My screwup, the 173rd jump was listed twice on the list I was going off of.
Pathfinder School To Get Cut
- Thread starter Marauder06
- Start date
My screwup, the 173rd jump was listed twice on the list I was going off of.
82nd (OEF) 1/10, and 173rd (OIF)
Florida173
SOF Support
Think I remember a company of 82nd jumping with 75th in Afghanistan back in I'm guessing early '02.
Kraut783
SOF Support
Wasn't that the Kandahar jump? But didn't know 82nd was there.
EDIT: Operation Rhino, October 2001 (?)
EDIT: Operation Rhino, October 2001 (?)
No,
Do you have a CAC card? You can access HRC and they have a list of of units, DTG, etc
Florida173
SOF Support
I might have been confusing it with the 3/504 jump in 3002 in Afghanistan. It was declassified back in 2014.
Was just a company though. I don't believe anyone of them have been as big as ours though.. at least since '89
Was just a company though. I don't believe anyone of them have been as big as ours though.. at least since '89
Florida173
SOF Support
No. It's just based on awards and Human Resources.
I think we're going to be OK brother, there's a lot that's CAC-card accessible that's freely releasable to the public. I don't think anything about what's been discussed so far is going to wander into FOUO or whatever we're calling it now.
Kraut783
SOF Support
There is a paper from the Combat Studies Institute Press US Army Combined Arms Center Fort Leavenworth, KS about OEF operations from 2001 to 2005.
https://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/GWOT/DifferentKindofWar.pdf
https://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/GWOT/DifferentKindofWar.pdf
173rd and 82nd, plus AF jumps (PJ HALO into the minefield early on).
Florida173
SOF Support
When we jumped into Bashur, we had folks that hadn't jumped in a like a decade. I had a surgeon next to me that I think hadn't jumped since probably the 80s, I ended switching to be in front of him... All that being said.. I didn't jump again for over 5 years when I transitioned to the SOF side. After less than a 10 minute pre-jump, I jumped my first ramp and steerable... no issues.
An argument could maybe be made that we don't need to keep people qualified for airborne, but train more in it. Maybe rotate units every 5 years or something.. i dunno
I would get rid of other bullshit badge courses. Get rid of Air Assault and just give more people the 2 week sling loading course. As far as Pathfinder, we'd send our logistics folks.. but you can train up on CARP/VIRS and any other DZSO abilities without having to go through a course. Any actual operation is inherently joint and we have a variety of options. We had CCT and TACP with us
An argument could maybe be made that we don't need to keep people qualified for airborne, but train more in it. Maybe rotate units every 5 years or something.. i dunno
I would get rid of other bullshit badge courses. Get rid of Air Assault and just give more people the 2 week sling loading course. As far as Pathfinder, we'd send our logistics folks.. but you can train up on CARP/VIRS and any other DZSO abilities without having to go through a course. Any actual operation is inherently joint and we have a variety of options. We had CCT and TACP with us
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
I never went to Air Assault School...but I did several Air Assaults in training. Air Assaults are a METL task for Stryker units, god only knows why.
Florida173
SOF Support
When you say air assault, do you mean just a helicopter insertion or a sling loading operation?
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Of the three training missions I did that were called "Air Assaults" only one involved a sling load operation.
On a separate exercise, there was Stryker Battalion that executed I guess an "Air Insertion." We had to do route reconnaissance for them, because they definitely didn't sling load an entire BN of Strykers (they drove them). Their Air Assault METL task went green on the Division metrics following that.
*oh, yeah I was definitely up for 120 hours straight, good times.
On a separate exercise, there was Stryker Battalion that executed I guess an "Air Insertion." We had to do route reconnaissance for them, because they definitely didn't sling load an entire BN of Strykers (they drove them). Their Air Assault METL task went green on the Division metrics following that.
*oh, yeah I was definitely up for 120 hours straight, good times.
I was an infantry platoon leader in the 101st for three years. I rappelled out of a helicopter exactly zero times during that period.
Now that I think about it, I've rappelled from a helicopter zero times in my entire life. I did Air Assault at Fort Drum in the fall of 1994 or so, and the weather was so bad that all of our attempts at helo rappel were cancelled. I guess it's not a graduation requirement.
I always thought that Air Assault was probably two Sergeants' Time training sessions crammed into ten days. But hey, I got another cool badge out of it...
That brings me to another thought about schools like Pathfinder, Air Assault, and Airborne. It's hard to compare tangible costs (time, money, manpower, injuries) of the course with intangibles (morale, esprit, recruiting, retention). I think Airborne in particular should stick around for the prestige and motivation it affords. But again, I have never done a thoughtful cost/benefit analyis.
Now that I think about it, I've rappelled from a helicopter zero times in my entire life. I did Air Assault at Fort Drum in the fall of 1994 or so, and the weather was so bad that all of our attempts at helo rappel were cancelled. I guess it's not a graduation requirement.
I always thought that Air Assault was probably two Sergeants' Time training sessions crammed into ten days. But hey, I got another cool badge out of it...
That brings me to another thought about schools like Pathfinder, Air Assault, and Airborne. It's hard to compare tangible costs (time, money, manpower, injuries) of the course with intangibles (morale, esprit, recruiting, retention). I think Airborne in particular should stick around for the prestige and motivation it affords. But again, I have never done a thoughtful cost/benefit analyis.
Devildoc
Verified Military
In the Navy, both active and reserve, they dangle all sorts of courses and classes from all branches for retention. I got to rappel out of helos but I didn't get any badges for it. That would have been cool.
I think (true for all branches and schools) can look at the courses from a point of time/money/manpower, etc. One of our Marines said airborne was three days of training crammed into three weeks.
Florida173
SOF Support
But did you ever do field sanitation? because that course may not be as prestigious, but it is as important, or more, than the others
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Field San, actual skillz!
