The organization I work for had several personnel make this drop into Australia to provide communications off the drop zone. I thought some of you might be interested although these are both fairly long. Video 1 is raw footage and has the jump starting from the in-flight rig phase. These guys took off from Joint Base Elmendorf in Anchorage to fly 14 hours to Australia. If it looks like they just got out of bed, it's because they were just woken up to draw parachutes and get rigged. Really excellent depiction of what it takes to get out of the aircraft. In this case each aircraft flew two passes. Stay with the C-17, great view of the cockpit while landing.
This second video is helmet cam from one of the jumpers. It's a bit long, but it you pick it up from 5 minutes out you get to see the door check form the Jumpmaster and the exit. Note that one of the Loadmasters is a woman, not all that uncommon now. Also, bit of explanation on the time warnings. It's not unusual for the load to pass the time warning to the Jumpmaster, however it's up to him to determine the actual time ("1 Minute"). Each JM on each side of the aircraft will provide the time warning. They are using landmarks on the ground. Looks to me like the helmet cam came loose on exit, because at one or two points it's upside down.
Oh, guys with air force parachutes are static safeties...they will not jump. They assist the JM and help haul in the deployment bags, as well as assure they are all accounted for (yes, you sign for all the equipment, including your parachute). Also, they guy in front of our jumper is an Aussie.
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