Frank Simmons on LinkedIn: #2ndbattalion1stmarines #marinereconfoundation #reconsniperfoundation… | 17 comments (2024)

A wild night of attempting Helicopter Rope Suspension Techniques (HRST) operations onto the ATLS-9701 in rough seas for a Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) mission. The pilot had to waive off to bring the bird around for another try.This really illustrates the dangers of VBSS and why it takes specially trained troops who are extremely competent in their physical fitness, and in the water. In a split second any mission (Training or Real-World), you can end up in "the drink". #marinereconfoundation #reconsniperfoundation #forcereconassociation #recon #recondo #veteran #usmc #usmcrecon #retiredusmc #vbss #seal #swcc #sbt-12

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A follow up video clip to my last post showing MSgt Joe Gillooly conducting one of the earlier daylight TORDS-E jumps before he was injured in his final night jump with the 500 lbs. barrel of equipment tethered to him. Some of his rehabilitation is depicted after the jump.When Joe reached his opening altitude at 5k ft, his parachute suffered a “line dump”, where the tube stows (rubber bands) that hold the control lines and help create a slower opening, all broke at once. This caused the parachute to have a “shock opening”! His parachute slider couldn’t help compensate for this rapid opening going from 155mph to about 18 mph speed in an instant. At the snap of a finger, Joe felt excruciating pain and saw his right leg was dangling in the wind like a rag doll.The shock of the opening gave Joe a TBI and caused his legs to shoot upwards towards his head which snapped his knees and tore his ligaments in both legs. All this while he was still 4500 feet up in the air, at night, with this heavy barrel dangling beneath his legs! Joe had to endure immense pain as he still controlled his canopy to land at the “T” on the DZ with his barrel of equipment (15 mins or so in the air). He was then immediately rushed to the Emergency Room. The grit and willpower to not “cut away” that barrel and still complete the course while being that badly injured is a testament to Joe’s character. With the Traumatic Brain Injury, the Bi-Lateral leg injuries Joe Sustained were:Left Knee:Lateral Tibial Plateau FractureRight Knee:Multiligamentous Injury, knee dislocation, loss of ACL and Posterolateral Corner, requiring total reconstruction. (His right knee and leg git the worst of it.)Joe’s first surgery was June 12, 2020 at the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital. He then suffered through 4 months where he was in a wheelchair. He had to follow this up with 2.5 years of intense Physical Therapy.

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4 years ago today, (June 4 2020) my great friend and roommate MSgt Joe Gillooly suffered some life threatening injuries on his final Night Jump of the Tandem Offset Resupply Delivery System - Equipment(TORDS-E) course. Where he was jumping High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) with a 500 lbs. barrel of equipment tethered to him. When Joe reached his opening altitude at 5k ft, his parachute suffered a “line dump”, where the tube stows (rubber bands) that hold the control lines and help create a slower opening, all broke at once. This caused the parachute to have a “shock opening”! His parachute slider couldn’t help compensate for this rapid opening going from 155mph to about 18 mph speed in an instant. At the snap of a finger, Joe felt excruciating pain and saw his right leg was dangling in the wind like a rag doll.The shock of the opening gave Joe a TBI and caused his legs to shoot upwards towards his head which snapped his knees and tore his ligaments in both legs. All this while he was still 4500 feet up in the air, at night, with this heavy barrel dangling beneath his legs! Joe had to endure immense pain as he still controlled his canopy to land at the “T” on the DZ with his barrel of equipment (15 mins or so in the air). He was then immediately rushed to the Emergency Room. The grit and willpower to not “cut away” that barrel and still complete the course while being that badly injured is a testament to Joe’s character. With the Traumatic Brain Injury, the Bi-Lateral leg injuries Joe Sustained were:Left Knee:Lateral Tibial Plateau FractureRight Knee:Multiligamentous Injury, knee dislocation, loss of ACL and Posterolateral Corner, requiring total reconstruction. (His right knee and leg git the worst of it.)Joe’s first surgery was June 12, 2020 at the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital. He then suffered through 4 months where he was in a wheelchair. He had to follow this up with 2.5 years of intense Physical Therapy.The USMC had Joe on a medical board. They just wanted to medically separate/retire him due to these injuries. Thankfully the great leadership of the Recon Community jumped in for him and took great care of him all the way through to make sure he was able to finish off his time in the Corps on active duty! Joe was determined to get back in action and work to teach and lead the next generation of Recon Marines! It was an uphill battle for Joe to get himself rehabilitated enough for the doctors to sign off on letting him go back to work. Joe pulled it off, suffering through intense pain to regain his mobility and stay in the Corps. Way to uphold the Creed Brother Recon!!!I still clearly remember getting the call from Joe’s wife about his injury on that jump. My wife and I were both in the car at the time, and it frightened me. I have had several teammates and platoonmates killed/severely injured in jump ops (Ryan Pape, Caleb Medley, Austin Gibson) and without any clear information, we were fearing the worst.

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It was an emotional day honoring our fallen brothers and sisters for Memorial Day, but it was spent with a great friend of mine Retired Master Sergeant Joe Gillooly. My wife Sara and I visited the local Murrieta Memorial Gardens. They did a very nice job there, placing a small placard attached to a flag for each local who was killed during the GWOT. Never Above YouNever Below YouAlways Beside You#marinereconfoundation #reconsniperfoundation #forcereconassociation#recondo #usmc #usmcrecon #gwot #military #marine #veteran #retiredusmc

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April 9th 2004 Was the first time I knew for a fact I had killed the enemy by my own hand. I had been in several firefights prior to this day, however this was the first time I was close enough to see them fall dead right in front of me. Something that will stick out in your memory banks. I was recently chatting with another old buddy of mine Gonzalo Leon who fought with me that day and it sparked these memories. During the 1st Battle of Fallujah 2/1 had setup a small makeshift COC near the train station in the northern most portion of Fallujah Iraq. Capt Zembiec’s Echo Company was deep fighting in the Jolan district. I was a “slackman” carrying the M249 SAW with our team that was back at the hasty sandbag fighting positions near the train station and one of the cemeteries for resupply/refit.We took a heavy barrage of enemy mortar fire and all took cover in our fighting holes. Thankfully the sandbags did their jobs and other than having all our “bells rung” from the blasts, no one had taken any shrapnel. The Point of Origin “POO” site of the enemy mortars was somewhat calculated by the Fire Direction Control inside of the COC. It was coming from an area north of us beyond Route Mobile and inside the irrigated palm groves. Not from inside the city where we originally thought it would be.With the majority of the fighting currently happening inside the city, we didn’t have a lot of Marines to spare to go check out this area. A skeleton crew of marines from STA, CAAT, and 81’s quickly loaded up in our old HMMWVs and rushed off to this area north of Route Mobile to see if we could catch the perpetrators who had just dumped HE all over us.The roads in this vegetated area were very narrow and had deep irrigation canals flanking either side. These canals had tall reeds growing on each side which prevented a good view of exactly how wide they were. Our column of HMMWVs came speeding down this narrow road and we drove straight into an ambush that was setup for us where they had launched their mortars from. The Iraqis weren’t nearly as tactically proficient as the Afghan Taliban fighters were, they had setup their ambush with teams on either side of the road blazing automatic fire at us from both sides (and at themselves). Still, the crossfire was intense, and our vehicles were being chewed up rapidly. Those of us not manning a mounted gun jumped out the back of our vehicles and spread to either side of the road trying to crawl through the reeds.

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A “Delayed Drogue” Free Fall with 80lbs of Combat Equipment strapped to me. This was sustainment training at the Raeford DZ outside Ft Bragg NC, years and years ago prior to strapping on the Barrel for TORDS-E jumps. I Jumped at 13,000 ft. then set the drogue at 8,000 ft. for stability during the rest of the free fall to opening altitude. I figured a nice calm “flat, dumb, and happy” jump is good for Free Fall Friday and the start of the weekend.While it may look simple, you really have to be in tune with your body position. One slight wrong move and the wind will catch that ruck strapped to your chest and send you on a wild ride.The instructor from the Airborne Mobile Training Team (AMTT) filming me was a good friend Joseph Hathaway "Dirt" whom I had the pleasure of deploying with twice before. Once in 2005 when he was in GySgt Crawford's Force Recon Platoon (I was in the MSPF Sniper Team from 2/1) and again in 2011 when he and I were both in MSgt DA White’s Force Platoon.#marinereconfoundation#reconsniperfoundation#forcereconassociation#military_freefall_association#recondo #usmc #usmcrecon #gwot #military #marine #freefall #mff #militaryfreefall #veteran #retiredusmc

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