Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire actual Airborne jumps in Vietnam?

The current (April 2019) issue of VFW magazine has a story of the Montagnards and a new "Central Highlands" community near Asheville, NC. A lot of SF vets in NC due to the JFK Center at Ft. Bragg.

good info. is that going to be a homeland village, or maybe structured to be a tourist attraction? i wasn't aware of that. we go to the asheville area quite a bit.

Damn. How does one jump into triple canopy jungle? Even flooded rice paddys for that matter.

Much respect.

SOG used smokejumper gear for some of their jumps.

hadn't heard of that. do you have a bit of further explanation?

John Plaster has a couple of books about SOG, Franklin Miller has one called "Reflections of a Warrior" and Charles Simpson wrote "Inside the Green Berets".

It was mentioned in one of those, I don't remember which book or books I read it in.

When I was at FT Lewis in the mid 2000's my Company sent a few guys to the smokejumper school.

Breakfast it is, Tim

Name the time--trusting the place is the same...:)

A week ago, could have dog-paddled up there.

It is a village complete with a long house. I can't recall the number of inhabitants. It is supported by many ex-SF guys.

Being a retired paratrooper, and former proud member of the 2d Battalion (Abn) 503d Inf, this subject of jumps is near and dear to my heart. Being a former member of the 2-503, I have some insights, rumors, innuendo, or whatever we choose to call it here. That said, we were always told that the 2-503 had a very interesting history in that it was the only unit ever to be in two places at the same time, North Africa and the Pacific. History was revised after the fact to change the designation of the 2-503 in Africa to the 2-509. I don't know how long after the fact or if it was indeed redesignated prior to the jumps into Tunisia and Algieria, BUT, the 2-503 was constituted from the original "Test Platoon" and sent to Scotland and from there to the jumps into North Africa as the 2-503. We were told this as members of the unit. In fact my jump wings were pinned onto my chest by the first enlisted man to jump from a plane, PFC Robert N. (Red) King, a former member of the test platoon, and the 2-503. Just thought that I would pass that along. The 2-503 is a very proud unit with much history. So much history that it holds it's own reunions in addition to the reunions of the 173 Airborne Brigade. I was in the 2-503 during the 11years it was in the 101st Airborne Division. It also had a short stint in the 2d Infantry Division in Korea. during the Regimental alignments in the early to mid 1980's before the 173d was reconstituted.

Wouldn't mind joining you if you have room for a third.

cf

Most were air assaults (helicopter) not jumps... only one that would come anywhere close to what one might think of as like in WW2. Very few had any great numbers of troops, and most of those left will never be spoke of.

Here's a list of those that we will own up to... U.S. jumps in combat zones.

Link


Phil