Airborne

It’s not like anyone in a major unit has needed to be airborne qualified since Panama.

 

I was Airborne...no combat jumps though. 22 years...half was a Armor officer and half I was an MP. 1 tour in Iraq (08-09) and one in Afghanistan (11-12)

 

I’m in! 2-325 AIR 2012-2016

 

3/75 Ranger 93-96. I smacked into the guy on opposite door jumping into Egypt. I think it was the first foreign mass-tac jump for the C-17. No serious injuries just some good bruises.

 

A Co 4/325 3/325 AIR 91-98 AATW. Went through jumpmaster as a Corporal. Awesome experience!

 

1/325 AIR 82nd AD. OIF '06-'07. 19 jumps total.

On our VERY FIRST JUMP at school a Marine went out the door right behind me and went spinning out of control. His risers literally choked him out and he landed unconscious. He was alright except for some nasty rope burn around his neck.

AATW!

 

a few major airborne units have combat jumps from Iraq and Afghanistan.

pretty sure they needed to be airborne qualified first

 

As far as I know (from friends in the majority of those jumps) none of those “combat” jumps were into actual uncontrolled and unsecured areas.

 

if you're talking about the 173rd jump, yeah... I helped secure that dz

and in case you missed the whole point of airborne operations, it's to insert personnel very quickly into an area to achieve an objective
whether or not someone shot at you is not a prerequisite, it's not a CMB or CIB

go look up the combat jumps since 9/11

 

they put that symbol everywhere, it just means they were there.

it's not a shrine

 

Yep

 

I'm a former Jumpmaster. ABN school in 1999. Spent 10 years in the 82nd Airborne. Was 1st BDE Jumpmaster of the year once which is cool. Final assignment there was 1SG in 4th BDE. Later served as the Operations SGM in the 507th at Benning. Yes that Airborne School where everyone attended. Watching Black hats kick ass for 18 months was fun.

 

but the real question is, were you a Bragg or Benning JM grad. Yes, I know the curriculum is all the same now, but for a long time there was a huuuuge difference in initial knowledge/capability/confidence between the cherry graduates of Bragg, Benning, and SOF JM courses.

I graduated JM school in 99--if I had to pick a cherry JM to pull a duty with, I would pick the Bragg guy every day of the week. The capabilities all tend to even out after awhile, but the Bragg course tends to draw from its background of large scale airborne ops west of Gruber rd.

 

I couldn’t agree more. I graduated JM at Bragg in 2003. I didn’t really realize the differences in JM schools until I worked at Benning and had to go train trainers at all three separate schools, Bragg, Benning and SOF. In my opinion a Bragg graduate is my choice over a Benning grad as well.

 

I myself am a benning JM. When were you with the 507th? I was in Aco from 08-11.

 

Benning had a great course but had a few differences from Bragg. I worked in the S3 from spring 2012 through November 2013.

 

35th Signal Brigade (Airborne) > 112th Sig Det (Special Operations Command South > 4/10 SFG Sig Det
USASOC Jumpmaster School instructor

 

2006-current, JM

On a night jump at Basilone DZ, had an O that everyone hated pull the yellow safety lanyard on his ejector snap instead of the release handle. I was in the air nearby and just heard an "Oh F*CK" before the crack of his ruck and 1950s case hitting the ground. Broke the buttstock of his rifle and damn near killed some guys from the first pass packing their chutes. Damn O's, everyone's got an O story

 

21 MP Co (ABN) 1991 just back from Desert Storm, was jumping the 60, exited the aircraft and immediately looked below me, nobody was there so I dropped my ruck, felt the tug and began jettisoning the M60, got it loose and dropped it, no tug. Looked down and the 60 was spiraling toward Mother Earth. Tried to make mental note of where it landed, hit the ground and began recovering my gear, first person by was my platoon daddy. Told him what happened, he sent help. As I began circling another jumper asks if I lost something, I told him and he began cursing me and pointed toward my 60. Turns out the weapons case failed. I was properly rigged and inspected but the loop tore loose when it hit my ruck.

That next week we all got new weapons cases, took the armorers three days to disassemble the M60 as it landed barrel first and warped.

 

Watched a guy burn into Holland DZ. reserve deployed at last second, saving his life.