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Dirty Legs beware, the most important non-federal holiday is upon us (although, it should be a paid holiday). National Airborne Day has finally arrived!
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of why this day is so great, let us take a moment to appreciate how applicable the first point of performance is to life. Whether it be to avoid a bar fight, childsupport, or a lame party, executing a PROPER EXIT is incredibly important.
Editor’s note: if you’re not the type to always make a proper exit, make sure you execute that second point of performance and always check your canopy, if you catch my drift.
Now that our safety brief is out of the way, let’s talk about tradition. No one knows for sure when it started, but it is customary to place small cherry pies in your pockets on your first post-Airborne School jump with your unit. With the idea that executing that fifth point of performance properly will smash those pies. Thus, showing your mastery over the skill, over fear and communism as a whole.
However, this tradition has begun to fall out of style in recent years. Speaking with younger troops in the famed 82nd Airborne Division, this act doesn’t always happen anymore.
Why is that?
Post-GWOT fatigue? Backlash faced by NCO’s by those who confuse discipline with hazing? Maybe because inflation has increased the cost of cherry pies? No one can say for sure.
But rest assured, there are still intrepid spirits who line their pockets before taking to the sky. Laundy be damned, the spirit of the tradition still lives on!
Do you have pictures of your cherry jump? Send them to our social media for a chance to be featured!
