Treejumping

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Treejumping is a form of parachuting, into a forest or jungle – typically, from a relatively low altitude. It is generally considered to be a particularly dangerous form of parachuting. Treejumping is also especially damaging to the parachuting equipment.

In the United States Army, there is one platoon of combat engineers, Bravo Company of the 27th Engineer Battalion, trained to intentionally jump into forested areas in order to create drop zones for follow-on forces.

Selected members of the United States Army Special Forces ("the Green Berets") are also trained in rough terrain parachuting. SF units such as the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Lewis, Washington maintain relationships with local U.S. Forst Service smokejumper organizations, which affords unit members the opportunity to stay abreast of the latest rough terrain parachuting techniques.

Smokejumpers train and equip themselves for tree landings to fight forest fires.

[edit] Treejumping in fiction

• In The Bridge on the River Kwai (1954), a character is killed during a World War II treejump.
• In Rambo: First Blood Part II, the main character treejumps into Vietnam.
• In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the player performs a HALO jump into a Soviet jungle.