The Navy SEALs and other secretive units are quietly battling a frightening rise in parachute...

No service is without training fatalities. But at least since the 90s I've heard an impression that it's particularly frequent for air operations in the Navy. Coincidently, I've known a few Navy EOD types who prefer their guys go to our course at Yuma than their contracted course. That said, I think much of this can be avoided by maximizing use of SLs for HAHO jumps which is possible with the Army's new RA-1 Raider Intruder and the USMC's MMPS. I see no practical use for CE HALO with the exception of teaching stabilization and EPs. HALO as an infil method has been practically abandoned in favor of HAHO and for very good reasons. But if you must, the MMPS uses a SL or hand deployable drogue. My friends in recon say they no longer conduct any CE HALO jumps without the drogue and they typically deploy it via SL. Bottom line is MFF isn't skydiving and for far too long many guys in SOF thought it was. There's no practical reason for a guy to fall thousands of feet with instability inducing equipment if we have systems that can eliminate that. Otherwise we're less interested in performing a mission than we are determining who's "cool". HALO was a great idea for MFF when the only equipment available was rounds. I'm also quite skeptical of ripcords and spring-loaded pilot chutes. The USMC abandoned them about a decade ago in favor of a BOC on the MMPS. I think it's the right answer if you're not using a SL.

Wow! That was a mouthful, 1SG(P) (Join to see)! Thanks for your experienced, educated and thoughtful response.