Alrighty, we've had the Ranger and the Paratrooper thread, so here's the "Foreign Jump Wings" thread.

I don't have any, but I'd love to read your stories on the situation around earning your foreign jump wings.

My jump for my Venezuelan jump wings was my last jump ever.  The resulting PLF busted up my back and ended up sending me to Ft. Livingroom early.

I got my German Wings the summer after returning from the Sandbox in 91.  We also tested for the sports and shooting badges.  The Germans were being kind of arrogant and talking shit about how they were gonna smoke us on the 20km march through the Bavarian mountains.  Our Commander was kinda pissed about how things were going, so when we left the Kasern gate he started us out at a slow double time.  Before you know it, we have no guides, gone, fell out.  We got lost on the trails in the mountains a couple times because we only had a crude map, but we still made it in time.  After that things went much better and turned out to be a good trip.  I was invited to the home of one of the German NCO's and he said part of the problem was due to their not being able to participate in Desert Storm.  When we did the 34ft towers, the straps do not have the bungie's in it like ours do to take up the shock, made for a pretty good jolt.  Their JMPI pretty much consisted of a quick look over and a "Ist goot ya?"  We did our own JMPI.  They were still using some of the old Dial a Death harnesses and some newer ones that were really comfortable.  I got the wings, Gold Shutzenschnur, and Bronze Sports Badge.  I wanted the Gold Sports Badge but the shot put kicked my butt.  

I jumped into England in 84 and made 3 Ballon jumps with the Brits but didn't get the wings because we didn't meet the minimum number.  We then did a combined jump with the Britts into St Mere Eglise, France for the 40th Anniversary of D-Day.  One of my most memorable jumps.

H-Minus

I have a set of jump wings from Jordan. I missed going to England twice, my unit trained with the 3rd Para so I would have got a set from them and we were to go to Honduras, but that got cancelled also, would have earned a set there.

I'm a leg.  I dare you to fuck with me.

Quoted: I'm a leg.  I dare you to fuck with me.

HA HA!  It's not even WORTH it....

The Irish jump course used to have 42 places a year. 21 were reserved for the Ranger Wing (Special Forces), which left 21 for the entire rest of the Army and Naval Service. We didn't have a hope of getting on the course, so a dozen of us hooked up with the Association of British Miltary Parachutists and went to Texel, Holland on their annual trip to get Dutch wings.

Off we went. Then the Army wouldn't let us wear the wings. Then they let some of us wear the wings.

Then I came to the US, and discovered I can't wear the wings on BDUs either. Oh well, at least I can wear 'em on As and Blues...

My Loch Ness Monster also has jump wings. The course co-ordinator was Scottish, and she did all five jumps in my pocket. Each time we landed, I had them stamp her log book. Thus she is a duly authorised Paranessie. Here she is, proudly displaying her wings on her scarf...



NTM

I got my Egyptian jump wings on a Bright Star on the eighties.  We flew out of Pope AFB and jumped into El Alamein.  

About a week later we had a joint jump with a n egyptian airborne battalion that was all legs.  I don't think they had everbeen in an airplane before.  We boarded a C-130 with Americans in the front and Egyptians in the back.  Every thing was shut down when we boarded, and as the flyboys started things up the Egyptians would shout "Allah Akbar!" every time there was a new noise or the doors or ramp were closed.  Once we were airborne, the Egyptian jumpmaster went around hooking up the static lines of the Egyptian jumpers while they were still seated.  Then the Egyptian jumpers started singing a religious song (I heard Allah alot) and swinging their static lines back and forth to bang the hooks together.  Then some of them started throwing up.  It don't get any better than this.  The doors opened, and it became apparent that the Egyptians didn't feel the need for any kind of jump commands besides "come here", so we did our own "stand up", "hook up", etc.  When the green light came on the Egyptions stand up and sorta start moving toward the door.  They had static lines down around their knees & ankles from playing with them, I'm surprised nobody caught oneon the way out.  As we moved to the door, I'm watching the biggest egyptian I had seen so far physically throwing these guys out the door.  I made eye contact and handed him my static line hoping he would recognize that I had done this before and didn't need any "assistance"  exiting the aircraft.  I made a good exit, and after checking canopy, I started looking around at the Egyptians.  They were easy to spot because they were all hollering "Allah Akbar!" at the top of their lungs.  As they approached the ground, they would start running in midair, and then land like a complete bag of sh*t.  It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on a jump.  

A few days later we made our third jump, this time the aircraft load was divided Americans on the right, Egyptians on the left.  We had an American jumpmaster on our side of the aircraft, so it was a "normal" jump.  

All in all, It was a fairly decent experience all things considered.

Chilean Jump wings- volunteered to act as pathfinder for WHINSEC earlier this year for their VIRS Drop zone. They had a Chilean Jumpmaster and an  extra shoot. The only problem was it took about two months to get the certificate/orders.