Little Rock, Arkansas – This weekend, the Little Rock Air Force Base will host Thunder Over the Rock, an airshow including artists who aren’t all airmen.
At the celebration, the United States Army Parachute Team, also known as the Golden Knights, will be skydiving down to meet Arkansans.
When the squad initially formed in 1959, it competed against the Soviet skydivers, who had previously dominated the sport as the greatest in the world.
We’ve done so many things throughout the years ranging from jumping into middle schools to doing skydives with former presidents,” said Aaron Decker, a crew chief of the Golden Knights’ Gold Demonstration Team.
As U.S. Army ambassadors, the team tours the globe doing parachute competitions and demonstrations.
They have participated in more than 20,000 concerts and won 460 national titles, and over 100 international titles. Also, they’ve shattered roughly 350 world records.
In addition, the Golden Knights support the military’s free fall programs with their technical knowledge by testing new parachute designs, among other things.
We’ve helped out with experimenting on new parachute equipment that evolved the sport into what it is today,” Decker said.
On Thursday, the team made a spectacular landing on the football field at Cabot High School, to the excitement of hundreds of students and faculty.
The Gold Demonstration Team leader for the Golden Knights, Jesse Robbins, stated that his team likes visiting nearby schools while on the road to engage with students and inform them of the opportunities available in the Army.
“To become a Golden Knight, you need to have at least 75 to 100 skydives before you can put an application in,” Robbins said. “Every year, from January till March, we go down to Homestead, Florida for our winter training. And we train there, we do about 150 to 200 jumps while we’re there, training for events like this and different airshows.”
Visit Thunder Over the Rock on Saturday and Sunday to witness the Golden Knights play. The Vandenburg Gate at Little Rock Air Force Base will be accessible to the public on both days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission for all is free.