PARATROOPERS of FINLAND

Finland's experience with paratroop warfare dates back to World War II when the Russian 204th Reconnaissance Parachute Brigade advanced along the coast of Lake Ladoga in February, 1940. Following the war, the Finland's military have included para operations although not at the manuever manuever level.

Today, one brigade is being equipped as a Rapid Deployment Brigades, especially earmarked for international crisis management tasks and trained and equipped accordingly. The brigade will include trained parachutists and will be fully operational during 2000.

At Finland's Parachute Jaeger School, paratrooper training is much like that conducted by military forces around the world, and thus includes the traditional 34 foot tower. To add more realism to jump training, the tower platform contains a doorway to simulate that of an airplane and is positioned on top supports anchored in cement, and thirty-four feet in height.

To use the tower, the jumper climbs a ladder to the top of the platform. Once atop the tower, the jumper straps on a parachute harness that has two extended straps sewn to its shoulder straps. These two long straps are connected to a metal wheel resting atop a steel cable. The cable extends from above the jumping doorway out horizontally some fifty yards to where it is anchored to the top of a shorter telephone pole.

The jumper leaps out the door and falls nearly three-quarters of the way to the ground before the harness is caught by the cable.

Of course, Finland's paratroopers must be trained to jump in rugged terrain, including arctic conditions.

The Airborne Ranger Club acts as the connecting link with the Military Paratroop School and the men who went through it. Together with the Army a voluntary training program is provided for the members of the Airborne Ranger Club in such skills as cross-country skiing, shooting, patrolling, and of course parachute techniques.