98th Flying Training Squadron

The 98th Flying Training Squadron is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the 306th Flying Training Group. It is stationed at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, however its De Havilland Canada UV-18 Twin Otter aircraft are housed and maintained at nearby Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado.

The mission of the 98th is to provide parachute training to cadets. The basic program trains 1,200 students per year with the majority of positions given to USAF Academy cadets. Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets are assigned positions on an availability and timing basis.

In 1995, the 98th Flying Training Squadron was reactivated as a parachute training squadron at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). With Air Staff approval to teach military parachuting, the parachute branch under the Airmanship Division of the USAFA was born in the Spring of 1966. In 1982, parachuting became a flight under the 94th Airmanship Training Squadron. In 1995, the parachute flight grew too large and was expanded into a squadron. What started as a club training 25 students a year has grown into a program training 600 to 1,200 cadets annually and fielding competition and demonstration teams.^{[citation needed]}

The basic AM-490 program, which had used round parachutes since its conception, evolved with the use of modern piggy-back container systems and square parachutes for both the main and reserve. Each student is equipped with a radio so all landings can be assisted from the ground.^{[citation needed]}

The "Wings of Blue" (sometimes known as PTWOBs, and stands for "Parachute Team – Wings of Blue"), is the parachuting unit at the USAFA, near Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Over the last several decades, the Wings of Blue has been one of the outstanding parachute units in the United States. Since 1967, cadets have dominated national intercollegiate parachuting, winning 21 national championships. They perform about 50 demonstrations each year, and have shown off their skills at the BCS National Championship, Orange Bowl, Copper Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Pro Bowl and most Air Force Falcons football games. The team travels locally, nationally, and internationally to perform in air shows and competitions. Their stated mission is to "[d]evelop airmen through flight in its purest form — Stand in the Door!"

Parachuting at the USAFA began in 1964 when a group of ambitious cadets took to the skies. The activity, at the time, was off-limits to cadets. Knowing full well the consequences if caught participating, their involvement was nonetheless revealed through their own irrepressible success. That spring, Cadet First Class (senior) Jay Kelley and Cadet Third Class (sophomore) Pete Johnston paired and won a novice team accuracy event—the academy's first gold medal in collegiate competition. Their achievements that day resulted in an invitational demonstration at the Pueblo Army Depot, after which the commander at Fort Carson sent a very nice letter to the USAFA superintendent, thanking him for allowing the fine young men of his skydiving team to participate".^{[citation needed]} After a thorough investigation, the USAFA Commandant of Cadets, Brigadier General Robert W. Strong Jr. "had a dilemma on his hands. After all, balancing against the weight of these young men's sin was the positive publicity they had brought upon themselves and the Academy. However illegal their activities, they were on to something good".^{[citation needed]}

Each year since then, more than 800 cadets, officers, and enlisted members, from both U.S. and foreign services, complete five free fall jumps and earn their parachutist badge and rating. The USAFA offers the only military jump program in the world authorized to allow students to perform unassisted free fall delays on their first jump without any prior jump experience. It is common for civilian-trained skydivers to do so. Although parachutist wings are awarded, they are non-operational in any Department of Defense unit; to be in an airborne operational unit or functioned job, personnel must complete the United States Army Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia.