Normally a military static line is the line which pulls the parachute out of its deployment bag. The troopers weight causes drag which pulls the chute out and causes it to open at the same time. The static line is attached to the airplane with a cable and it is attached to the chute with a cord. The cord breaks once the chute has been fully pulled out because it will not bear the jumpers weight. This seperates the static line and the bag from the parachute. If the parachutist has a problem with his chute not opening or being twisted he or she has a reserve chute. The jumper must open the reserve chute by pulling on a ripcord and quickly pulling the parachute out with his hands.

Static line jumps are what you typically see on TV when a large number of troopers are dropped into an area. They are normally done at low altitudes (500 to 2000 feet), and I think that they are the safest way to jump. If all goes well the trooper dosen't have to worry about the chute deploying on this type of jump. He just falls away from the plane and his body weight does the rest. The trooper must hook the static line to a cable in the airplane before jumping. The jumpmaster pulls in the empty static lines after each stick (small group of jumpers) exit the aircraft.  We honor our paratroopers with the jumpwings as a part of our paratroopers ring design logos. We also honor the jumpmaster (masterblaster) with designs that he or she can use to create a jumpmasters ring.