04.07.2013.

Warrant Officer Janicijevic's 5000th jump

Warrant Officer Miroljub Janicijevic of the 63rd Parachute Battalion, of the Special Brigade performed today at Nis airport his 5000th parachute jump. He was part of a 12- member group who realized the group art jump from a height of 3000 feet, with four parachutists jumping from a helicopter at the base, while the others joined two by two.

- This is a very emotional moment for me. In our country, five thousand parachute jumps are indeed a great achievement. I'm happy because I was the youngest skydiver in Serbia, who is 43 years old and has managed to make 5000th jump , and the first member of the Serbian armed forces who has jumped so many times- said Sergeant Janicijevic right after an attractive jump and safe landing.

The commander of 63 Parachute Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Nenad Zonic emphasizes that all his colleagues in the battalion are proud because of Janicijevic’s achievement.

- It's a pleasure to have someone like warrant officer Miroljub Janicijevic on the team. He generously passes on his years of experience, knowledge and skills to other members of the unit, improving the level of airborne training, and therefore operational capabilities. In addition, as a member of 'Nebeske vidre' he won numerous awards and has raised the reputation of our unit and the military in general - said Lt. Col. Zonic

Warrant officer Miroljub Janicijevic was born in Krusevac, in 1970 , where he completed his elementary and high school and became involved in aerial skydiving club "Mihailo Zivic." He practiced karate as a boy, but later, in the teenage years, he was captivated by skydiving. Miroljub performed 70 jumps in the aero club, and then, during his military service, he applied for professional soldier and in 1990 he started working in the 63rd Parachute Brigade.

Miroljub is a skydiving instructor, he has been awarded the golden parachute mark since 2004. Five thousand parachute jumps performed by Janicijevic means that, on average, he was jumping every day, and that he has 40 hours of flying in free fall.

- In these 500 jumps I had to open the reserve parachute 5 times, I had a couple of injuries, but I do not remember any bad moments in parachuting. It is important to have good teachers and I was lucky that my teachers were top jumpers, Ljubisa Naumovic in civilian sector and First Class Captain Mirko Djordjevic in the military. Now I'm a teacher and I teach a whole parachute battalion, so far I have trained over 400 paratroopers through the instructor.

Janicijevic was a national champion in various sports disciplines in parachute jumps, his biggest accomplishment is winning 8th place in World Championship in 1997 in the discipline jump on the mark.

- My competitive career is not over yet – as warrant officer Miroljub Janicijevic says – the best time to achieve the best results in jumping on the mark is from 35 to 50 years of age, because this discipline requires the steadiness and experience of a parachutist. Our country ranks in the middle in the world class and top results need more investments.