United States Army Airborne School

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Students are inspected by their jump masters prior to their first airdrop mission.
Students are inspected by their jump masters prior to their first airdrop mission.

The Airborne School is run by the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 507th Infantry, U.S. Army Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia. The mission of the Airborne School is to conduct the Basic Airborne Course. It is open to soldiers of both genders from all branches of the United States Army as well as sister services and allied military personnel.

The purpose of the Basic Airborne Course is to qualify the volunteer (all students volunteer for this school) in the use of the parachute as a means of combat deployment and to develop leadership, self-confidence, and an aggressive spirit through mental and physical conditioning.

The course is three weeks long, divided into Ground Week, Tower Week and Jump Week. There is a rigorous physical training (PT) regimen through the entire course. The initial entry PT test consists of the standard Army APFT. All age groups must pass this test using the 17-21 age group standards. The pullup requirement was lifted in October of 2006.

Contents

[edit] Ground Week

During Ground Week, students begin an intensive program of instruction to build individual airborne skills, which prepare them to make a parachute jump, and land safely. They train on the mock door, practice parachute landing falls (PLF), exit the 34-foot (10 m) tower, and train on the lateral drift apparatus (LDA). To go forward to Tower Training Week, students must individually qualify on the 34-foot (10 m) tower, the LDA, and pass all PT requirements.

[edit] Tower Week

A team effort is added to the training with the "mass exit" concept. The apparati used this week are the 34-foot (10 m) towers, the swing landing trainer (SLT), the mock door for mass exit training, the suspended harness, and potentially the 250-foot (76 m) free tower. Tower Week completes student individual skill training and builds team effort skills. To go forward to Jump Training Week students must qualify on the SLT, master the mass exit procedures from the 34-foot (10 m) tower, and pass all PT requirements.

[edit] Jump Week

During Jump Week students make five parachute jumps into Fryar Drop Zone (DZ) located in Alabama on the Fort Benning Military Reservation. Trainees must run to the air field, conduct pre-jump training, and then get into their harnesses and await their turn to jump. Generally, two of the jumps are "combat equipment jumps", in which the jumper carries a ruck sack and a dummy weapon. The other three jumps are "hollywood", in that the jumper only wears the parachute and reserve. At least one jump is at night, although, during training cycles where Jump Week falls on a three day week (due to a Federal holiday), a night jump is not mandatory to graduate.

[edit] Instructors

A "Black Hat"
A "Black Hat"

The Airborne School instructors are commonly referred to as "Black Hats", due to the black baseball cap with their dress uniform rank insignia and parachutist badge that is the distinguishing part of their uniform. However, all students within the school are required to call them "Sergeant Airborne" (or Petty Officer Airborne in case of a Navy instructor). Unusual for an Army school, instructors come from the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Navy and United States Air Force.[1] The reasoning behind this is because students from all four main branches of the military are able to attend, so each branch insists that they have at least one representative to ensure quality instruction. They train students in the use of static line deployed parachutes.

The battalion is organized into six companies: Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) for administrative actions and command and control; four Line Companies (A, B, C, and D) execute the Basic Airborne Course Program of Instruction (POI) and Company (E) provides parachute rigger support.

[edit] Students

The vast majority of students at Airborne School come from the U.S. Army. These include soldiers on assignment to the 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, 173rd Airborne BCT, 75th Ranger Regiment, or the Special Forces Qualification Course. Summer classes are frequently made up of substantial numbers of cadets from ROTC and West Point. Excess seats go to other personnel at Fort Benning on assignment to Officer Candidate School or the Officer Basic Course.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] The Airborne School has U.S. Army Blackhat cadre and instructors from the USMC and USAF to train students in the use of the static line deployed parachute.

[edit] External links

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