16. Airborne Operation Photos - Parachute Tune-In Point on Sicily Drop Zone, Fort Bragg, NC - June 14, 1984

Parachute Turn-In Point. The guy with the orange Road Guard Vest is in charge of one of a few parachute collection points across the drop zone. After we hit the ground we rolled up our parachute, and harness and stuffed them in into a canvas bag called an Aviator's Kit Bag. We clipped the reserve chute to the handles of the bag and slung it over our helmet and ran to the nearest drop off point.

In the sky beyond you can see the two C-141s approaching the drop zone from the north for another pass. You can see something lying in the sand between / behind the two soldiers standing to the left. It's a simple metal tripod with another Day-Glow Orange road guard vest attached to it so we could see from a distance where to turn in our chutes. At night it might have a small strobe light for Non-Tactical jumps or a couple of those glow-in-the-dark Chem-Lite sticks. With the planes approaching and the next sticks of jumpers due to land soon it was the job of the Parachute Collection Point Guy to lay the tripod down in order to avoid a potentially painful injury if a jumper were to inadvertently land on the metal tripod and skewer himself.