Union Parachute Academy (Pulacan)

The Union Parachute Academy (Nahuatl: Calcemac Huetzcuachtli Tlacatlahtohcayotl Pulacan, CHTP or CHT) is the premier school for civil and military parachuting in the Union State of Pulacan.

History

CHTP freshman class of '39 performs a mass drop exercise, March 1939

Parachuting in Pulacan dates to the Great Kayatman War of the 1920s, when experiments were made in provisioning silk parachutes for pilots in the nascent Union Air Corps. As Pulacan had little to no aviation industry before 1920, much of its early development was guided by experts from Zacapican. A detachment of aviators and tactical instructors had been invited by President Dumelang Tsogwane set up shop in XCITY to fast-track aeronautical development. A visionary, Tsogwane was convinced of the utility the then-novel airplane could provide in connecting rural, inland areas to the coastal metropoles, as well as their potential military applications. With the onset of the war in 1927, the Zacapine aeronautical advisory group under Nequametl Tziuhcoatl was upgraded to a volunteer air corps and given combat duties, alongside a massive influx of equipment and personnel from Oxidentale. Ironically, due to the constraints of the war, parachute silk became highly sought-after; few pilots actually flew with parachutes, and ensuing casualty rates were markedly high as a result.

The 1930s saw the majority of former military aviators demobilized at war's end. Given their unique skillset and expense of training, successive Pulatec governments were committed to utilizing these highly-trained personnel. Many were enrolled in the Pulatec Air Mail Bureau to accentuate the nascent civil aviation industry. With the price of parachute silk falling in the aftermath of the war, the war-weary government also sought peacetime uses for its newfound glut in aerial safety equipment. In 1933, tests in rural Mexochico Department proved the feasibility of parachute-based firefighting, with a crew of 12 successfully setting, then extinguishing with later equipment drops, a prescribed burn in an otherwise inaccessible area. Shortly after this drop, in 1935, the Secretariat of War authorized the creation of the Parachute Academy at a disused air base near Amatlan.

Organization

The Academy, far from being segregated into civil and military wings, combines all trainees into classes by skill level. Trainees stay with their assigned training group until the completion of their basic parachutist training at the end of 5 weeks. Following the conclusion of basic training, trainees may be enrolled in additional, specialized programs. These paths are typically taken by Union Security Forces paratroopers and civil smokejumpers. Each program may take between 5 to 8 additional weeks to familiarize trainees with their specialization.

Culture

The CHT is unique as an educational institution in combining civil and military trainees. The culture fostered by the CHTP is unique compared to other service organizations in Pulacan as a result. The deadly nature of parachute training and the fraternal nature of the small training groups has been observed to create a strong esprit de corps, often at the expense of civilian outsiders or even other trainee groups. While basic trainees only serve together for a short period of time, the challenging conditions set by the Academy often force trainees to learn to work together.

The Academy's structure emulates the calcemac model of colonial-era noble boarding schools. Instructors at the CHTP have been accused of using unnecessarily harsh and degrading disciplinary actions in order to enhance unit cohesion, at the expense of individual confidence. This rigorous discipline, combined with the calcemac culture encouraging total and unflinching devotion to the pursuit of mastery,