to do it, there will be a good reason for it. The Airborne doesn’t have the weapons to do their job with a sabot round from four klicks (kilometers) away. They have to get in close. Their primary weapons are their M16 combat rifles and grenade launchers. For enemy armor they carry light anti-tank weapons. There are lots of people around the world with old Soviet-designed tanks to worry about, and Airborne forces have to train for that threat every day. As you might imagine, life in the 82nd can be hard!
However, that just makes them more enthusiastic for the life they have chosen for themselves. Visit them at Fort Bragg, and you see the pride, from the general who commands to the lieutenants who lead the troopers, to the sergeants who lead the squads and the new privates who are learning the business. You see a team tighter than most “old world” families. The senior officers, some of whom come in from other assignments in “heavy” units, almost always shed ten or fifteen years off their birth certificates and start acting like youngsters again.
The most recent nickname for the 82nd is “America’s Fire Brigade.” If there’s a big problem that the Marines can’t reach from the sea, or one that is developing just too rapidly for the ships to move in quickly enough, the Airborne will be there first. Their first job is likely to be seizure of an airfield so that heavy equipment can be flown in behind them. Or they might be dropped right onto an objective, to do what has to be done — hostage rescue, a direct attack on a vital enemy asset — with instant speed and lethal force, all of them hoping that they hit the ground alive so that they can organize, move out, and get it done fast, because speed is their best friend. The enemy will unquestionably be surprised by their arrival, and if you can organize and strike before he can organize to resist, you win. The idea is to end it as quickly as possible. It’s been said that no country has ever profited from a long war. That’s probably true. It is certainly true that no soldier ever profited from a long battle.
That’s why Paratroops train so hard. Hit hard. Hit fast. End it quickly. Clear the way for other troops and forces. Move out and prepare for the next one. Do these things and perhaps the next enemy will think twice. Maybe they will watch the sky and wonder how many of the red-beret troopers might be just a few hours away, and decide it isn’t worth the trouble. Just like nuclear weapons and precision-guided munitions, Airborne forces are a deterence force with power, mass, and ability to make an opponent think about whether his ambitions are really worth the risk and trouble. Think about that as you read on. I think that you will find, as I did, that the Airborne is as credible as they head into the 21st century, as they were in the Normandy Beachhead in 1944.
Airborne 101
And where is the prince who can so afford to cover his country with troops for its defense, as that ten thousand men descending from the clouds might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them?
It is hard to believe that even a man with the wisdom and foresight of Benjamin Franklin could have envisioned the idea of paratroopers and airborne warfare in the 18th century. Back then, just the idea of floating under a kite or balloon would have seemed somewhat daft to most people. Yet something sparked the imagination of this most American of Colonial-era men. As with so many other things, he saw the future of warfare, although it developed beyond even his amazing vision.
Even today, the idea of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane strikes most people, myself included, as just short of insanity. Nevertheless, airborne forces have become and remain one of the most important branches of the world’s armed forces. The reason is simple. Airborne forces have the ultimate advantage of shock and surprise. They are able to strike from any direction, at any place and time. Nobody can afford to cover an entire country with troops to guard every vulnerable point. Therefore, the potential of being surprised by airborne forces is inherently something to worry about. For the actual victims of such an assault, that worry turns to actual dread. History teaches the value of surprise and shock in warfare, and the development of airborne forces in the 20th century is perhaps the ultimate expression of those effects. One minute you are enjoying a quiet night at your post, the next you are fighting for your life against a foe who may be behind you, coming from a completely unexpected direction. Numerous German accounts from the defense of Normandy and Holland in 1944 tell the same story. The possibility of soldiers dropping out of a clear sky to attack you can provide a powerful reason to lose sleep and stay alert.
Airborne forces are hardly an American development. Actually, the United States was one of the last major powers to develop paratroop units. Prior to that, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Great Britain had all organized and committed airborne forces to battle. Nevertheless, the U.S. made up for its late start, and eventually conducted some of the largest and most successful airborne operations of all time. Today, despite their high costs, these same nations (and many others) continue to maintain some sort of airborne force. The reasons are obvious. The ability to reach into another nation’s territory and suddenly insert a military presence is just the kind of policy option that decision makers might want in a time of crisis. Think back to the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue by the Israelis, the 1989 Panama invasion, or the initial Desert Shield deployments to Saudi Arabia in 1990.
Unfortunately, keeping such a capability alive and viable is expensive. Airborne troops need special training, equipment, and a force of transport aircraft to deliver them to their targets. Also, the personnel in airborne units are among the best qualified and motivated in the military, thus depriving other branches and services of skilled leaders and technicians that are badly needed. As early as World War II, senior Army leaders were concerned that the airborne divisions were skimming off the cream of their best infantry. A private in an airborne unit might well be qualified to be a sergeant and squad leader in a regular infantry formation. Still, those same Army leaders recognize a need for a hard-tipped force to smash an opening into enemy territory and lead the way in. That force is the airborne.
Modern airborne forces are part of the small group of elite units used by the United States and other nations in the highly specialized role of “forced entry.” This means forces assigned, specially trained, and equipped to lead assaults into an enemy-held area, then hold open the breach until reinforcements arrive to continue the attack. Today, these units usually fall into one of three different categories. They include:
• Amphibious Forces: These include sea-based units such as the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Marine Expeditionary Units — Special Operations Capable (MEU [SOC]) and the Royal Marine Commando brigades. Riding aboard specially designed amphibious ships and equipped with landing craft and helicopters, they provide the ability to loiter for a long time and hold an enemy coastline at risk.
• Air Assault Units: Air assault units are helicopter-borne forces that enable a commander to reach several hundred miles/kilometers deep into enemy territory. First developed in the 1950s by the U.S. Marine Corps, these units are capable of lifting battalion or even brigade-sized infantry forces deep into enemy rear areas to establish strong points, blocking positions, or even logistical bases. Usually land-based in a nearby host nation, they also can be based aboard aircraft carriers, as was done during Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti in 1994.
• Airborne Units: Airborne (parachute/air-delivered) forces are the final, and most responsive, forced-entry units available to national-level decision makers. They can be rapidly tasked and dispatched to virtually anywhere the antiair threat level is tolerant to transport aircraft. When combined with strategic airlift and in-flight refueling aircraft, they allow the early deployment of ground forces across almost any distance.
In the United States, we have formed our airborne forces into several different types of units. A small
