There has not been a parachute training operation over the Japanese base at Misawa Air Station in over 15 years.
But recently that has all changed. A new combined Air Force and U.S. Navy training operation has began that will help work with soldiers to gain parachute experience.
It is a program that the Air Force hopes to engage in on a monthly basis, while it is still largely in the planning stages.
The training also deals with SERE ? Survival, evasion, resistance and escape training. It is conducted by different members of Misawa and Kadena Air Base Okinawa personnel, as well as a number of specialist SERE trainers that were brought in.
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Using a large C-130 Hercules aircraft, students bailed out from the Aircraft, piloted by personnel from 36th Airlift Squadron from Yokota Air Base. All of the students were from ratings and specialties that require either SERE training, or parachute qualifications, or both, but for many of these students it was their first jump successfully by parachute so far.
?Aircrews and pilots need this training, but so do other personnel? said SERE Trainer Sergeant Thomas. ?We continue to make sure that the personnel that needs this training get it,? he said.