SPECIAL REPORT: How YPG’s Airborne Test Force keeps its precious cargo safe in the sky

13 On Your Side's Vanessa Gongora shares the process the soldiers go through

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) is the home to the elite Airborne Test Force (ATF) jumpers.

Their job is to maintain and repair parachutes, webbing, and fabrics to ensure safe and effective jumps.

Sgt. Sean Finley, Airborne Test Force Parachute Packer said when the parachutes come back from a jump, whether it's personnel or cargo parachutes, he inspects and repairs them if there's any damage to them.

To make it easier to see if there are any holes in the parachute, they are laid out on a light table.

"He's gonna just lay this canopy out, this parachute and he's going to keep rolling the canopy and look for any type of holes or burns so we use the light table for smaller chutes like this or personnel chutes," explained Sgt. Finley.

According to Sgt. Finley, the small parachutes take about five to ten minutes to inspect, though it can vary.

"They get more difficult if there's a lot of damage to it cause everything that has damage we have to annotate it, so we're keeping a good track record. Then of course when it's time to fix it, we know exactly where to fix it at," Sgt. Finley continued.

Some repairs can take anywhere from 30 minutes to about two hours.

Finley described how a soldier is repairing the parachute, "He has damage on this canopy. It's one of the bigger ones, G11 that you seen on the loads that were out there earlier right? So he's just fixing, it's probably a small hole and just put another piece of canopy on there and just repairing it, sewing it up so there's no more holes and put it on the next load to get it out the airplane."

After repairs are done, they can be packed up by three or more parachute riggers.

"Right now they're doing like a long fold. They're folding it up and tying it down so once they fold it all the way up to the top of this canopy, they're gonna go ahead and start stuffing it in the bag," Sgt. Finley said.

MSgt. Donald Bullock, ATF's Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge said he's proud of the morale the team of 20 has.

"Their work ethic is good because they wouldn't have been chosen to come here and you know it is stressful. It does get busy from time to time. There is a lot of downtime too and so with that we have to keep training," said MSgt. Bullock.

The team uses a blue platform that represents the weight of a Humvee, a military vehicle that is about 25,000 lbs to make sure the parachute can hold the amount of weight they want.

"Right now Sgt. Scathe is rehabbing. This is a load that already went out a few weeks ago so once the load went out it got loose so he's tightening down all the straps connected to the parachute and all that excess he's doing, he's cutting everything and getting it out of the way so nothing left is on the load that doesn't need to be there," mentioned Sgt. Finley.

When the parachutes are put onto the cargo, the soldiers go around the entire perimeter making sure everything is secured properly.

"Right now Sgt. Danisa is checking these parachute restraints which is tied down to this load binder making sure everything is tied correctly and tight so nothing's loose," continued Sgt. Finley.

There are two ways ATF jumps out of an aircraft, static line and freefall.

"For the freefall jump it's typically like skydiving. Jump out do some tricks in the air, check your altimeter and then you go ahead and just pull and then for static line we have our anchor line cable that's on the aircraft with our snap hook, we're just hooking it up and then the jump master is going to give us the commands," Sgt. Finley explained. "When they give us the green light, we jump out, depending on the parachutes we're using the MC6, within six seconds it's gonna open up."

These projects are done for customers all around the U.S.

"They just want to test whether there is new vehicles or new weight like we were showing you out there, how much a parachute can sustain the weight and some of the platforms as well that were out there," said Sgt. Finley.

MSgt. Bullock assisted me in putting on a personnel chute to get the full effect of the weight.

"And then you cinch it and then you take it again and you're gonna run it back through. It's called a quick release so when you need to get out of the chute quickly, you get on the ground, that'll pop really fast," MSgt. Bullock explained.

He said they do the same thing over and over but are human, which is why they always have the book out.

"These guys have been around the block for a hot minute now, so they know what they're doing so I have a lot of trust in them," MSgt. Bullock said. "We're a family and that's the way I think it needs to be."