Read enough spy novels, CIA operative and/or fiction involving assassins or special forces hero types (Mitch Rapp, The Gray Man, Scott Harvath, Gabriel Allon, to name a few), or even watch one or two Mission Impossible movies, and you’re likely to have encountered the acronyms, HALO and HAHO.
Neither is a greeting or expression of amusement.
HALO refers to a high-altitude low open form of parachuting, but it’s also known as a Military Free Fall. Jumpers leap out of a plane at high altitude (usually around 30 to 40 thousand feet), and freefall to earth at incredible speeds. To add to the risk, the jumper waits to open his or her chute as long as possible so they can minimize the amount of time the chute might be spotted by the enemy. A jumper can be as low as about 800 feet above the ground before s/he deploys their parachutes. Because air is thinner at such high altitudes, halo-jumpers can free fall towards earth at speeds topping 200 mph. They can’t see the ground, and basically just jump off into black space.
Now imagine doing it with a dog. Or being the dog.
Belgian Malinois, “Cairo” from SEAL Team Six
In 2011, canine parachute instructor and U.S. Military Handler, Mike Forsythe, and his Malinois, “Cara” set the HALO world record for highest man-dog parachute deployment by jumping from more than 30,100 feet up – the altitude transoceanic passenger jets fly at. Both Forsythe and Cara were wearing oxygen masks and skin protectors for the jump.
We should mention that there is a second technique known as HAHO (High Altitude, High Open) done when a plane can’t fly above enemy skies without creating a threat to the plane and/or the jumpers. Jumpers leap out at high altitude, pull their chutes, and fly under the canopy. In 2017, an innovation contest called “Jump The Dog,”was staged by U.S. Special Operations Command and invited inventors to design oxygen masks for dogs to wear while conducting high-altitude, high-opening (HAHO) jumps with special operations units. We’re still looking for the results of that competition.
In closing, and as an aside, Tom Cruise became the first actor to ever complete a HALO jump on a movie screen. He performed the stunt himself in the movie, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout.”
Image of Cara and Mike was released by K9 Storm Inc
This is an Amazing stunt, I mean seriously the Dog had experienced Sky diving haha.
Thank you for talking about this. Recently, I became interested in this topic after reading the book Invincible. It also interestingly describes the adventures, if you can call it that, of a military climber. After that, I became interested in what such people live and breathe. And in this article, I found interesting information for myself regarding the parachute. I would never have thought that a dog can do parachute jumps. It always seemed to me that it was very risky for animals, let alone humans. But as it turned out, this is practiced. Therefore, thank you for such interesting information.
Thanks for leaving a comment! It is remarkable, isn’t it? The dogs are braver than we are, we think.