Navy SEALs parachute team, 'Leap Frogs,' are ready to dazzle spectators on Milwaukee's lakefront

MILWAUKEE -- Aerial acts are the stars of the Milwaukee Air & Water Show. But some groups ditch the planes altogether.

"Guys keep a little bit of nerves whether you have 10 jumps or 25,000 jumps, like one member of our team," said Lt. Bennett Geyer, a U.S. Navy SEAL.

The Navy SEALs Parachute Team, known as the Leap Frogs, is ready to put on a show.

"What we can do is a variety of what we call "CRW" -- Canopy Relative Work -- where we take our canopies and we stack them together," said Luke Vesci, Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman.



 

During a public demonstration, the goal is to be seen.

"We’ll have a variety of flags that we can drop out. We’ll have different colors of smoke," Vesci said.

In combat situations, it’s quite the opposite.

"It’s biggest tactical value is for its stealth ability to get a group of people into somewhere quietly," Lt. Geyer said.

"Whether that’s getting guys into a combat zone undetected, or we can also rig a boat up to drop it out of an aircraft," Vesci said.



 

Lt. Bennett Geyer



Unlike the jet demonstration teams at the Air Show, the Leap Frogs land right in front of the crowds.

"One of the things that’s pretty special for us is we are able to actually have kids from the local community come and help us pack our parachutes," Lt. Geyer said.

They are putting a face to one of the most covert corners of our nation’s military.