 The only easy day was yesterday. Get your head up and get your eyes open. Stop trying to hide from the pain. Head up, eyes open. Welcome to the Only Easy Day Was Yesterday, the official Navy SEAL podcast. The United States Navy Parachute Team, or the LEAF PROGS, is the official parachute demonstration team for the U.S. Navy. As a part of Naval Special Warfare Center, the team brings together active-duty Navy SEALs, SWIFT, and support personnel. They demonstrate professional excellence by performing precision aerial maneuvers throughout the U.S. I'm Daniel Fletcher. Today we chat with Luke Vesci, a member of the LEAF PROGS who shares with us not only his personal perspective on parachute mastery, but also insights from his 13-year career with NSW. Let's get started. Get your head up and get your eyes open. Stop trying to hide from the pain. Head up, eyes open. Thank you so much for starters for sitting down with us. I appreciate you taking the time. Absolutely. Thanks for having us. If you just want to briefly just identify a little bit of your career and your history with the Navy, we can start with that. Okay. I've been in the Navy for 13 years, and I came actually out of high school in San Diego. I joined the military, so it was very natural for me to join the Navy. I remember seeing all the helicopters flying by, and I'd actually come down and check out the training on the strand when I was a kid, because I was really interested in that kind of thing. I also grew up going to Miramar Air Show, and I remember seeing the jump teams at the air show and seeing the boats and, you know, the SEAL booth and the SWIC booth. I just remember thinking at a very early age that this was exactly what I wanted to do. So I joined the military back in 2005, and I decided at that time I wanted to become a Navy SWIC. So what I did is I got a contract and joined the military, went to boot camp, did all the screening that was at Great Lakes at the time, and went to SWIC school back in 2006. And graduated SWIC Class 5-4, which happened to be the first class that we were actually awarded the SWIC designator. So SB, that was the first year. SB's and SO's SEALs got their own designator. So that was very privileged to graduate as a full-blown SWIC at that time. From there, I checked into my first command, which was Special Boat Team 20, and that's in Little Creek, Virginia. I did three good years there, deployed twice. One of the deployments was around the world tour. So we went to the Middle East. We went all over the Philippines, Indonesia. So we did what we called the world tour, and it was a really great experience, especially for our first deployment. From there, I deployed again to Iraq, and I augmented one of the SEAL teams at that time. And basically what we're doing is doing a lot of over-the-land mobility with Humvees, and then also doing some stuff on the water using some boats that we had basically built from the bottom up as a combat craft. So that was a really interesting deployment. From there, I went to screen and selected for Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and I spent five years there. Had a great time there. Did three full deployments out of a development group. And at that point, I'd been in the Navy for about nine years, and I wanted to kind of do something a little bit different. So at that time, I requested to become an instructor over here on the West Coast. Like I said before, I was from San Diego, so I wanted to come back, and that's what I did. So I came back, I went to advanced training command, and I taught what we call air operations. So I was teaching static line jump master school. I was also running the Navy parachute course, which is the free fall and static line. And then at the same time, we were doing the Hearst-Castmaster course, which is the helicopter rope suspension techniques. So if you guys ever seen the, you know, repelling out of a helicopter or the fast roping. So I was, you know, involved with a lot of that stuff. At that point, I got a phone call. I was up for orders to, you know, do something different. And I got a phone call from my detailer and he said, hey, would you be interested in going in the Navy parachute team? There's a billet open. And I said, absolutely. So after that, it's just been hitting it hard and jumping a lot, having a lot of fun with the Navy parachute team. That's really cool that you kind of gone full circle like that. It's like, as a kid, you're exposed to it. I kind of expected to hear you say that's kind of was like, you had your eyes focused on that goal the whole time, but it's just kind of, it ended up happening, but it didn't seem like you're knocking down the door. Like, now can I do it? Now can I do it? No, it just kind of naturally happened. It did. Yeah. That's pretty cool. My parents were not happy that I ditched college and joined the military. Yeah, well. But it worked out because I got my degree a couple years ago. Nice. What parts of your early training, I guess your continued training in the Navy prepared you to safely perform such dangerous maneuvers. I know that's a big question, but maybe if you can touch on tying that back, obviously some things are different. What we do, it is perceived as being fairly dangerous and it definitely can go wrong very quickly if you are not confident and if you're not trained well. So that's the only way I can say it. A long time ago, someone told me, they said, there's a big difference between being dangerous and being unsafe. So in naval special warfare, almost everything we do is dangerous, but we have the training, we have the risk management that makes it not unsafe. So there is a difference there. What I would say was growing up, I was very active in sports. I was what you might call it, adrenaline junkie. So I kind of always had some knack for being in dangerous situations and handling myself in fear of danger or injury. Right. Basically when I joined the military, the military kind of shows you how to take a wrap off, fall back on your training in order to be dangerous, but not unsafe. So with our job and the leaf rugs, yesterday we knocked out seven jumps in one day and we were doing these very complex formations, but it all starts with the first day of training when we check on the jump team and we just start from the very, very basics and then we build from there. If anything does go squirtily, fall back to what you know, take a wrap off, let's figure it out and then try it again. When you say take a wrap off, what do you mean by that? Taking a wrap off, what we call is a tactical pause. So in the worst of situations, there's always a time for a second just to hesitate and just think, let's take a look at what's going on, reassess and then hit it again. You've probably heard that hesitation kills. That's also very true, but also reacting too fast in a situation can also get you hurt or killed. So we call it the tactical pause. So hey, things are going very fast, moving quick. Maybe things are kind of falling apart. Take a quick second to look around, check out your surroundings and then act on that new observation. You said something about confidence. Was that developed through the extensive amount of training that not only you received but then gained or talk a little bit about that piece of it? Definitely. I think confidence is something that almost defines a very well-trained warrior or for that matter a very well-trained sailor or leapfrog. When you go through the paces of training and you go through those building blocks and you prove to yourself and you prove to your team that you can do these types of things, inherently confidence just comes. You don't just walk on the jump team and just have confidence on day one. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of practice. And then like I said, once you kind of prove it to yourself and then you prove it to your team, naturally you kind of have that confidence to know, hey, I'm doing the right thing or I'm doing the wrong thing. I need to adjust and correct. Obviously, there's a tremendous amount of planning that goes into what you guys do whenever you're doing a jump for the public. We've talked with people in the past about the importance of visualization. Can you walk us through the self-talk and visualizations that you perform when you're preparing for a jump? That is huge. I mean, visualization comes into play really throughout anyone's whole career. And I don't think that you can be successful unless you actually visualize what success is. So for us, before any jump, we rehearse multiple times. So what we'll do is without the gear on, we'll just go and say, hey, this is what we're going to do. Let's walk through it. Let's talk through it. What are some considerations that might come up on this particular jump venue, whether it's, hey, the winds are looking high, the clouds are looking low. Maybe the crowd line has been pushed in on our drop zone or something like that. So once we discuss all these types of things, we talk about what exactly do we want to accomplish here and what does that look like. Once we identify what that ideal jump might look like, then we get all the gear on. Maybe we even go out to the plane before and we actually talk through exiting the plane. Where's everyone going to be? What altitudes are we going to open up at? Where's the wind coming from? How are we going to approach the landing? There is a ton of visualization that comes into play and honestly, I wouldn't ever recommend, you know, jumping out of an airplane without at least going through a couple talk-throughs and walk-throughs. I think those are huge. Is there a time in that, I guess, pre-jump phase where you feel that self-talk is the most intense? Like, I've jumped out of an airplane once and I did an accelerated free fall class. I had to do a lot more myself than just be along for a ride. And I felt, like, on the ride up to where we were going to jump, you know, in the plane, the worldview kind of narrowed down to, like, its go time. I don't know if that's the same for you. It is. So maybe you could kind of walk us through whenever that kind of starts to ramp up where everyone kind of gets quiet whenever you start to focus. For sure. No, that's a huge consideration. And we like to liven up the environment sometimes with some laughter and joking around because it does just get quiet. Especially before a really high-pressure jump, whether it's 25,000 people in the stadium or whether the winds are just below the limit, you'll definitely see the internal turmoil and a little bit of that fear going on. So what I would recommend, and this is just what I do, but I like to do the rehearsals on the ground and then, again, once I'm in the aircraft and then I shut it off, I feel that going through it over and over and over and over again, it tends to work me up more than maybe some other guy or girl doing the same thing. So I like to make sure I'm getting in my correct number of rehearsals and then I shut it off and I relax. And then once it's go time, you just kind of have that confidence that, hey, I've rehearsed it, I know exactly what I'm doing and we're going to nail this thing. Yeah, that says a lot about the preparation because that was where I kind of thought things are not as well planned as you'd like them to be. You need to make a quick last minute change, but it sounds like you've prepared to the point where you're able to rely on muscle memory and it becomes more automatic. And then one consideration too is things are changing on the ground all the time. So we'll be two minutes out from a jump run and they'll say, hey, the timeline's been shifted or it's been moved up and so you're constantly re-engaging with your guys. Hey, we have to make this work, maybe the landing direction shift. So now our whole plan that we planned for has now been completely reversed, 180. So we have to basically get everyone on the same page, chat it out, what's the new plan, do that mental rehearsal real quick and then, okay, let's go time. What part of the jump requires the most intense communication? I would say our formations that we do under canopy are fairly complex. If someone opens up their parachute at the wrong altitude or they approach the formation at the wrong angle or they're in the wrong spot, that could just throw everything off. So I would say it's more important that everyone knows what everyone else is doing and where they fit into that piece. Because like I said, one mistake there could either be dangerous or we just don't accomplish the mission, meaning we don't nail that formation or we're not coming in at the right order and landing at the right place. I watched a few of your guys' videos and yeah, I was really shocked at the level of really hands-on, like you're not necessarily on a radio talking to somebody, you're holding on to them like right next to you and you're shouting, you're within, you're shouting at each other, you're right next to each other. So explain a little bit for people listening what you mean when you say formations under canopy or however you phrase it. Absolutely. And once you see it, it'll make total sense. So I recommend anyone who is listening to this go on YouTube, check out the LeapFrogs. Go on Facebook, check out our Facebook page at Navy Parachuteam because we have some fantastic videos up there. But what we pride ourselves on with the Navy Parachuteam LeapFrogs is that we are masters of crew. Crew stands for canopy relative work. So what we'll do is we'll exit the aircraft anywhere from 2,500 feet above the ground all the way up to 12 or 13,000 feet above the ground. And our flagship routine is that we can take multiple people after they deploy their canopies and we can actually work those canopies right into each other and we can do a variety of formations. So if you can imagine, canopies bumping, guys grabbing each other's lines hooking feet together, building a diamond formation and then a really technical and a really fun one is called the down plane where two guys actually bring their canopies together. They link up, they link their legs and then they flip those canopies towards the earth and they're flying at the earth about 70 miles an hour which we call the down plane. So it's really exciting to watch and it's a ton of fun to do especially when we bring that down plane into a stadium. I mean, it's a real crowd pleaser. Those are the times of a jump or those are the parts of the jump you said that require the most intense communication. Definitely, right. Yeah, you can't perform these maneuvers without talking to each other. In those videos that you'll watch you'll see the entire time we're calling out altitudes. You know, we're calling out ground winds. We're saying, hey, this is the landing direction. And then once the maneuver happens, you know, give me your arm, give me your leg, cross your legs, tighten up the grips, going into flares, we're turning left, turning right. So there's a ton of communication. But like I talked about before, that rehearsal, that practice, it kind of makes that whole transition really smooth and second nature. Right, right. To the point where it's almost like you're going through a checklist. For sure. Yeah, I think that's kind of important thing. I think people don't realize the sheer volume of training that goes into what it takes to be in NSW or, yeah, your level where you're doing stuff that's maybe even above and beyond the types of technical things that you're doing when you're deployed. Maybe you can talk for a little bit about the differences between jumping into a football stadium for, let's say, the Army-Navy game versus when you're on deployment with the development group. How do those kind of situations contrast each other? I would say they're as similar as they are different. They're different because when we're parachuting into a certain area there's no really inherent threat except the environmentals and ourselves if we mess up. When you're operating in a combat zone or something like that the inherent threat is now all that plus the enemy and considerations with the enemy and things and there is a lot more complexity that goes into real-world operation. However, the similarities I would say being that the training is huge. It's critical. You don't leave the wire without knowing exactly what you're going to do and knowing exactly how you're going to do it. We don't leave the airplane without knowing exactly what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. What about the gear that you use? I can only imagine that you're using more of I would say sporting the canopy. I don't know if that's the right word versus what you use whenever you're deployed. Are there any similarities so what we use on the parachute team is called non-tactical equipment so it's not going to be used in combat. We have bright colors and the canopies we use are specifically designed for what I was referring to as crew. They're not super high performance they're not real aerodynamic they're built for what we do. The parachutes that you're going to use in a real-world situation are going to be totally different they're going to be bigger they're going to be able to handle more of a load so granted I would say flying a canopy is flying a canopy just like flying an airplane is flying an airplane there's just going to be some differences on how you fly that and some of the considerations with your landing and things but what we do is non-tactical obviously we're never going to go into a down plane and do a combat zone we are a demonstration team whereas in a combat role you're trying to get undetected and be as quiet as possible Talk a little bit about some of your favorite events to jump at I mentioned the Army Navy game earlier because I was exposed to that as a kid so I've seen your group, obviously not you but I've seen you guys show up at a football game and in the middle of the summer or wherever it is are there events that stand out to you as really special that you really look forward to and maybe you can kind of describe some of those situations That's an exciting question we've been playing for months but we've probably jumped into I would say maybe two or three dozen venues by now so for me the first one that stands out is we jumped into the Petco Park, Padres game earlier this year the home opener also the military opener and just seeing that skyline from my hometown, from San Diego so seeing that view and then coming into a baseball game Padres and then knowing that friends very very exciting very thrilling jump so for me that one was very near and dear to my heart it is a challenging venue to jump into but we have had more challenging venues so as far as challenge goes recently we jumped into the Reno Rodeo which is in Reno, Nevada spectacular event, we had an amazing time the landing zone was very technical we had some interesting wins and we also were at about 5000 feet up there all those types of factors really play into effect when you're talking about how to land and how to land safely so that one when you want to talk about a little bit of the jitters going into it, that one was definitely turned up but I'll tell you when we landed there was a lot of sense of pride in that we landed into the Reno Rodeo safely in front of all those people and brought in the American flag as well so it was just a very special event I feel like we have a ton of outreach on that event and no one really knew how technical it was except for us so behind the scenes we were definitely high-fiving and smiling and laughing but that one stands out as probably one of the more difficult ones I've done you said something about the altitude just real briefly and I think you said it was 5000 feet you guys jumped at, is that low for you guys to be jumping at? from my understanding like I said I've only jumped one time we were so high because obviously they can't have me jumping out right next to the ground not knowing what the hell I'm doing so talk a little bit about how the altitude kind of changed that for you I was referring to the altitude of the Reno Rodeo so being that it was at 5000 feet it really it takes away from some of your canopy performance so that's what I was saying when it was another consideration but all of our jumps we can jump from 2500 feet above the ground all the way up to like I said 12 or 13,000 feet so when we get out at 2500 feet we're saying that is the lowest we can go so what happens is you know for instance at the Naval Academy we had a cloud layer at 3000 feet so we had to technically be 500 feet below those clouds in order to jump and I mean we were right at 2500 feet when we exited you have to make sure that you are getting that formation together super fast because you have about one shot to get that formation together because if you don't do it we're already below our hard deck and it's like okay that wasn't very interesting yeah right I mean yeah you make it but there's not as much of a show for sure so 2500 feet you got to get in make it happen and get to the ground and it's also very short our shows from 2500 might be a couple minutes vice exing at 5000 feet above the ground and now our show is like 4 to 5 minutes what percentage of the time are you guys jumping in the evening or in darkness because I know operationally that's pretty standard but you often see you guys jumping obviously in the middle of the day most of the time for sporting events or whatever but do you jump in the evening or at night we do so during our winter training we train up to the night standards just learning how to do the formations at night we have a bunch of different effects that we can show the crowd at night as well so we have these basically they're called pyro sticks and they're just like adult sparklers I mean these things are really cool they shoot out a sparkler flame about 30 feet and they go for about a minute per stick so we take these sticks we wrap them up and we attach them to our ankles so as we're coming through freefall or under canopy it's really a cool scene from the ground because it just looks like fireworks in the sky they probably can see you a lot easier as well definitely yeah they they wouldn't be able to see us very good if we didn't have pyro on yeah right especially at night time if you can briefly just talk about the leapfrogs mission or I guess your core function within the navy that would be helpful definitely but we have a really important aspect to navy recruiting there's a common misconception out there the navy parachute team just is just messing around and then we just parachute and jump and have fun all day but we're actually you know a lot of things we do we are co-located with the blue angels and with the navy recruiting command and so what we do is we go out there and we demonstrate precision aerial maneuvers to demonstrate navy excellence so when people see you know a bunch of canopies flying around and they say hey that was really cool and that was really challenging but then they see the navy on the parachutes we fly big navy flags you know the American flag we get a lot of questions and that's the best part about our job is interacting with the public so when we get to the ground we say hey we're the navy parachute team and they're like what is that and what are you guys doing it's like well we're here to talk to you and so when people see that we can jump out of the sky and we can demonstrate all these things we're not only of the US Navy but we're also getting people excited about the navy and showing them kind of what we can do so we are one of the major recruiting arms for navy recruiting command anytime we jump we can be in front of 20,000 people 50,000 people and for instance Chicago next week I mean we're jumping in front of 2 million people so you know if you don't think we're gonna get some questions about the navy after a parachuting in front of that many people you're wrong you know it's like what I think back to when I was in high school and I was visiting these booths and going to these air shows talking to the guys that were on the ground was one of the best parts about you know thinking about joining the military so it's great like you said that full circle you know talking to kids hey this is what we do you know I was in your shoes at one point and now look at what I'm doing so it's a really cool part of the job is the outreach portion you've talked about being in the public and being a spokesperson for the navy you also have a history and NSW in general have a history of operating in silence how have you been able to successfully make that transition you're referring to just being in the public and having my name out there and things well I just I also mean I think even being open to the idea of being an advocate for something that is so secret most of the time there are core values to NSW ethos that are team before self and you taking in a role where you are a spokesperson some people I think are better at navigating that than others and I'm just curious to get your perspective on that that was a huge consideration for me coming to the team was that I would have to accept the fact that basically now I've gone from the silent professional to hey everyone let me tell you what I do so that is an interesting consideration but it's not like we're selling our community up the river we're not telling all the little secrets we're here to talk to people about what it's like to be a Navy SEAL or a Navy SWIC or even just join the Navy in general so I think you can still keep that sign professionalism and also be yourself and really get other people excited about the military like I said without spilling the beans do you think that you represent your teammates out there is that is that a fair statement to say that whenever you're out there you assume that role I do you know it's kind of funny because people consider you as a rockstar once you get to the parachute team and you know I get a lot of made fun of from my buddies and things but the truth is you know I'm out there representing the SWIC community and also naval special warfare so for me there's a lot of pride in going out there and saying hey this is who we are and let me show you what we can do and let's get excited about NSW. I think that maybe is the impression I've kind of got from people that maybe it's like hey I didn't have this information whenever I was a kid but I think a lot of people maybe don't realize the books they saw the movies sure they they went to an air show and they saw somebody that said an example like oh I could do that you know what I mean and that's honestly one of the biggest pluses about having a team like this is because kids that are interested in joining the military they've read the books they've seen the movies but for them to actually walk up to one of us you know at an air show at a Padres game wherever it may be and be like whoa I've never actually met a Navy SEAL I've never met a Navy SWIC we have a Navy diver on the team we have a Navy parachute rigger we have Navy SEALs on the team you know so for someone to actually come up and shake our hand and say wow this is really cool I would say that's just a huge benefit for the public and for us as well because when I joined I'd only met one SEAL and I'd only met one SWIC guy before I joined the military how cool would have been for me to talk to 10 SEALs or 10 SWICs and really get a good feel for hey these are what these guys are like you know maybe this is the right path for me maybe it's not the right path a lot of people join like you said under this kind of mysterious circumstance thinking they know what it's all about I mean geez if you could talk to just a couple guys before you joined and really get the real deal I think that would be huge for a lot of people yeah right to kind of get a more realistic impression and maybe even give people more confidence right because the books and the movies aren't going to do it justice you know it's uh you're going to get the real this is how it really works from the guys that have been there done that and I mean honestly you know when I joined the military I didn't know what to expect but what I will say is the military has completely blown all my expectations out of the water and I've had experiences that I would have never imagined you know in a million years yeah you've kind of seen a really impressive and rare kind of international history and then going into training right talk a little bit about the different kind of training you were responsible for quite a bit like you said you know basically all jumping out of an airplane in the Navy kind of came under your umbrella maybe talk a little bit about some of the differences are there really big changes between like you know you talked static line and also free fall fast roping you know what part of that was your favorite I enjoyed seeing the students excel in whether it was free fall or the static line or you know learning how to tie the knots to work the fast rope or the spy rig once you kind of got past that initial you know difficulty phase you start seeing the students picking up and I'm really starting to understand this I'm really starting to enjoy this that to me as an instructor was the best part you know there's a lot that goes in the teaching somebody how to skydive or teaching somebody how to you know be a jump master for a jump and so once those skills kind of start clicking with the guys that's where I got a lot of job satisfaction because prior to that role I'd never been an instructor and so I really learned that I actually did like being a teacher and I think that as a homework I'm a good teacher whenever they're focused on outcomes not just this is what I'm interested in I'm going to make you listen to me that's not the same thing as teaching somebody and it's a cool topic too it's not like we're talking about something really boring we're talking about we're just going to use this down the road and this is a really exciting skill set so I think the students were excited I was excited it's also my passion so that was that was a cool aspect of my career was being an instructor well there's one area I do want to touch on and that's trust whenever you jump out of an airplane I guess this is my impression but you're kind of dead until you're saved by the canopy it's kind of my logic there and the amount of trust that you place in the people that you're jumping with is I don't think comparable to what most people experience in their regular life your life is literally in their hands can you I guess how has skydiving changed your perception of trust and what it means to you you know in naval special warfare we select only the best guys and now gals right we do that because whenever you're in a really uncertain circumstance you have to be able to lean on that guy or girl and say hey I need you to make this happen right with skydiving it's really no different we screen people for the leapfrogs and we only select the best because you know that parachute rigger that's on the team he's going to be packing my reserve so if I need to use that reserve parachute we need to trust that thing is going to work you know a new jumper that comes on the team we want to make sure that his head's in the right place he or she is comfortable you know operating a parachute in close quarters and is comfortable in these kind of a high stress situation so if we feel that you know maybe a candidate does not have that quality or those qualities then we just won't accept them on the team so that is a very big consideration and if you don't trust someone that you're working with in the sky it's going to make for a very unfun day and so we just prefer not to go down that road and just select the right people from the kid go do you think that working in this team environment is kind of honed your ability to make a snap judgment on somebody pretty quickly with those aspects? you know I've been surprised you know the whole judge book bites covered piece is I feel like somewhat true but we like to run the candidates to the paces so do the interview take them to the drop zone throw a parachute on them see what they can do in the sky debrief with them so I feel like this whole process you're able to get to know that person a lot better than doing a five minute interview and saying I don't like that person some people shine a week after you meet them and some people shine on day one some people don't shine at all so it just depends and we do a really good job on the team of screening candidates just like naval special warfare does for people out there thinking about pursuing a career with the Navy what general advice would you give them? I would say do as much research as you can you know read talk to people talk to recruiters you know try to get a hold of people and communities that you're interested in being you know if you're interested in naval special warfare talk to the naval special warfare assessment team get a hold of us at the LeapFrogs you know on a show really kind of get a good feel for what you're looking at doing and then at that point then really prepare your mind prepare your body to go that route and really don't give up on that dream until you've made it and if at any point in the time you know you feel like this isn't the right job for you you know there's always options the Navy has got a million different things you can do so I would just you know recommend people they just pursue their passion figure out what that passion is and then really prepare to work really hard because in the Navy you know you do work very hard but I will say that it's probably one of the most rewarding careers that you can have well thank you so much you're one of the few people that gets to really do what they love and thank you for sitting down and giving us some wisdom definitely thanks for talking yeah we're at Sealswick.com and join us again for the next NSW podcast