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This podcast is for and about soldiers of the Canadian Army.
Its primary goal is to provide them with useful information through thoughtful and open discussions that reflect their mutual interests and concerns.
Though soldiers are our primary audience, the topics covered on this podcast should be relevant to anyone who supports our soldiers or who has an interest in Canadian military matters.
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Captain Adam Orton: Hi! I’m Captain Adam Orton with the Canadian Army Podcast. People sometimes think of the Army as a bunch of people running through the woods with guns blazing. But in reality, even in a trade such as the Infantry, there’s a wide variety of specializations. And one of those is the paratroopers, soldiers who’ve jumped out of planes and helicopters to get to places where few others can. And here with me today is Master Corporal Nataniel Bergeron Sénécal du 3e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment. Welcome to the podcast.
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Master Corporal Nataniel Bergeron Sénécal: Hey, thank you very much.
Capt Orton: So, tell me about the first time you jumped out of a plane. What was that experience like for your first jump?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: The first jump, I will always remember my first jump. The best memory I have from that was sitting in the Hercules aircraft the CC130J. And it’s a big plane, a lot of sound, the smell of the gasoline of the aircraft. And I was just sitting there in the chaos of the aircraft. At some point, we had the: “Okay, seatbelts off, stand up.” And I was like: “Oh, okay, it’s there. I’m gonna jump from an aircraft.” So everything was going through my mind. And when I jumped out of the aircraft, I was the second guy in the stick. So my section commander turned at me and he looked at me—he’s like: “If I’m jumping, you’re jumping.” I’m like: “Yeah, I’m gonna jump, sergeant.” And I just jumped. And at that moment, I was like, really nervous. But when I was in the air, it was like a new world opening to me. Like, everything was calm. All the chaos in the aircraft wasn’t there anymore. I was calm. All I could hear was the wind and the aircraft going out. And I was alone with myself—even if they were like, dozen more parachutists. But I was alone, and it felt so great.
Capt Orton: And then you hit the ground and the chaos began again.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Yeah, exactly. When I reached the ground, the chaos began again. And, you know, oh, we have to run and get off the draft as fast as possible, and everything went back to normal. Right?
Capt Orton: That’s a good story. What made you want to be a paratrooper to begin with?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: When I joined the Army, on my basic course in St. John, my warrant was a parachutist. And he was always talking about the parachutists being the best of the best. So I wanted to join the best of the best. But my career led me somewhere else. But finally, I joined the Parachutist Company, and you know, I was watching Band of Brothers, too. So, Band of Brothers was a series of parachutists during Second World War. And all that I was like: “I want to make it there.” And I want to be a parachutist in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Capt Orton: It’s a great show too, so anybody who wants to get pumped up, it’s a good one.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Yeah.
Capt Orton: Obviously, jumping out of planes is a great experience for the right kind of person. But how does that become a role within the Army? What do paratroopers actually do?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: It’s a fast insertion method. So basically, if you cannot reach the objective, by roads or ground, the aircraft is going to be the fastest way to put more boots on the ground as fast as possible. If we take an example of the Hercules, you can fit forty jumpers with full equipment in the aircraft jumping. So it’s forty boots on the ground in about a minute or so. So if you have more than one aircraft, it’s a lot of people during that sixty seconds that’s going on the ground.
Capt Orton: And then like you said, if it’s hard to get to for whatever reason, it might just be faster to do it that way than any other complex way of accessing that terrain.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Yeah, exactly. Because if you come by the air, it’s going to be easier to drop out parachutists, because you can do it during the night. So you have the cover of night. And during the day, yes, visibility is going to be a bit better. But the enemy is going to see you too at the same time. But if you think an example of in Haïti, when they had the earthquake, the aircraft wasn’t able to land on the island—so they thought at some point of dropping people from the aircraft.
Capt Orton: Right. Maybe you don’t have a suitable runway, or you don’t have the ability to access that place by any other means. The airplane can fly over and drop people off, and then you got people there to do things for a little while.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Exactly.
Capt Orton: Right. So, I understand you’re talking about the Hercules, which is a big aircraft that can fit a lot of people in it. Are there other platforms that you can use like you know people talking about fixed wings which are aeroplanes or rotary wings, which are helicopters, what are the platforms that are used for this?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: So basically, like you said, we have an all rotary wing that’s going to be a helicopter. So here in Quebec, we have access to the 430 Griffon—so it’s a smaller helicopter. And then you have the Chinook that is going to be a larger helicopter with two rotary wings and you can fit around twenty parachutists. Then you got to have the fixed wing. Fixed wing, we have the CC-130J model Hercules. There’s going to be a—let’s say a medium plane. And the biggest plane we have is going to be the Globemaster. That’s going to fit more parachutists. We don’t use it that often because we have so few of them in Canada. And they are always used for other means. But it’s still a platform we can use to jump. And we have the smaller fixed wing that is going to be a Skyvan. Skyvan is most of the time going to be civilian pilots. We’re going to see that more in Trenton the school. Because of budget, it’s costing a lot, but it’s still a platform we can use.
Capt Orton: Yeah. And speaking of the Globemaster, that is not a small airplane, if you haven’t seen one, look it up because it’s a big boy.
Obviously, paratroopers don’t function alone, how do they kind of fit into the big picture, if you’re looking at an operation or an exercise? What piece does that really cover during an operation?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: The parachutists are going to be there a little bit earlier than the main body of the Forces. So, basically, we have engineers attached with us—we’re going to have some medics with us. We can have FOO FAD that is artillery people that they’re going to be the one that are calling artillery. So all these trades are going to be attached with us. So basically, what you want to do is you want to parachute your company before the main body. And then they can with the engineer, you can blow up bridges, you can blow up antennas, for communication, you know, just mix things up before the main body comes in to the objective.
Capt Orton: So kind of like soften things up a little bit and create a little bit of chaos so that there’s maybe some distractions going when larger force comes in.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Exactly.
Capt Orton: So you were saying, you know, maybe engineers, maybe medics who can be trained to become a paratrooper?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Basically, everybody can be trained to become a paratrooper. What we want is all people that are volunteers. Right? And with a pretty much good physical fitness, because it’s hard to, you know, jump from an aircraft. And we have some physical fitness tests to pass before going on the course. But pretty much everybody. If they’re volunteers, and they have the will to parachute from an aircraft, everybody can do it.
Capt Orton: That would be a tricky bit, too. You have to be willing to do it. And when you say you have to be physically fit. I mean, I think generally there’s an expectation if you’re in the Army, you’re going to be some kind of physically fit. But I don’t think most people would think you have to be physically fit to jump out of an aeroplane. Why is that important?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Because jumping off of the airplane is an insertion method—so when you’re going to be in the aircraft or you’re going to be in the helicopter. So basically, what you’re going to have is going to be your rucksack with you with around twenty-four to seventy-two hours of ration, ammunition. You’re going to have your communication system inside. So basically, you can have a rucksack weighing about seventy to eighty pounds sometime. And you’re going to have your parachute on your back, you’re gonna have your reserve on your belly, your helmets, your weapon, you’re gonna have snowshoes if it’s winter. So basically, with all that equipment, you’re about three-hundred twenty-five pounds, and you have to run off the drop zone with that equipment, and then carry on with your mission. And you’re not just going to walk on the drop zone. Right? Because if you’re jumping operationally, you’re going to want to run right.
Capt Orton: Yeah. Because there’s getting to the fight. And then you have to do the fight also which is a whole other step.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Capt Orton: Another big challenge is you’re dropped off in the middle of nowhere, how do you get more food and more water, and ammunition, and all this stuff you need to operate when maybe the whole idea is you’re in an accessible location to begin with? You can’t get resupplied by road or anything else. How do you solve that logistical problem?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: If we can’t have a resupply by ground, it’s good because it’s easier for logistics? If not, we can use aerial delivery. So, basically, everything we need the ammunition, ration, water, special equipment, we can drop them from the air. So basically, you can have the Hercules pass and drop equipment that are going to be rigged with parachute. And at your location.
Capt Orton: You mentioned nighttime jumping versus day jumping. What are the functional differences between that? Obviously, visibility is going to be a factor. But what are some of the challenges in operating in a night environment?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: When you’re operating at night, you don’t have that much light on the ground. If we have the moon that’s going to be there—it’s a good natural lighting. It’s easier to assess the ground. But in an exercise type of drop, we’re going to have the drop zone that’s going to be eliminated. So we’re going to have the A letter where it’s the impact point that’s going to be eliminated with some light on the side. If we’re like jumping, operational, you don’t have any lights, because we want to be as low visibility as possible. So basically, you gotta have to assess your drift on the ground with the moon. It’s a lot more challenging during night than day. But, yeah, if we have to do a drop operationally, we’re going to use probably night drop.
Capt Orton: Well, it is the Infantry way to do the hardest way possible—because, in theory, nobody else wants to do it. So it’s easier, right?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Yeah.
Capt Orton: People think that it’s all easy. Right? Because, you know, like, brave soldiers, you’re never scared. But being scared is kind of part of the job in a lot of ways. How do you handle, maybe, the fear that comes with stepping out that door?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Oh, yeah, you got to have fear, when you got to look outside the aircraft and see the ground, the falling at three-hundred kilometres an hour. But when we’re training, we’re gonna use like, that sentence is what’s gonna happen on the word of command, go: “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” go at the word have come and go people, yeah, they go airborne and they’re executing that task. So that’s conditioning your brain to when we’re going to be in the aircraft, and I’m going to look at the light—light’s gonna turn green. I’m gonna look for a jumper and say, go drop my arm, in their head, this is going to be conditioned to you know, just go.
Capt Orton: Yeah, it’s that classic, it’s the training response, right, is if you do it enough times in a certain way, you’re not thinking you’re just doing the thing. And then you have time to think about it. When you’re in the air.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Exactly. You’re like, oh, man, I just jumped from an aircraft, right?
Capt Orton: So can you describe perhaps the different kinds of parachutes and what their purpose is.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: So here at the jumping company, if you’re in a jumping company, you are using static line round parachutes. So, round parachutes are going to be a faster rate of descent, and these parachutes are going to open automatically. So you have a static line that’s going to be hooked on the cable inside the aircraft or there going to be hooked on the ring inside the helicopter, if we talk about Griffon, and then there are going to be automatic opening. So when you’re going to jump, the parachute is going to open automatically, these ones is the one we’re using for training and for operations. And if we have to drop a mass body of people, then you have the square parachute, that’s going to be more like a freefall parachute. So they’re going to drop around 12,000 feet, and they’re going to be more manoeuvrable. So you’re going to be able to increase your drift and face the wind and turn around.
Difference with a round parachute, you’re pretty much to the effect of the wind. So basically, the winds are going to tell you where you’re going to land. So that’s why we’re jumping only with twelve-hundred feet there with the round parachute.
Capt Orton: Speaking of that, I mean, it goes without saying that there’s a lot of steps between being in an aircraft and then being on the ground, and there certainly can be some safety challenges. What do you do to overcome the safety challenges of that kind of environment?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: To get, really, the best safety precaution before jumping, you have to stay current. And what I mean about that is every three months, a jumper has to get requalified or recertified. So basically, you’re going around all the assessment, you should go. So basically, aircraft trail, what you’re doing in the air, landing, so we have certain apparatus in Quebec to simulate how you land. And then you have to take care of the equipment. So basically, all those safety precautions are to keep the jumper current.
Capt Orton: So, tell us about the training. You know, you’re going to be fit, you’re going to do your fitness test to make sure you’re good to go. And then you’re going to go on your basic para course or whatever else calls the jump course. What’s that, like?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Basically, the jump course is going to be a two weeks off ground training we call. So you’re going to see everything you need to do before jumping while you’re up in the air, while you’re in the aircraft, and when you’re going to land. So the first week is going to be on the lesson. So you’re going to have a lot of lesson plan. And we use the EDI a lot when we’re teaching on course. So Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation. So you want to make sure that the people are doing the correct drill because any mistake can lead to injury, right? Because nobody is going to jump with you on your first jump. So basically the first week is all training.
The second week is all training with an assessment at the Mach Tower. So basically, the Mach Tower is a thirty-two high platform so people are attached with risers on the pulley and they’re jumping the tower, like if they were jumping from an aircraft. Thirty-two feet is the height where, if you have—if you become drowsy, you’ll see it directly while you’re looking at the ground. So you’re getting assessed on that to lead you to the final part that is going to be the J stage a jumping stage. That is the main body of the course.
Capt Orton: Oh yeah. And obviously that’s where the fun begins.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: Yeah. So basically, when you’re doing your basic power course, you need to do a five jump. So, first jump is going to be with no equipment, then your second jump is going to be only with your rucksack. And then the last three jumps are going to be with full equipment, so your rucksack, snowshoes and your personal weapon and the last jump, so the fifth one, is going to be a nighttime.
Capt Orton: So you’ll see people wearing like these pins or patches on their uniforms with like a little parachute and some wings, colloquially known as jump wings. Tell us about those.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: So, basically, when you’re getting qualified, you’re going to receive your jump wings. Jump wings, you’re going to have the—the maple leaf in the middle that is going to be red. So that means that you’re qualified airborne so you’re qualified to jump out from an aircraft. What is gonna be the difference if you’re serving at the jumping company—it’s, instead of having the red maple leaf in the middle, you’re gonna have a white maple leaf. So that means that you’re serving or that you have served in a jumping company for at least a year.
Capt Orton: Oh, I didn’t know. I always thought the white Maple Leaf was your freefall ticket. But I’m not a jumper. So I don’t know. That’s interesting. So what’s your biggest thrill being a paratrooper?
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: My biggest thrill every time I’m jumping, it’s always that adrenaline coming back and kicking off. I’m always like, nervous a bit, but it’s in a good way. Right? My biggest thrill now, other than jumping, is to see the new generation coming in. You know, I see myself in those people when I first joined. And for me, it’s my paycheck just there. Because when I’m teaching on a course, I’m always jumping with my section. And when I reach the ground, I’m waiting for them at the rendez-vous point. And when I see them coming back and see the look in their eyes, they’re like: “Hey, Master Corporal; it was so awesome!” I’m really happy and it makes my paycheck.
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Capt Orton: That’s awesome. Well, thanks so much for taking the time to come and talk to us about being a paratrooper.
MCpl Bergeron Sénécal: I thank you very much for inviting me.
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