Elite Golden Knights spreading Army’s message of goodwill

Saturday, March 25, 2000 | 9:01 a.m.

Fourteen years after graduating from Clark High School, Staff Sgt. Bryan Patrick, a jumper for the Army's elite Golden Knights, says he feels he's come full circle.

On Wednesday the Airborne Ranger plunged 4,000 feet holding an American flag and landed on Clark's football field, where he narrated the demonstration by his team members.

Known as the Army's "Goodwill Ambassadors to the World," the Golden Knights are considered to be the best of the best. The Knights promote the Army through public aerial demonstrations and have performed in all 50 states and in 47 countries.

They compete in national and international parachuting competitions and research new parachuting techniques and equipment.

Two teams, black and gold, spend nearly 200 days a year performing at air shows and civic events. As a five-year member of the gold team, Patrick has more than 2,000 free-fall jumps.

Seven teammates followed his jump Wednesday. They included 23-year-old Cpl. Angela Nichols, the only female on the gold team.

More than 90 soldiers -- including 13 women -- make up the Golden Knights, including the two competition teams, an aviation section and headquarters.

Because of the traffic pattern from McCarran International Airport, the team jumped at 4,000 feet -- considered a low-level jump -- and opened chutes at 2,000 feet. Members landed in the center of a gold "X" on the football field after performing aerial demonstrations.

"The show opens their eyes a lot," Patrick said. "Not all students know what the modern Army's about. They learn from movies or parents and grandparents. The Army has changed so much. It's a very technical service now."

Patrick and other Knights have spoken at local high schools. After the drop at Clark, the team headed to Riverside, Calif., where they jumped for two high schools and an air show.

Promoting the Army is something Patrick wants to continue. He would like to return to Las Vegas in August or September to become a full-time recruiter.

After attending UNLV for one year, Patrick said he enlisted to earn more money for college, see some of the world and learn a little discipline. Since joining, opportunities have continuously arisen, he said.

He made a combat jump in 1989 into Panama for Operation Just Cause. He fought in the Persian Gulf War as a static-line jumper, in which the chute is automatically deployed from the aircraft.

As an airborne instructor from 1993 to 1995, he changed from static line to free fall. At the time he said he had no idea he would become a Golden Knight. "The opportunity just presented itself."

To become a Golden Knight, applicants must be qualified military parachute jumpers and pass a four- to six-week tryout period conducted each year.

Only half of the applicants make the team, Sgt. Mark Trehern said. "It's pretty tough."

In their 40th year the Golden Knights are headquartered at Fort Bragg, N.C., where they train in a wind tunnel known as a free-fall simulator.

The Golden Knights earned the name in 1962 because of their record number of gold medals and their ability to "conquer the skies."