Today, we were experiencing the thrill of jumping with these Tesones!

In an earlier briefing we learned the TESON trainee was required to complete a training program which paralleled that of the courses conducted by the U. S. Army Airborne and Ranger schools.

Accordingly, the TESON training facilities were constructed to meet the U.S. Army standards and U.S. Army Rangers from Ft Benning initially served as instructors for the Honduran trainees. In time, training of the Honduran Tesones was assumed by the Honduran military under whose tuteledge, training involved incredible physical and mental stress.

Those selected for training were the highly motivated and the elite of the Honduran military. In virtually all cases they were handpicked officers and senior NCO's of the Honduran Army. Only in rare cases were personnel from other services trained as Tesones.

Initial training was conducted at the paratrooper base at Tamara using the facilities shown in the image on the right. The base at Tamara is located in a valley flanked by mountains not far from the city of Tegucigalpa.Click here for map.

At Tamara, the aspiring tesones received airborne and initial ranger training. The Tamara training facilities are shown in the photo on the right. At the right edge of the photo can be seen a portion of the drop zone at Tamara.

More specialized training was given at another location, in the northeast near the Nicaraguan border, in the dense La Mosquitia jungle. Here training in jungle warfare and night operations was conducted under the most demanding of conditions. Trainees were subjected to a collage of nonstop operations in jungle warfare and survival skills.

Following months of such arduous training, those graduating were awarded the coveted TESON badge.

The day before the jump our group boarded a military bus at dawn which took us on a long bumpy ride over a winding two lane mountain road to the base at Tamara. Stiff-jointed on arrival the battalion commander welcomed us with a broad smile on his bronzed face and led us on a tour of the training facilities and a walk-through of the drop zone. Spreading out we trudged across the DZ to familiarize ourselves with its condition. We quickly learned the high brush masked an uneven terrain. And the ground was strewn with good-sized rocks and laced with a series of deep ruts - a perfect surface for producing sprained if not broken limbs. It crossed my mind that the nearby Soto Cano Air Base at Comayugua might have been a better choice for the drop. Then again, maybe not as I recalled a news story about a jump at Soto Cano during which U.S. Army Major General James H. Rumbaugh died of injuries resulting from his jump there.

The Honduran Air Base at Soto Cano is the U.S. military's only usable airfield on the Latin American mainland and many aviation assets of U.S. Army South (USARSO), Southcom's army component, were moved to Soto Cano. These include a command and control element, CH-47 "Chinook" helicopters, and UH-60 "Blackhawk" and "Medevac" helicopters.

In any case, tommorrow we would not be jumping at Soto Cano. We would be jumping into the DZ that I was now plodding across. As I mulled this over in my mind, I slid into a deep rut, turning my ankle. My thoughts went back to our earlier drop with the Salvadoran airborne forces in a similar field. The difference that day was that our first contact with the DZ in El Salvador was when we landed on it and together with our hosts suffered over fifty cases of broken and sprained ankles and legs. In the words of Sergeant First Class Dave McNally's account of his jump into Honduras with the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Kilo Punch: "There’s something to be said for the soft fields of Fryer Drop Zone at Jump School, or the soft sands of Sicily Drop Zone at Fort Bragg -- Thuuud ...Honduras is not soft."

Yet, the airborne forces of several nations have jumped here. Click here to read Sergeant First Class Dennis Hicks experience at Tamara during Operation Maroon Pheasant which occurred in May 1988, when paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division jumped into the DZ and linked up with infantrymen of the 7th Infantry Division (Light) as Americans and Honduran Army forces deployed along the country's southern border following an incursion by Nicaraguan forces.

SSG Troy Sellers, who jumped into the La Paz DZ during Operation Golden Pheasant in 1987, said of the Honduran Paracaidistas "still a FNG at the time but the paras here never complained, and when given the command to jump, never asked how high, simply did it what discipline!"

Also, Click herefor Sergeant First Class Dave McNally's account of his jump into Honduras with the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Kilo Punch.

The DZ at Tamara has long hosted jumps by other Latin American paratroopers and European paras as well. In 1993, Italian paras spent two ten-hour days training with the Honduran paras of the SEGUNDO AGRUPAMIENTO TACTICO ESPECIAL before jumping from the same C47 aircraft we would use. As a sign of recognition an Italian para recalled the Honduran paras firing rounds into the sky from two M60 machines as the Italian paras made their decent from their C47 jump over Tamara. The Brevet and the Diploma of parachutist military Honduregno was presented to the Italian paras by the host military commander, Coronel Don Carlos Alberto ANDINO BENITEZ. The colonel would have a part to play in our jump as well.

So here we were, inside a vintage airplane approaching the DZ. Our Honduran jump master turned from the open doorway to face us with a smile. He held up the palm of his hand and blew across it to signify he was giving us the wind condition. There was a broad grin on his face as he made a circle with his fingers signaling no wind. A blast of adolescent howls broke out among the younger paras, but the special forces veteran next to me just smiled. He had seen it all a long time ago.

Then as the jumpmaster began running through his sequence of commands in Spanish, I felt the rush of adrenaline beginning to kick in.

"CHECKE EL EQUIPO!" He yelled out, prompting us to check our equipment and make sure leg strap snap fastners were closed tightly and in place along with the reserve chute snaps and chest buckles. The command to Hook-Up quickly followed, then, came his next command and he pointed to me.

"SALLE EN LA PUERTA!" My body was now flooded with adrenaline. I was psyched up as I hurled my static line snap fastner towards the end of the cable and shuffled forward to stand in the door The plane ahead of us had already completed its drop and we were coming over the DZ.

Then, suddenly, the engines belched and the plane lurched several times. Behind me fear was now cutting away the bullshit, and I sensed the press of bodies behind me. I held my position with both hands in the open doorway, standing there slightly crouched, right boot placed just over the edge outside, and left boot behind waiting for the GO signal. And when it came, I went leaping out into the roaring slipstream with knees together, arms folded over my reserve chute, and my static line trailing behind me.

I felt the jolt of the static line and my canopy ripping open. Still reacting from the high of the jump, I pulled on my risers and laughed nervously into the wind watching the ground rush up toward me. I picked my spot and worked the toggles to maneuver my descent toward it. My landing was less than smooth. In the distance I could see a figure running toward me. It was my son. The captain had come over to give the old colonel a hand in gathering up his chute.

As we started our trek across the DZ, we heard the approaching roar of powerful engines behind us. We spun around to stare straight into the nose of the last of the drop aircraft swooping low to ground level and roaring directly toward us. We pulled each other to the ground, dropping to our knees. With screaming engines, the plane roared low, passing directly over our heads, the blast from its propellers enveloping us in an avalanche of dust, and then climbing up and away, rocking its wings in a sign of farewell as it climbed out over the mountains.

We picked ourselves off the ground and headed to a corner of the DZ where that tradition known to paras everywhere as a Prop Blast Party was about to take place.

Honduran Army General Mario Pacheco was there himself to award the coveted Teson Wings to our group. The ceremony at this point was formal as the Honduran National Anthem was played and media cameras whirred.

After the pinning, there would be a reception at the Officers Club, but first the Honduran paras wanted to personally extend their welcome with a ceremonial waste of perfectly good cerveza (beer).

Kneeling in formation before our hosts, we chuglugged and were showered with the brew. And, as the photo shows, the old colonel consumed his share. It was a drenched group of fifty visiting paras who later shambled into the O club.