Unique way to train Fastrope

[Schnugg]

Push the helo up the edge of an elevator and practice fastroping down to the lowered elevator. I've never seen this, is it common? (found on www.news.navy.mil)

060916-N-6688R-002 Pacific Ocean (Sept. 16, 2006) - A Marine with Echo Company assigned to 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) practice fast roping aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4). The 15th MEU and Boxer are part of Expeditionary Strike Group 5, which is currently conducting operations in support of the global war on terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Hull Maintenance Technician George W. Rape (RELEASED)

060916-N-6688R-001 Pacific Ocean (Sept. 16, 2006) - Marine 2nd Lt. David Palacio from Bedford, Texas, assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) practice fast roping aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4). The 15th MEU and Boxer are part of Expeditionary Strike Group 5, which is currently conducting operations in support of the global war on terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Hull Maintenance Technician George W. Rape (RELEASED)

FWIW: A friend of mine is the new Shrink on the boxer. Doing a 6-9 month IA.

 

[skidkid]

yeah, pretty common it is aroud the crawl/walk phase

 

[hscs]

great idea -- looks like some of the best initial rope training for the troops...

 

[HH-60H]

Just to clarify/correct the captions, in the first picture the Marine is fastroping, but in the second picture the Marine is rappelling.

 

[Cordespc]

Just to clarify/correct the captions, in the first picture the Marine is fastroping, but in the second picture the Marine is rappelling.

Beat me to it. Looks like a bit of suggestive photography in that respect. I've seen Marines rappelling in a similar fashion on the good ship TR.

Paul

 

[Brett327]

Just noticed the photographer's name. How would you like your official title to be Chief Rape?

Brett

 

[Cordespc]

It's Rapé damn it! :icon_rage

 

[Schnugg]

I thought to rapell you needed to bounce off something like a cliff face or building? The second image shows a guy just hanging there below the deck hangar ceiling.

 

[Cordespc]

I thought to rapell you needed to bounce off something like a cliff face or building? The second image shows a guy just hanging there below the deck hangar ceiling.

Rappelling is any method of descending a rope using controlled friction. Under that definition, I guess fast roping is a type of rappelling. At any rate, the Marine in the second pic is descending a rope that is secured to the flight deck, not a helo.

Paul

 

[FMRAM]

Cordespc.
I dig the avatar.
"Ill have the roast duck with the mango salsa."

 

[phrogdriver]

I thought to rapell you needed to bounce off something like a cliff face or building? The second image shows a guy just hanging there below the deck hangar ceiling.

You can rapell from a helo with no wall or anything like that. It takes A LOT longer than FAST roping. FAST rope is a great way to get down to a small area quickly, such as putting guys into an urban area, but the troops can't carry very much, because they're only contacting the rope with gloves and boots--not much to slow a descent down, especially when they're heavy.

Rapelling gives a lot more control, so they can descend with packs and such. It is an agonizingly long hover while they tie-in and off the ropes, so it's not well suited to a "hit" scenario. It's for something more along the lines of putting them in an isolated site where you otherwise couldn't land.

These are merely my observations from a platform perspective, vice a customer, but I've been a platform to both, and supporting a rapelling evolution is absolutely no fun.

 

[Goober]

Agreed. Learned to rappell from a helo skid (think air assault) as an Army ROTC cadet at Camp Rudder (Eglin) before deciding after 6 months that Navy flying was much more preferable to living in the field for a paycheck. Can't imagine doing a full LBE/ALICE fastrope, although I'm sure the pros do it. It's not as if we were training for an insertion.

For the old school types, Camp Rudder is adjacent to the same chunk of Eglin property where we went to Navy land survival. Ah, the joys of being a local...

 

[MasterBates]

Navy land survival?

Goober, you are showing your age...

 

[Brett327]

Navy land survival?

Goober, you are showing your age...

I knew it only as "starvival," although we did manage to kill and eat a raccoon.

Brett

 

[Goober]

We caught a Florida Pine Snake and were hell-bent that we were going to eat him until our instructor told us they were endangered (and it was the largest one they'd ever seen). They traded us about a half a freezer bag of uncooked rice that ended up making a hell of a lot more coffee cans of cooked food than that poor snake would ever have made. They ended up taking the snake back to the survival school to put in the animal collection.

We heard an armadillo come running through our camp in the middle of the night. You've never seen a bunch of hungry guys whip out survival knives so fast in your life, 'cause he'd have been history if we'd have been able to find him.