Last jump
Kevin sends us a link to Clarksville Online which reports that F Company, 5th Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault,) Pathfinders has conducted their last parachute jump. the unit is coming off of jump status. For the uninitiated, Pathfinders are the fellas who mark drop zones and landing zones for aerial assets such as other paratroopers and helicopter-borne forces, mostly behind enemy lines. Taking away their ability to be inserted by parachute takes a tool out of their kit.
Airborne insertion is only one way our skills can be delivered, said Beville. We can air assault in, which gives us the most exact delivery, but when that’s not possible we can jump, truck or ruck our way in to where we need to be. Jumping is, by far, our most discrete method. Being able to get into an area quietly is often instrumental in not kicking the hornets’ nest.
I’m not sure what the Army is thinking, or if they’re even thinking, but having a bunch of leg pathfinder companies seems pretty useless to me. It’s like a transportation company in which no one has driver’s licenses. Or something. The next time the 101st needs Pathfinders to mark a landing zone in enemy territory, like they did in Desert Storm, deep in Iraq, I hope the enemy understands and doesn’t hinder them driving to the landing zone. Or they ignore the first helicopters carrying the Pathfinders to site.
Category: Big Army
I cannot speak to the how and why that 101st unit came off status. I can tell you that a few years ago at Bragg there was a rather large-scale realignment for units on status and many came off status, even a few IN the 82nd ABN DIV. The bottom line was cost for training and paid parachutist positions. The formula they used to determine which unit stayed on and which came off was a basic troops to task: Using the classic, forced-entry/airfield seizure scenario, if your unit needed to be on the ground before the airfield was actually secured, yours stayed on jump status. If your unit got loaded on the C-17 that could be the first to land at the secured airfield, yours came off.
One of the reasons that I was told that they have non-airborne pathfinders is for use in a NBC environment. One of my classmates is a Pathfinder from White Sands.
If training is so expensive, they can quit sending all of those folks who will remain 5-jump-chumps their entire career, like those ROTC and West Point cadets who will never see another static line after Fryar Field.
They’ll change their minds about it. Something will happen and they’ll need them agains.
I don’t know who made a decision like this, but I hope they get to go to a surgeon who didn’t have to take Anatomy in med school.
I am a Pathfinder qualified guy so I’m not speaking from jealousy or anything like it. Pathfinders have been useless in an airborne role since WWII and weren’t very successful then. What they are good at is advance forces for Air Assault operations. There is no need to be airborne qualified to do what they do. In fact if the Army got rid of the really cool badge, you couldn’t fill a Pathfinder class without forcing people to go.
To Jonn’s point above, I actually made a recommendation briefing to the Chief of Infantry many years ago to address this directly. My recommendation was that Basic Airborne wings could not be worn on any uniform unless the soldier had served at least 24 months in an actual airborne unit.
Take away the badge and the Cadets will not want to do it.
I said the same should be true for all skill badges to include the Ranger Tab.
It was shot down of course but it would solve the problem of choking the training base with badge hunters.
Jonn @3. Fully agree. Jump school should only be as a prerequisite to going to an airborne assignment. Taking away the vertical insertion capability for Pathfinders is ridiculous and was probably recommended by some chick contractor sitting at a desk in Virginia looking at a TO&E.
Oops! The comment from COB6 @6 above was posted while I was typing mine. I bow to the more experienced and qualified and sheepishly withdraw my comment above.
Sporkmaster-
WHY would they need Pathfinder’s in an NBC environment? UNLESS it’s to come pick their asses up and depart promptly.
That’s one thing I never understood about Army mentality- why worry about doing ALL your job in MOPP-4 if you are supposed to be getting the hell out of that environment?? Like us in the Signal Corps- sitting there tuning/monitoring radios and equipt that just had its innards fried by an EMP/nuke drop??
Next, JFSOC forbids SF-types from going to Ranger school. Admits its redundant…
“It’s like a transportation company in which no one has driver’s licenses.” Or, like a medical battalion full of cooks?
Mr. Wolf, I’m retired signal, I always questioned the logic in setting up a site in MOPP4. Always seemed that the training would be better suited to tearing down the site & haulin’ ass in MOPP4.
How can one be airborne and “air assault” as a leg if you have no parachute capabilities?
your dumb.
So are you. Weren’t you ever taught the difference between your and you are (you’re).
Well, First you walk to the DZ and mark it with tent pegs. Then you wait for the assault troops to walk in and pitch their tents. By that time the state department will have negotiated your surrender. And please don’t shoot at any of the enemy as we don’t want to pay for their sheep or goats. Now, fall in for diversity training!
Non airborne Pathfinders aka Leg Pathfinders…women Pathfinders….I can say no more. I will remove all of my Pathfinder shit and toss it in John Kerry’s office. Bill Bezich is spinning in his grave.
I would also like to point out that 5-101 are the original pfdr co from WWII. I served with 4-101 (the one that used to be LRSD) and being airborne is what set us apart. The reason why is because we would grab the RASP/RIP and 18xray babies from replacement because they were generally more squared away than legs coming off San hill. We also made that maroon beret something to strive for. You wore a black beret until you past pre reqs. When you did that we would have a company formation and present that young soldier a company coin and his maroon beret. For a soldier first coming into the army and accomplishing that is a milestone for them. Taking those companies off jump status is a shame because there is definitely a big difference between driving and humping to an obj and jumping in at might with full combat equipment and moving to the obj. This is a shame
@3, John, when I referred to training, I was not talking Jump School. Ft Benning and the Basic Airborne Course is peanuts. I am talking about sustainment training for a unit on jump status; equipment, aircraft, lost man-hours out the garrison office, etc. Anyone from the 82nd can tell you that jumping conventional is practically an all day affair, even if the weather is perfect. On top of $150/month for every swinging richard on active jump status. Many millions of dollars that the Army decided to spend elsewhere.
Pathfinders to me only make sense if you give them a AFF/HALO/HAHO licence. Then a mix &match of recce and classic pathfinder business and you’ll have an useful asset in the basket.
But the you might integrate them into your paratrooper platoons or into some airborne reconaissance unit. As a stand alone capability it is a bit weak.
[15: I would also like to point out that 5-101 are the original pfdr co from WWII.] The WW II original pathfinder units were organized at the regiment level, not at division level. In post-war years, when the 101st was reactivated as a non-Airborne training unit, the 82d formed its first division-level pathfinder platoon. I believe the 11th, then on occupation duty in Japan, did the same. After the Air Force split off to become a separate service in 1947, the USAF eventually took over the mission of controlling airdrops with its combat control teams. Later the pathfinder mission was revised to focus on helicopter operations. The 101st returned to being a combat division in 1956 but, with CCT controlling DZs, I’m not sure when its first division-level pathfinder unit was organized. It may not have been until the Vietnam era. Perhaps someone on this forum who served at that time could provide some insights.
Pathfinders 4-101 are the shiznit. why is air assault in quoations?? as if its a made up unit and airborne is a real word???