FORT BRAGG, N.C. � The nation�s premier Airborne infantry division, the 82nd Airborne, will lose its hallowed airborne status in the next fiscal year, Army officials announced Thursday.

Reasons for the change include the high cost of maintenance and fuel in the face of looming budget cuts, and the higher-than-average injury and fatality rate for soldiers conducting training jumps, according to a statement from U.S. Army Forces Command.

�As much as it helps esprit de corps and a sense of unit pride,� said Army spokesperson Col. Mike Mulally, �It hurts in terms of readiness, injuries and the bottom line. The time spent on jumps could be used for more relevant training. We would save over $4 million a year in facility and equipment upkeep.�

�And let�s not forget,� Mulally added, �The awful fatality incidents we suffer about once a year. Every time the general has to give another flag to a wife or mother whose soldiers were lost on a training jump, we have to ask ourselves: Why are we training on an insertion technique that hasn�t been relevant in over fifty years?�

As expected, the announcement caused much consternation among former and current 82nd Airborne veterans.

�This is a horseshit,� said 1st Lt. Jeremy Dallas, a paratrooper and former Airborne School instructor. �Back before I went to OCS, I did a combat jump with the 173rd into Bashur during the initial invasion. FORSCOM doesn�t think that airborne training is relevant? What do they think that jump was? A Hollywood?�

Noting that the airfield had been secured hours earlier than the Bashur assault, Pakistani Gen. Abdul Mansour al-Islamabadi told reporters the �Americans missed their drop zone so badly that it took them fifteen hours to reassemble. And let�s not forget that the 173rd almost caused an international incident when they mistook some of our Turkish allies for Iraqis. They arrested and beat the [bleep] out of them, even though they were wearing Turkish army uniforms. Because I guess all us brown people look alike.�

�But sure, whatever, call it a combat jump, I don�t care,� he added.

The 82nd Airborne Division will immediately cease all airborne training, and at the end of the 2014 fiscal year will officially cease to be an Airborne unit. It will retain the �Airborne� designation in its unit title, but much like the 101st Division, will not be a real airborne unit any longer.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade, stationed in Vicenza, Italy, will remain on Airborne status for the next fiscal year, although anonymous sources in the Pentagon confirmed that it too will soon revert to leg infantry.

Hmmm� Tough call. If airborne insertions of divisions is still required, poor decision. If fewer troops (special forces) have replaced the division sized jumps, then it is a good decision in the face of Obama's budget cuts.

It`s like guns on fighters, they arn`t needed till there needed.

And the pussification continues..

This, alone, removes Carter from the worst POTUS in history rank.

Holy schit.

I think this has been coming for a long time. After talking to a guy who jumped into Iraq with the 173rd, he thought it was basically done to say "Look, we're still relevant", as jumping didn't accomplish much strategically.

The article doesn't mention the 501st out of Richardson losing jump status, but one would infer this will go away if the 173rd is also going leg.

Killing the American Warrior Culture at every available level. The loss of life on training jumps every year? when the Fudge did that start? We had an 8 yr run through '87 without a fatality going, and I didn t stay current with what has happened since.
Airborne status hasn t been about Div sized jumps in forever, it s battalion sized, aimed at DRB (18 hr response), quick response threats.
The idea that a Pakistani officer has any thing to say in an article about our military and our readiness shows more about the "reporter" than anything.
Yes, my sig is 1/504, as in 1st Battalion 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment. Bullshit doesn t begin to describe this decision.

Exactly. Ben Franklin brilliantly opined over two centuries ago that if some future force could drop sky soldiers on demand where ever required, they could dominate any terrain.

Conducting para drops is nowhere as technical as flying itself but it IS quite technical and requires a LOT of institutional knowledge that, like flying, is highly perishable. We figured that schidtt out on the fly in WWII and killed a lot of young men in the process.

I wonder if Putin plans to get rid of his paratroops?

If we are going to feed, clothe, house, insure, and otherwise pamper the 49% the money has to come from somewhere!

It is just a matter of time, before the liberal left takes away firearms from our soldiers.... and says we don't need airpower or anything else... because it might hurt someone, and we don't want the enemies of this country to get mad at us....

I said it in 2008 and I'll say it again.... Obama is our enemies' choice for President of the United States....and he hasn't disappointed them yet...

Will the Army Rangers still be airborne qualified, or will new Rangers not go through airborne training?. What about other Special Operations graduates???

L.W.

I really hate this , i loved jump school at Ft Benning and now wonder if it will be closed next.

You guys realize that this article is a total spoof, right? It's from the Duffel Blog (a great website BTW).

Although the line about Bashur being secured hours before the 173rd jump is incorrect; Bashur was always secure.

I was wondering that. I didn't see a link, but it read kike a typical duffel blog article

Duffle Blog kicks ass! Sometimes i shake my head at what you guys believe around here LOL.. The latest one they have on the coast guard is hilarious

Maybe so, but here's one that's a fact: The army no longer has bayonet training, but the Marines still do.....

Was their a recent bayonet charge we didn't hear about??

Isn't the Marines where they for the actor who did the commercial where his only lines were "i pick things up and put them down"?

Here's the article if anyone is interested. Be sure to read about John Adams at the very bottom of the page.

http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/04/82nd-airborne-legs/

Where does it say it is a spoof? Or is the whole blog a spoof?

all the damn [bleep] would probably just put a rubber dick on the end of their weapon anyway

Check out the link in the post just above yours. The DuffelBlog is hilarious - much better than The Onion.

some current stories:
"US Army awarded Medal of Honor After Jumping on Fiscal Grenade"

"Soldiers Re-Invade Germany By Mistake, Reignite WWII"

"ISAF Drops Candy To Afghan Children, Kills 51"

"Intelligence Section Produces High-Quality Bullshit" - well, okay, this last one is legit...

Oh come on now the whole blog is a spoof it is satire. Us folks in the Army get a good laugh out of it cause man it is so true..

The whole blog is a spoof.

Although it does cut awfully close to the truth at times.

E.g., "Army 2nd Lieutenant Leads Platoon Five Kilometers Without Getting Lost, Awarded Medal".

Truth is a relative thing. There was a lot of consternation back in the late '60s regarding status for the 101st ABN/Airmobile/ABN/Airmobile depending on day of the week. Never saw a chute other than carrying a flare, and was to busy whackin' Charlie about the head and shoulders to GAF.

Remember the reason for the drill.

Close???? A butterbar couldn't lead a platoon through a grocery market without getting lost and that includes having the Redlegs fire spotter rounds!!!

I went to bed last night all p-o'd and depressed. I was dreading the 173d next!

I seem to recall a few multi-death incidents in the mid 1980's. I think we lost 9 guys on a jump in the Mojave in 1986 or 87 from Santa Ana winds??? I remember someone near me landed on a Joshua tree or some other type tree and got speared through the spleen after it went clear through a canteen. The same exercise lost 4 Rangers in Utah due to explosives.

I can remember bigtime casualties on a jump in Turkey in 1983 or 1984, on the first pass but don't recall if any were fatal.

I can also remember a 19 year old falling 1000 ft on a night jump at Ft Bragg in 1987 with no parachute and walking away. My friend was JM on the next jump and found the cut static line; I was DACO and had to get contact the DZ for casualties or reserve activations. There were none. I kept prying for info and the DZSO wanted to know what all the questions were about. I told him about the cut static line on the aircraft. They made more headcounts and inquiries and finally the 19 year old PFC said he wasn't real sure if he had a deployed canopy on the jump. Sure enough there was a non-deployed chute in the pile and no deployed Reserve chutes. True Story.

They draw Hazardous Duty Pay for a reason.

I wish people would vet this schit before posting it. I just finished a conversation with a kid in the 82nd, he told me I had been duped.

Since we're delving into the irrelevant, haven't heard of an air-to-air engagement or even a tank battle of late, so let's do away with those! BTW, Marines did use them on several occasions in Fallujah, but then again...

Yup, I remember watching the Marines go into the reeds along the Tigris river and the insurgents running out the other end on the news. Well, the ones that were still alive .....

Now you are just being silly! I see my Battalion Commander all the time and CSM I will let them know concerned retired navy avaitor said we need to do bayonet training

It is if [bleep] satire/joke wtf why cant you guys get this through your [bleep] heads [bleep] doesn't anyone have a sense of humor anymore....

Yeah I went to bed pissed off too cause more and more BCT (Brigade Combat Teams) are swtiching over to SBCT (Stryker Brigade Combat Teams)damn pussification of the Army I tell you

Where's the Horse Cavalry when you need'em...?

You miss my point. Hopefully guys like ET will chime in about this, but to me it's a lot more than just training with what seems to be an obsolete weapon. It's about a useful training tool to weed out the lower end of the bell curve. That, together with discipline and tradition. In flight school, part of the filtering process was a fairly tough obstacle course.
So WTF does that have to do with flying? Got rid of the no-loads and those with no motivation. It's gone BTW, and the reason? Same as you just used; it's an obsolete process, but to me, its just another tool that in my view, aside from a good weeding out tool does (and did) have it's applications in today's battlefield and like I said, Marines used it in recent times. We are far too quick nowadays to eschew traditions and discipline. The Navy has done just that as so has the Army. Oh, and one more thing, I started my military life as an 0311 in the Crotch, so at least I can relate...

Gotta love the Duffle Blog.

That said, how sad is it that a story like that is completely believable under This administration?

I found it believable because there will be no C-130s at Pope/Ft Bragg unless the Army gets the move stopped.

One less Mooch-ell vacation will pay for many years of training for the 82nd.


It was a good spoof though.

Jokes should be funny

10-4

Bayonet training and skills are psywar against them and for us. Candyassed people hate it because it is PURE aggression and edged weapons are weapons of terror not intimidation. Too personal for anything BUT terrorizing the enemy. You can't see a bullet,but you can sure as hell see steel coming to rip out your guts. Phag brass and the social engineers HATE bayonet training and kills.

I will absolutly admit to not reading the article before posting. The fact that the decommissioning of Airborne status for the 101st way back when had everything to do with my believing the original post. Can you imagine the shock and dismay of those that had served in an official Airborne capacity with that unit when they lost their jump status? We have heard about the end of Airborne status for many years, way before there was on line satirical military blogs, made this easy to believe with the communist in charge right now.
That said, reading the other duffle blog stories was freakin hilarious

The Spirit of the Bayonet is too Kill!

Mike

http://sadefensejournal.com/wp/?p=391

Good troll though at 5 pages.

Thanks for that brother. As usual, spot on...

It has been said for years that very few have been killed by a bayonet during war, but that millions had been intimidated by one. It is truly an essential military weapon and tool, bayonet fighting, not just the bayonet, which is in itself a valuable, useful tool for the soldier.

As an aside, do bayonets even fit on M4 carbines? I remember the Car 15 (aka Colt Commando) didn't even have a bayonet lug. I retired with being issued and zeroing an M16A2, but not being around for our initial qualification with the A2.

M4 have a bayonet lug most if not all units turned in bayonets years ago. Every now and then you will see one pop up in the supply room.

$4M vs.


"A trip to Africa by the president and first lady in June 2013 drew estimates of as much as $100 million in total costs. Also that month, Michelle Obama's two-day trip to Ireland cost an estimated $5 million. A return trip to Africa for the funeral of Nelson Mandela cost in excess of $11 million.

According to Judicial Watch, a Freedom of Information lawsuit revealed "President Obama incurred $7,396,531.20 in flight expenses alone for his 2013 vacations to Hawaii and Martha's Vineyard and his trip to California to appear on the Jay Leno show."

Sickening. Obscene. Revolting.

Well inserting more that a dozen men by parachute is kind of wasteful, All you have to do is look at Operation Market Garden, and after Crete, the OKW- the German Army never did another drop on that kind of scale. Helicopters do the job. And then there is the question of resupply once on the ground. Personally I think its a bunch of horse [bleep], 4 million they say they will save is not any kind of real money when you have the feds spending 4 trillion a year. Chump change. I said for this war on a number of occasions, about the bayonet. they should train in its use. And when need used. The State Departments annual liquor bill will pay a good chunk of that 4 million a year.

Ummm C-130 holds 64 troopers on a one way trip! Seems wasteful to not bring at least that many!

A forced entry capable Division, can put 17,000 men and equipment ranging from light armor, artillery, infantry and support units anywhere there is a decent sized somewhat flat spot.

I'd say it's still viable! Plus it's an incredible rush falling out of a plane at 800 ft in total darkness.

Mike

Tank battles still happen:

Battle of 73 Easting

BS. When you put a small force in, it needs to be done from high altitude, at LEAST 18,000 ft. 25K is much better. You can't hear the plane, or at least the plane has cover for action, IE, it isn't telegraphing the fact that it is inserting troops.

Also, you can hear parachutes open at seven or eight thousand ft.

You go tell the 75th Rangers that dropping a company or a BN isn't viable.

And bayonets ? That is what you country buys you when they are too [bleep] cheap to buy you a proper pistol, or so said Herbert McBride (A Rifleman Went to War)

Check the date...And of course they are still a reality, which was my whole point..

Nothing better than listening to back at Bragg stories from troops that pcsed from their. When you in process Bragg they give you the kook-aid and a book on how to properly tell back Bragg stories. I do know the famed 82nd missed the party in Iraq when the invasion happened i do know they had two heavy divisions their and 101.

I know i have been there and done that.