They were members of the post’s only airborne unit in training and it was the largest airborne jump on the post since 1998.

“This the maiden jump for a new organization,” said Lt. Col. Daniel Soller, who commands the 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion. “For an airborne unit, this is huge for morale.”

Soller said the sight of parachutes is going to become a lot more common on Fort Hood.

“That’s the plan,” Soller said. “The plan is that we are working with the 15th Sustainment Brigade ... they provide all the rigger support.”

Warrant Officer 1 Werner Menchu, a parachute rigger with the 15th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), said this first jump was a pretty big deal for this new brigade.

“This type of mission is very important because you never know when you will have to go somewhere, where the site is not secure,” said Menchu, who, as a rigger, packs, inspects and repairs parachutes.

The first jump, which consisted of about 20 soldiers, was expected at about 3 p.m., but wind gusts of 15 knots had soldiers playing hurry up and wait.

Nearly an hour later Cpl. Jeremy Barrett gave them the information they needed and within minutes the drone of a two-prop aircraft got the attention of Menchu and other soldiers, some of them Special Forces, who were there to monitor the mission.

The training wasn’t without its problems.

One of the two aircraft that the 504th hoped to use developed mechanical problems.

But, within an hour, more than 40 of the 130 soldiers had taken their first airborne jump over Fort Hood.

Among them was Capt. Rusty Weedman, who landed closest to the observers.

He’d just floated about 1,500 feet through the air and was gathering his chute, sweating with the exertion.

“It was good until I hit the ground,” Weedman said, laughing.

With his chute now wrapped firmly in his grasp, he stopped to ask just one question.

“Did we look good in the air?”

The fact that Menchu was smiling was all the answer he needed.