Paratroopers are a different breed of soldier. Every paratrooper volunteered for Army service —twice. First, they volunteered to be a soldier. Second, they volunteered to become a sky soldier. It’s a choice to become a paratrooper. It’s never forced on a soldier. A soldier has to agree on their own free will to follow a tougher path than most.

Paratroopers are called to a higher level of trust. Paratroopers rely on the strength and ability of their pilots, flight crew, jumpmasters, and fellow jumpers to go from the ground to the sky and safely back to earth again. It’s serious business. It’s a matter of mission. It’s a matter of life and death. It takes trust, skill, and guts to follow other paratroopers safely out the open door of aircraft traveling at more than 130 mph. 

CSM David Burns and SPC Dylan Burns are on that path together. Not just members of The Army Family; they are father and son. They share a common vision of service and sacrifice to our nation as paratroopers. They were blessed to have the opportunity to share the same lift and jump from the same C-17 Globemaster at Fort Benning, Georgia. They jumped as fellow paratroopers—as father and son.

I witnessed this airborne operation with two generations of paratroopers. Father and son exited the same aircraft to land on Fryar Drop Zone at Ft. Benning. Fryar DZ is Mother Earth for every Airborne student. After three weeks of training and five qualifying jumps with one jump at night and one jump carrying a combat load, SPC Burns is now a graduate of Airborne School and a qualified paratrooper. He is authorized to wear the credentials of his new skill: the silver jump wings that his dad pinned on his chest.

Pray for our paratroopers. Pray for the recent graduates to continue to hone their skills. Pray for the old jumpmasters who set the example and maintain the standards. Pray for them all to inspire the next generation of paratroopers that risk it all for us, each and every time they go from the ground to the sky and back to earth again.