WEST POINT — The U.S. Military Academy at West Point opened its Air Assault training for 2nd and 3rd-year cadets to families on Wednesday.
The 10-day training evaluates the cadets on three phases of Air Assault competence: aircraft orientation and pathfinder operations, sling load, which is to transport hanging materials via an aircraft and repel operations.
Wednesday, the 158 cadets who received slots for the training were evaluated on rapel operations, overseen by Sabalauski Air Assault School Instructors from Fort Worth, Kentucky, along with cadet commanders and West Point military instructors. However, not all of these cadets will make the final cut.
“Cadet Air Assault Commander Li Hao Tan said besides the physical element, which includes a two and four run, a six and 12-mile ruck, as well as an obstacle course, there are many things cadets must be prepared for, less they be dropped.”
“You need to pay attention to details,” said Tan. “You need to make sure that you’re skilled enough to carry out the operations and the instructors here are very professional, they look out for the tiny details. If you are missing any items from your pack, for example, you’ll get dropped from the course. Then, of course, there’s the physical event,” said Tan.
Officer-in-Charge of Air Assault at West Point, Capt. Romedy Murr, said knowing these types of skills are crucial for cadets entering the military, especially for overseas operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He outlined some real-world situations where these skills would apply, specifically sling loading.
“In Afghanistan, we utilize air assault operations when we are moving fuel from one location to another,” said Murr. “You would lift it in what’s called fuel blivets, which is a large container that we would sling load underneath an aircraft and we would move it from one location in Afghanistan to another, depending on what the fuel requirements were there; or, we would sling load howitzers, which are large field-artillery pieces if we had to move those around the country,” he said.
Candidates who complete the 12-mile ruck will graduate at a ceremony on the West Point campus.
