![]() ![]() He said the busier schedule is helping the team gain recognition and step out from the shadow of the U.S. That is believed to be the most for the Black Daggers since they were created in the mid-1990s. Mehall said the team is on pace to perform in 54 shows by the end of the year. ![]() By next year, they will have about 15 soldiers assigned to the unit. Today, the Black Daggers have 11 members but is in the process of adding more. They are ambassadors, often jumping in full combat equipment and then milling about with air-show crowds after they land, talking to attendees about their jobs as soldiers. Mehall said leaders, facing challenges in recruiting soldiers and civilians into special operations forces, have found value in the team. Instead of just a demonstration team, the Black Daggers are now a recruiting tool, working hand in hand with the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion. More importantly, they were seen by hundreds of thousands of spectators. Last year, they performed 38 times across the nation. The next year, the team grew to five members but was only able to perform eight times as the military’s parachute teams were stood down briefly out of safety concerns.īut in recent years, the Daggers are enjoying a revival as USASOC leaders have embraced the team. The team, with few members and little funding, only performed 11 shows in 2014, the same year the Black Daggers dropped to just three members. “When sequestration happened, it affected everything,” he said. Mehall said the team was facing extinction amid the budget constraints facing USASOC and the Army at large. When automatic spending cuts known as sequestration hit the military in 2013, there were only four soldiers assigned to the Black Daggers. He’s part of USASOC’s efforts to grow the team, which was nearly shuttered just a few years ago. “It’s been awesome.”įraney joined the team known as the Black Daggers in March. “It’s the coolest job in the Army,” Franey said after safely landing and watching two other soldiers touch down. Instead of a Green Beret working with partner forces behind the scenes and fighting the nation’s battles, he’s one of the public faces of a community that often shies away from attention. But these days, the Army sends him to very different locales. Airpark in Raeford, sharing the skies and a small plane with civilian skydivers.įraney is a Special Forces engineer with eight combat deployments. Army Special Operations Command Parachute Demonstration Team are practicing at the P.K. On this clear afternoon in June, Franey and other members of the U.S. He braced for impact and then hit the ground in a short trot as the canopy collapsed behind him. 1st Class Joshua Franey approached the ground quickly from under his red and black parachute.
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