Airborne students make history jumping with T-11 parachutes

History was made today at Fryar Field on Fort Benning when a class of more than 400 Airborne students jumped for the first time using the new T-11 parachute system.

"Today's jump is huge. It's very historic for the 1-507th, the U.S. Army Airborne School here at Fort Benning because it's the first time in over 51 years that we've introduced a brand new, completely redone parachute system to the Army and to the Department of Defense," said Lt. Col. Jon A. Ring, commander of the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 507th Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Regiment, 199th Infantry Brigade.

The T-11 is vastly different than its predecessor in almost every way from the size and shape of the canopy to the load it can bear to the rate of decent it exhibits.

"What happened is we had the T-10 parachute which was in the field for over 50 years and the requirements have changed for the Airborne soldier," said Maj. Jason Morneault, assistant product manager for Program Managers Clothing and Individual Equipment (PMs/CIE) part of PEO Soldier based out of Fort Belvoir, Va. "He's got more equipment, he's weighing a lot more and so we got the requirement our office did to develop a new parachute and for the past 12 years we've been working on this T-11 parachute. So this has been a really big, this is our biggest project in the personnel airborne community."

For more on this story including pictures and video from today's jump as well as testimonials from Airborne students, please read tomorrow's Ledger-Enquirer.