Weird people!

[eXpAnD 0]

I've been in a commercial flight today, coming from Greece to Cyprus.Anyway, I met some army guys that I knew when I was in the army...they had been there for freefall training.The military system here begins with a LOT of jumps just falling, no turns or anything.So, being the 29 jump wonder that still owes AFF 7, I began telling them about turns, about the importance of tracking , tips to land better etc...But they were just too provocative!I mean, ok, they were trained for 3 weeks before they dropped them solo in freefall, but hey, at least they should admit that these 3 weeks didn't even teach them to track away from something !Anyway, the thing got a bit funny with them saying that I should shut up because I have 29 jumps and they have 50 (out of which 30 S/L with rounds).At the end I got angry because I was explaining to one (a rational one) a two stage flare, while the other all of a sudden just popped and said 'When are you jumping?'I said 'tomorrow'.And he says 'You will have a malfunction!'.I say 'OK, so I cutaway and pull the reserve'.
'Yeah, yeah, you'll pull the reserve...you'll have TOTAL malfunction...A STREAMER'
And I say 'A streamer is not a total malfunction'
Anyway, the babbling was going on and on, just because I was tryint to prove that 3 weeks of ground training didn't give them any more canopy skills...and I hate being talked at like this by people with a whopping of 30-something square canopy jumps.
Anyway, the most irritating of the three (claimed to have 4 malfunctions in 30 jumps who after a bit questioning they were jusrt snivels...not cutaways) got EXTREMELY mad for me trying to equalise my AFF with their 3 week training...and he left!Unbelieveable, a 30 year old man behaving like a baby because a 23-year old prick(me) pissed him off!
The other two tried to explain me I shouldn't be that 'passionate', but hey, all I was saying was with a sense of humour, I bet any of us would be laughing like crazy if we had the same conversation...
So, I just boarded the plane angry...and I just told them 'bye' after passport check in Cyprus...two the two of them...the third didn't show up.
Has any of you found such arrogant behavior in people with so little jumps?I mean they were saying I know shit, and I said 'I know that, but I guess you know a lot less(justifiably, that's how their training is, they are not into RW yet)...
PLUS, the guys cursing about me having a malfunction made me nervous...
Oh well...
Just wanted to share...I guess the military skydivers in the US or UK are much more 'sport-oriented'...
Think high
Tefkros

[miked10270 0]

Hi tefkros,
I'm surprised you've never met the sort of people who think there's only one way to do something, & don't know enough to realise that there may be alternatives.
Remember the "New Words" thread?... In particular "Ignoranus" - a person who's stupid AND an asshole!
Mike D10270.

[Deleted 0]

Wow, that sure seems like a good subject turning into a bad converstation. I'm still a student and new to the skydiving world; however, my impression is that skydivers are skydivers and for the most part an extremely good natured bunch of people who are out to have fun - basically one big family.
Looks like your friends are probably lean more to the military family side than the skydiver side. Who knows. No offense to the military people - as in their own different way, they too are a bunch of great people (I have the upmost respect for them - regardless of which country). I can see how it would really rub someone wrong who puts their life on the line for their country being told by someone that a civilian course (AFF) has greater merits than the military. Questioning the military's ability is possibly throwing a low blow at the best of times... regardless of right or wrong.
I tend to think that if they are really pissed off, there must have been some merit to what you were saying. Cuz, if you were totally full of it, they would have just laughed at you and let you live a world of disbelief.
I wonder what motivates the friends to which you refer to jump - job? Or do they love it? At the end of the day, were all out just to have fun - looks like you're closer to that goal!
Cheers,
NewGuy

[Grogs 0]

Hey Tefkros, I can totally relate. Not that I've had the exact thing happen, but in my time in the US Army I saw lots of the same type of behavior. It's especially common in the young male soldiers, but even some of the older ones still have it. It starts right from basic training when the drill sergeants are telling them that the civilians are soft because they're not doing what they do. And then they get in an elite unit (most airborne types are elite units - especially the freefall types) and now not only are they better than civilians, they're better than most other military members. So when you try and challenge that superiority in any way, it tends to end in a case of one-uppmanship, like what happened to you.
So, while I don't know about the Greek Army specifically, I'm betting it's the same type of situation. You can't blame them too much, they've probably been indoctrinated with that attitude.
"I left my wife because she was a leg!" - SGT Airborne
Blue Skies,
Grogs

[Zennie 0]

I probably would have said something along the lines of "Well maybe they just require you to take a bunch of baby-step jumps in the Army because they assume you're a moron." This would have immediately been followed by me hitting the floor unconscious as one of them punched me in the face.
Gotta watch the sarcasm.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[Grogs 0]

Well, along those same lines... When I was in college (I use that term loosely - it was one of those military colleges ) I had a friend that was a sport jumper. I didn't jump at the time, and I thought the guy was a nutcase because he spent $3500 for a parachute! Anyway, he went to Airborne school one Summer and did his 5 dope-on-a-rope military static line jumps. People would see his wings and ask him how many jumps he had. He'd say 5, and they'd invariably start on about how he was a 5-jump-chump, and he wasn't cool because he hadn't done any 'real' jumps in a unit and those sorts of things. Usually something like "Oh yeah, well that's nice, but I've got 23. Those jumps in the school are really nothing like the real thing. Then my friend would tell them he had 150 free fall jumps and they'd shut up and walk away. I always loved seeing that.

[Dirtsucks 0]

I knew somebody that had something like 130 military jumps. He said that after he got out, he tried out recreational jumping and said he didn't like it. I wasn't sure what to think, I didn't know how you could have that many jumps and NOT like doing it. Anybody that's done both, what are the differences? What exactly does a military jumper have to do?
Josh

[Zennie 0]

Well, I'm no expert on this, but not all military jumps are created equal. Aren't most Ranger jumps strictly static line from a fairly low altitude? Get 'em out and down with equipment fast?
Now HALO jumps... that would be badass.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[Deleted 0]

Military Jumping vs Sport jumping IMO is comparing apples and oranges. A lot of military jumpers don't do it because it's fun, but because it's a part of their job, and just another way to get to work. Military jumpers once they land don't get to relax after their jump sometimes their jumping with 100 lbs of gear and once they get on the ground other professional soliders are waiting to kill them.
Ever see reguler skydivers exit at 300' beause the odds of having a malfuntion vs being shot under canopy are in their favor.
Military Halo sounds like fun but what happens when they have to do it for real at night with a extra 100 lbs of "stuff" at a location they've never seen before, where's there's a possiability of landing in tree's, water and getting shot or captured and no ones from their DZ is going to look for them or take them to the hospital.
In one of the skydiving magazines there was a story about a airborne get together with old timers and new guy's The new guy says I've got 75 jumps the old fart says he had something like 10, but then he ads they were all made during WW2 at Normandy, Sicily, etc. The new guy immediatly realized the guy with 10 jumps had a lot more experience than he'll ever have.
When military freefallers get to jump with their halo rigs and without their extra work gear, they use the term "Hollywood Dive".
Military jumping and sport jumping are not the same except for gravity. The military folks even get paid to jump but I wouldn't want their job. I'd rather pay my money, and get to choose where, when, and who I get to jump with.
R.I.P.

[Iflyme 0]

Hey, Tefkros - I think you shoulda just killed them all right there on the spot. That'd teach them to bad mouth us sport skydivers.
Frank

[SkySlut 0]

I would have told em to eat shit right off bat!!! Screw them, nobody nakes a difference other than you!!! Remember! You are the CAT'S ASS!!!!
"I'll jump anything!"

[Zennie 0]

I've got a friend of mine who's into miliary aviation, so we naturally talk about airplanes and skydiving a lot. And, naturally, the subject or Normandy came up. A lot of jumpers burned in because the pilots would panic and try to get under the heavy AA fire. Troops would jump (probably because they didn't know any better) but they were too low to even get their parachute open. There is some pretty gruesome (for me as a skydiver) footage of these guys going out, chute still opening and ... thud.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie