Honorary Air Assault Wings

| February 19, 2021

One wonders why the folks who wrote the book on Air Assault weren’t awarded the wings as a matter of course. Poetrooper sends, and approves.

Honorary Air Assault Wings for Vietnam Era Vets! 50 years after the Vietnam War ended the U.S. Army has recognized the contributions of combat veterans of the 101st Airborne and 1st Air Cavalry divisions. These were the Soldiers who pioneered the development of air assault tactics that are now an essential component of modern warfare. At the urging of former Screaming Eagle commanders GEN David Petraeus and LTG Robert Clark and current commander MG Brian Winski, the Army is awarding a special honorary Air Assault Badge to qualified veterans of the Vietnam conflict. Veterans may apply for this honor by submitting a completed application to the 101st Airborne Division Office at PO Box 929, Fort Campbell, KY 42223. The announcement of the award and application is available from the 101st Airborne Association website or from our Facebook page. The applications must arrive as the Association headquarters by April 1st. A presentation ceremony is being planned for June 25th, the last day of the Week of the Eagles.

Similar to the Ranger Wars, where some say just qualifying by completing the training isn’t enough? Seems an Army thing.
Printed in its entirety. Thanks, Poe.

Category: Army, Blue Skies, Guest Link

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ChipNASA

” Veterans may apply for this honor by submitting a completed application ”

Great dickhead, you put the contact information right there in the post….

Posers submitting said applications for honorary Air Assault Badge in 3…2…1…

Maybe they can apply for honorary CPO shit too.
(just yankin’ yer thing, ya know. )

KoB

BZ for the Troops that actually earned this Award, back when Awards were actually EARNED, not given. (Kinda like the TAH Friday WOT FIRST)

Now if they just do their due diligence and award it to ones that actually did EARN IT.

Only air assaulting I ever did was of a gastro intestinal nature, generally referred to as FART BOMBS!

A Proud Infidel®™

Isn’t that what you’d get after a can of Ham and MF’ers?

Claw

Just goes to show ya that JRM was ahead of this all along. BTW, after being beat up here at TAH over his AAB and deleting it from his awards posted to his own personal website, I saw a recent FB picture of him (just last month) and he is back to wearing it once again on his Santa Claus suit.

rgr769

Except that JRM would not qualify for this “honorary” Bullwinkle badge because he was a radio wrencher. He never served in a combat unit, never had an infantry MOS, and never rode into a combat operation in a Huey. So, no honorary badge for him.

rgr769

Welp, I had more experience and training in conducting air mobile operations in Special Forces and Ranger School, plus 15 months in infantry companies in the Viet of the Nam, than attending Bullwinkle school. Anyone know if I qualify for this “honor?” I never served in an Air Mobile division, but I do have three Air Medals.

rgr1480

I’ll swap you my Bullwinkle for one of your Air Medals!!!

rgr769

Uh, they only issued me one. I put the three on it after I was awarded the third one. In the Viet of the Nam, no one actually issued you another medal after first award.

rgr1480

Yeah, I know only one is issued. My Dad received his while RF/PF advisor at Det. B-33 (Camp Widder), Hon Quan/An Loc.

(^__^)

Poetrooper

Counselor, here are the requirements from the 101st Airborne Division Association Webpage:

QUALIFICATIONS (Must meet all):

Was in direct combat while assigned or attached to a combat unit in the 101st Airborne Division, 101st Air Cavalry Division or 101st Airborne Division (Air Mobile) in Vietnam during the period from 1965 – 1972;

– Was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge, Combat Medical Badge, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal for Valor , Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross, or Medal of Honor;

-Conducted 25 or more Combat Helicopter Assaults or a lesser number of “hot” Landing Zones;

-Graduated from Infantry AIT, NCOCC, OCS, IOBC, SERTS, CLC or RECONDO during the Vietnam war”

The certification form also includes Unit/OJT training.

They’re making us jump through some hoops and it appears they are limiting it to service within a designated Airborne/Air Mobile/Air Cavalry unit (so designated either before, during or after the war) since there’s no mention of the 82d Airborne or any of the many infantry divisions that used choppers to get to the battlefield.

rgr769

Well, I meet all those requirements except service with the 101st or the 1st Cav. That requirement is pretty superficial since both infantry divisions I served in did the same Huey CA’s as those units; it’s just that we didn’t have our own organic helo units. Wish I had a dollar for every time I organized my companies into lift chalks and sat in the door of a Huey.

timactual

Can’t wait to get mine. I will prepare a place for it in my junk drawer with the rest of the mementos of my heroic service.

Berliner

Graduate of Air Assault Class #2 while serving in B Company 1/506th Infantry, 101st Abn Div from 1972-74.

When I got to McNair Barracks in Berlin my Company Commander mistook the wings for EOD badge and wanted me to teach a class on booby traps. I corrected him and got to teach rappelling from the roof of our 4 story barracks. Later we did a demonstration rappel from a Huey onto the roof of the Combat in the Cities training center for an assault up in the British sector of the city.

Spent many a weekend up at the Berlin Mountaineering Club Kletterturm (climbing tower) near the now abandoned Teufelsberg NSA cold war listening station in the Grunewald forest sector of the city. Teufelsberg translates to “Devil’s Mountain” and was the name for the 260 foot tall hill of rubble collected from the city following WWII bombings.

I only got in trouble once when we had a new 1SG see me going past his 2nd floor office window on my way from my barracks room to my Commo Shop in the basement at the other end of the building via the 1 1/2 inch ledge one weekend to test out my new climbing boots. I had to use the stairs from then on.

SFC D

I graduated from the Cheju-do rappelling course in 1988, that’s kinda like air assault, isn’t it? Do I get a badge?

rgr769

In the present day big green, it looks like a soldier can never accumulate enough badges and ribbons. Back in my day, most of the real heroes I saw frequently eschewed even wearing their ribbons unless they were in greens or dress blues. And I recall that Maj. C.Q. Williams never wore his Medal of Honor with his greens, only the little blue ribbon on his ribbon rack.

Honor and Courage

If you want a shot at the 1st Air assault Badge look at the 1St Calvary Divisions’ Honorage Courage web site!
As an 11B with 2 Air Medals for Combat Air assaults who care for another Badge!!!

Honor and Courage

The Badge was 1st awarded in 1965! Sorry i left the date out in the comment above!