Community leaders from Bell, Coryell and Lampasas counties were guests of Brig. Gen. Christopher Tucker, commanding officer of the U.S. Army Operational Test Command headquartered here. The event is intended to update retired general officers, senior officers and civic leaders on new technology being tested by the Army.

“Our primary customer is the American soldier and joint war fighter,” Tucker said. “That is what brings us to work. We put the tests together to make sure the equipment works and senior leaders can make decisions.”

At 9:30 a.m., guests assembled at the baseball field for a briefing on how a jumpmaster and paratroopers communicate with hand signals prior to bailing out. Then the crowd peered intently skyward at the sound of a UH-60 Black Hawk overhead.

Six military free-fall paratroopers leapt from the helicopter’s doorway and plunged downward without pulling the cord for 33 seconds. They were falling at about 120 miles per hour when they pulled their ripcords at 4,000 feet. Like eagles descending, they guided themselves to the baseball diamond for pinpoint landings.

The MC-4 Ram Air parachutes - a class called “completely steerable canopy” - are designed to give the paratroopers complete control. Each selected a landing spot close to the others.

Col. Leon Price, director of Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate, said when paratroopers jump, they wear a military pilot’s helmet with ear protection, oxygen and visors for eye protection because of the extreme wind action.

Price said during an actual combat insertion, the pilot’s helmet is something the jumpers can’t continue to wear once on the ground because it’s totally impractical. It has to be buried to keep the enemy from finding it and giving the team’s presence away.

“We’re testing a new Gentex jump helmet that kind of resembles the Kevlar helmet worn by Army troops,” he said. “It will have all the eye, ear and oxygen features of the pilot’s helmet but they can continue to wear it after a jump.”

The command’s most recent Forward Operating Assessment team deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq in May and will be gone until sometime in November, Tucker said. These teams deployed the last 24 months to speed testing of vital equipment for soldiers at war who need certain items quickly.