Capt. Rebecca Chapa and 1st Lt. Teresa Alokoa, 155th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, traveled to Fort Benning, Georgia to attend an Aerial Delivery and Materiel Officer Course, which they completed Oct. 27, 2020.

The Aerial Delivery and Materiel Officer Course is required training in order to serve as a Supply Management Officer within the Support Operations Section of a Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. Only Quartermaster Officers are eligible to attend ADMOC and receive the coveted “Rigger” badge and R9 Additional Skill Identifier.

“The most important pieces of instruction during this course was learning how to properly land, learning emergency procedures, and committing all steps of the process to muscle memory through immense repetition,” said Chapa. “There is no simulation that can prepare you for the true feeling of throwing yourself out of an aircraft. Thankfully, my muscle memory took over before my common sense could convince me not to jump.”

The class began with 269 service members assigned to Charlie Company and included service members from the Army, Air Force and Marines. The instructors, who were referred to as “Black Hats,” broke the class down into four platoons; each platoon instructed by three Black Hats.

This training is in preparation for a deployment to Afghanistan. A Supply Management Officer in theater, will be supporting Soldiers in the field by providing the right equipment at the right place and the right time. Duties will range from buying equipment and supplies, distributing these supplies, forecasting needs and planning for future support operations. Daily operations evolve around the concept and goal of supporting complex logistical operations in the best way.

“For me, the most important part of the class was conducting the landing drills and practicing how to slip in the right direction,” said Alokoa. “The landing drills helped prepare my body for the ground impact and the slip rehearsals prepared my mind to assess what direction the wind is blowing and determine which riser to pull prior to landing.”

The United States Army Airborne School, widely known as “Jump School,” conducts the basic paratrooper training for the United States Armed Forces, and operates at Fort Benning, Georgia. The Airborne School conducts the Basic Airborne Course, which is open to troops of both genders from all branches of the United States Department of Defense, Reserve Officer Training Corps, and allied military personnel. All students must volunteer to attend the course.

The 155th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion is a modular, corps-level support organization battalion responsible for providing multifunctional logistics support to maneuver and effect organizations as well as multifunctional logistics assistance to other higher support organizations.