Crown Princess completes paratrooper training

Spain's Crown Princess Leonor completed basic paratrooper training at the Méndez Parada Military Parachuting School at Alcantarilla Air Base in Murcia, Spain's Royal Household said on Tuesday. The 20-year-old heir to the throne finished the course as part of her military instruction linked to the General Air and Space Academy in San Javier. Images released by the Royal Household showed Leonor boarding an aircraft, preparing equipment with instructors and making parachute jumps. At the end of the course, she received a diploma and the “Cazador Paracaidista” badge alongside roughly 50 cadets. ### Where did Leonor complete the course? The course took place at the Méndez Parada Military Parachuting School, which is based at Alcantarilla Air Base in Murcia. Spain's Royal Household and multiple Spanish media reports identified the site as the location of the training completed in late May and disclosed publicly on June 2. Alcantarilla is not a random military stop. (yahoo.com) King Felipe VI visited the same school in January 2023 for the 75th anniversary of its creation, according to the Royal Household, which described it as a reference center within Spain's Defence Ministry for parachuting and other military capabilities. ### What did Leonor have to do to qualify? (yahoo.com) Leonor completed several jumps during the course, including a night jump in May, according to reports citing the Royal Household and Spanish media accounts. The training was described as a basic parachuting course that qualifies participants for automatic-mode jumps, the standard referenced in coverage of the program. (casareal.es) Spanish reports said the jumps were made from about 400 meters and formed part of a two-week block of instruction for academy students. Images published on June 2 showed Leonor in red helmet and jumpsuit receiving instructions, checking her parachute and exiting the aircraft. ### What exactly did she receive at the end? The final ceremony included a diploma and the “Cazador Paracaidista” badge, which Leonor received with the rest of her group after completing the course. (yahoo.com) Reuters and other reports said the badge was awarded alongside around 50 fellow cadets. Spanish coverage also referred to the insignia as the “rokiski,” a parachutist badge that was visible when Leonor appeared with the royal family at the Armed Forces Day events in Vigo on May 30. (theobjective.com) The Royal Household's event page for that ceremony lists Leonor alongside King Felipe and Queen Letizia at the central Armed Forces Day act in Vigo. (yahoo.com) ### Was this part of a larger military program? Leonor is the Princess of Asturias and heir to the Spanish crown, according to her biography page on the Royal Household website. Her parachuting course forms part of the military training program she has been following, after earlier stages tied to Spain's armed forces academies. The General Air and Space Academy in San Javier is the current institutional setting linked to this phase of her training, according to reports on the parachuting course. (theobjective.com) Spanish media said she completed the instruction with academy classmates rather than in a separate royal program. (casareal.es) ### Why did the images draw so much attention? June 2 was the first time the Royal Household publicly released a detailed set of images from Leonor's parachuting instruction. The photographs showed a member of Spain's royal family carrying out a demanding military exercise that Spanish and international outlets described as unusual within the monarchy's recent history. (diariodelaltoaragon.es) Some reports described Leonor as the first member of the Spanish royal family to complete this kind of parachute training, but that characterization appears in media reports rather than in the Royal Household material itself. The Royal Household's public calendar still lists Leonor at the Armed Forces Day ceremony in Vigo on May 30, and her biography page identifies her as heir to the crown. (orm.es) Her next publicly documented milestones are likely to come through the Royal Household and Spain's Defence Ministry as her military training at the General Air and Space Academy continues. (casareal.es) (hola.com)