Special Forces Photo - Parachute Jump - Chinook

U.

S Army Special Forces soldiers of the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), parachute out the rear of U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopters.

Special Forces constantly refresh their skills in all methods of parachute insertion.

Green Berets learn to static-line parachute from low level transport aircraft, jump from helicopters and from high altitude with the use of breathing apparatus.

Green Berets are taught parachuting techniques at the US Army Military Free-Fall school at Fort Bragg before advancing to the lMilitary Free-Fall Parachutist Course (MFFPC) and the Military Free-Fall Advanced Tactical Infiltration Course (ATIC) at Military Freefall School, Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.

Each Company within a Special Forces Battalion includes a Operational Detachement Alpha (ODA), or 'A-Team', that specialises in Military Free Fall (MFF).

MFF-qualified Green Berets are experts in a range of parachuting techniques, including static line and HALO (high altitude-low opening) and HAHO (high altitude-high opening).

An MFF ODA maintains Level I proficiency status, which includes the ability to perform a nighttime combat equipment jump with supplemental oxygen while landing as a group.

Special Forces MFF teams have carried out free fall combat drops on several occasions.

The most recent reported instance of this occured in May 2007 when ODA 074, Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), performed an 11-man HAHO drop as part of an operation in Ninewah Province, Iraq.

The Special Forces are a special operations unit within U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC).

They specialize in unconventional warfare operations - training, mentoring and leading indigenous forces into battle.