Congrats Airborne!
I think the Airborne School jumps are by far the worst so every one you have after this should be a better experience. Different planes, maybe helicopters, less people and more efficient.
Have they remodeled or moved to another facility? One memory I have is that nasty barracks we had to stay in. I stayed in a lot of nasty places while I was in but that was by far the worst.
I went through the school back in January of 2003 during what is probably the one thing that can make that type of school really suck...bitter cold. After just having done Infantry training on the other side of Benning I was positive that Georgia was the coldest place on the planet. Of course, no snivel gear was really the root of the problem. The conditions were always so bad that we had to sit there with all our gear on waiting...and waiting...for hours on each jump. I just remember being so uncomfortable, having to take a whiz (nope), can't feel your fingers...because pockets aren't for hands to keep warm...and make sure you keep your bare hands out on your reserve at all times.
On a few of the nights it was well below freezing but the day of our final jump I believe it was in the single digits. We must have sat in that hangar for 4 or 5 hours with all our gear on. I think they finally said 'F it" and put us in the air. Circles upon circles later (and a whole lot of puking by some) They started pushing us out the doors. No one had any dexterity left in their fingers or toes so even exiting the aircraft was a cluster F because you couldn't walk right. We heard a dude at one point bounce off the side of the plane...and that was only confirmed by the wide eyes on a few of the jump masters who stopped to look. Funny and scary as hell at the same time.
Finally the best thing about any jump...no more plane, no more smell, it doesn't seem like anyones going to hit me so I enjoy the view for at least 3-4 seconds and then oh sh#t TREES...TREES!!!! There were a few people who landed in trees and I was lucky to avoid them but not by much. I landed in some frozen marsh on the outskirts of the DZ...had no sort of recognizable PLF as my feet hit ice and went flying, hit my head and knocked me silly for a couple seconds. I just remember being happy to be done...until suddenly being dragged across this marsh getting mud and ice down my pants because I couldn't force my fingers to pull the canopy release. I must have been dragged 40 or 50 feet. When I finally got it pulled by wedging my useless fingers in there all I could do is lay there and laugh. I limped in like I had just gotten hit by a car and got my badge. And hell yeah I'd do it over again...preferably in another season! Airborne!
I went through with about 20 or so 'battle buddies' from basic so that was fun. More fun was that our Drill Sgt went through the course with us. He was from Compton, CA and about the most intimidating DS you can imagine. Very squared away and eyes of a hawk. He was pretty widely known as that DS you don't want to have one on one time with. It didn't take long for us to realize he didn't have much power any more over us so he got a fair share of verbal harassment when he would mess up during PT or somewhere else. He was a good sport about it and we even saw him smile a couple times.
There was also rumor that some SEALS in the class before ours climbed to the top of the towers one night to do pull-ups and got kicked out of the course. May have been a rumor for years and years.
Ahh the memories...