up on a little sack time. And what does a golden night dream about?