Georgia Jumpers Attend Annual Competition

Past and present members of Georgia’s Long Range Surveillance Company recently took to the air and participated in the Rhode Island National Guard’s annual Leapfest parachute competition.

The four-man, one alternate team was among the more than 52 national and foreign teams who filled the New England skies above Kingston, R.I., and jumped into a postage stamp-size drop zone on a farm about one mile from the University of Rhode Island, which plays host to the competitors during their three-day stay.

The Georgia team included Maj. Matthew Smith, 2nd Lt. Aaron Anderson, Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Walker, Cpl. Devin Shaner and Cpl. Billy Ward. The team placed 15th in the competition.

A special operations team from Germany took first place.

“Competition, as always, is stiff,” Anderson said. “These are some of the best military jumpers from around the world. “We took second place in 2000, but it was no easy task,” he added. “These folks make you work for your win every year, and believe me, that makes the competition worth working for.”

During the competition, jumpers make a total of three jumps each from CH-47 Chinook helicopters at 1,500 feet. Time starts from the moment the jumper touches down and ends when he reaches a red disk in the center of the drop zone.

“We all did pretty well in regard to our time,” Anderson recalled. “The only problem we ran into was the late release from the aircraft on our second jump.”

This year’s Leapfest is the 16th time that members of Georgia’s LRSC, past and present have competed. The only year in which they didn’t attend was 2003 when Company H, 121st Infantry homestationed at Fort Gillem deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.”