About the United States Navy Parachute Team - Leap Frogs
 The U.S. Navy Parachute Team is a fifteen-man team comprised
entirely of U.S. Navy SEAL and SWCC commandos. Each member comes to the team for
a three-year tour from one of the two Naval Special Warfare Groups located on the
east and west coasts. On completion of the tour, members return to operational units.
The parachute team began in 1969 when Navy SEALs and Frogmen volunteered to perform
at weekend air shows. The team was officially commissioned as the U.S. Navy Parachute
Team "Leap Frogs" in 1974 by the Chief of Naval Operations and assigned the mission
of demonstrating Navy excellence throughout the United States. The Leap Frogs support
Navy recruiting efforts and promote the Naval Special Warfare community to the American
public.
A typical Leap Frogs performance consists of fourteen jumpers leaping out of an
aircraft at an altitude of 12,500 feet. During free fall, jumpers reach speeds of
120 mph and can accelerate up to 180 mph by pulling their arms to their sides and
straightening their legs into what is called a "track." The jumpers typically open
their parachutes at around 5,000 feet by releasing a smaller pilot chute which deploys
their main blue-and-gold canopy. After deploying their chutes, the Leap Frogs fly
their canopies together to build dramatic canopy-relative work formations.
The Leap Frogs are renowned for exciting and complex formations such as downplanes,
sideplanes, dragplanes, diamonds, big stacks, tri-by-sides, and T formations (see
photographs below).
After performances, the Leap Frogs make themselves available to the public to answer
questions about the Navy and the Naval Special Warfare community, as well as to
sign autographs.
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