Jettin'

You'll be wanting one of these:

The pack itself is lightweight enough to be carried by a single person and can reportedly fly for up to 10 minutes and reach speeds of 60 mph (96 kph). Mounted to each side is a small engine that provides upward thrust. The JB-10 uses twin turbo jets which have been specially adapted, reducing the size compared to turbofans, which run cooler and consume less fuel.

Its inventors says it is 'inherently stable but also capable of very dynamic manoeuvres thanks to our approach to engine vectoring'.

Even more interesting is this tantalizing bit:

The team are developing a heavy lift version of the jetpack for the US special forces. The current jetpack has two engines and can lift 350lbs while the US military version will have four engines and lift 700lbs

That would open up some very interesting tactical possibilities. Imagine a company of Rangers or Marines equipped with these things. It would be the ultimate evolution of vertical envelopment, requiring no planes or helicopters...

During a battalion-level attack, one of your companies uses these jetpacks to flank around the enemy. With a 700-lbs lifting capacity, each of them could be armed with some pretty heavy ordnance, perhaps 5.56 miniguns with 3,000 rounds of ammo. That's enough firepower to saturate every square inch of a large defensive position in less than a minute. When the miniguns are empty, they drop the jetpacks and suddenly you have an entire rifle company directly in the enemy's rear. You effectively destroy an entire enemy battalion while taking very few losses. Do that a couple of times and the Bad Guys will start thinking they may as well just stay home.

Tech like this is why we should always be striving to come up with new weapons and vehicles. It is the very essence of what peaceniks, conscientious objectors and other shrinking-violet types don't understand: you build better weapons than your enemy not so that you can fight world wars, but in order to keep small wars brief, thus preventing them from turning into world wars.

Only children and fools believe that war can be abolished; it is part of who we are, the primal essence of the aggressive ape which has made us the dominant species on Earth. That does not mean, however, that we cannot keep the inevitable wars to a minimum, both in frequency and duration. "Peace through superior firepower" isn't just a t-shirt slogan, it's the harsh truth.

If you are one of those fools who choose to disregard reality, that's fine. Better men will fight in your place. Your only concern is to stay out of the way of the tribe's warriors; nothing more will be asked of you. The price of such safety is this: when you see tax dollars being channeled towards developing new and very expensive weapon systems, just clamp your teeth together and keep walking. That's none of your concern.