Helicopter Rope Suspension Techniques Masters invite Marines to participate in Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction rigging on Okinawa

Photo By Cpl. Eric Arndt | Marines lift off the ground during an extraction March 4 at Landing Zone Dodo. Marines from various units on Okinawa took part in Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction rigging hosted by Marines taking part in the Helicopter Rope Suspension Techniques Master Course.  

03.14.2008

Story by Lance Cpl. Richard Blumenstein 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

By Lance Cpl. Richard Blumenstein
3rd Marine Expeditionary Force Public Affairs

CENTRAL TRAINING AREA, OKINAWA, Japan — For Lance Cpl. Miguel R. Ortiz standing on a chair a couple of feet above the ground is unsettling, so dangling on a helicopter-towed rope 1,000 feet in the air would normally be out of the question.

However, Ortiz, a warehouse clerk with Small Craft Raid Platoon, Special Operations Training Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, set aside his fear of heights and joined about 50 Marines and Sailors with various Okinawa-based units for Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction rigging March 4 at Landing Zone Dodo.

With plenty of time and space available in the SPIE rigging portion of the Helicopter Rope Suspension Techniques Master Course, course instructors from SOTG invited Marines who commonly support SOTG but might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience flight on a SPIE line, according to Sgt. Kevin D. Parish, a primary HRST master instructor with SOTG.

"It's rare for Marines outside special operations units to conduct training like this," Parish said. "We wanted to give the Marines who are usually stuck in the office a chance to do something different, like feeling the excitement of sailing across the sky hanging on a rope."

Marines use SPIE rigging for inserting or extracting into areas where terrain makes it impossible for helicopters to land or conduct fast roping operations, said Sgt. Russell A. Douthat, a HRST master instructor with SOTG.

"If you're going into a thick jungle area, SPIE is how you would have to insert and extract," Douthat said. "But it really depends on the mission."

When conducting SPIE rigging, Marines wear harnesses attached with a carabiner to a large rope connected to a helicopter.

HRST masters in the course taught riders how to wear harnesses and then double-checked knots before sending the students on the ride 1,000 feet up.

SPIE rigging proved to be an experience of a lifetime for many of the riders, according to Cpl. Aaron Segura, the platoon sergeant for Radio Platoon, 7th Communications Battalion, III MEF.

"It was amazing, like a (horizontal) free fall," Segura said.

The SPIE rigging exercise proved such a hit with the Marines, it even had the height-fearing Ortiz enthralled.

"I felt like superman," Ortiz said. "That was fun. If I could go 100 times I would."

• Date Taken: 03.14.2008
• Date Posted: 03.15.2008 05:17
• Story ID: 17393