12-06-2008, 01:39 PM
centaur32 Wrote:G'day Paul,
So, if I understand your logic, then, the 82nd & 101st Airborne qualified troops who were Airmobile in Viet Nam were not really Airborne troops because their knees were only in the wind blowing through the open doors of the UH-1D helicopters delivering them to their Landing Zones and you are applying this logic to the Soviet Air Assault Troops......or am I misunderstanding you?
Cheers,
Jim
Jim, it is not just my logic - but military logic which may be the source of the confusion :D Airborne and air assault (formerly air mobile) are two different types of units and operations. Although confusing, the 82d Airborne is a true airborne division; the 101st Airborne was a true airborne division, but has been air assault since the late 50's I think. The 101 retains its "airborne" title as an honorific remembering its WWII service.
To be in the 82d, an individual must be airborne qualified and the unit is tasked to conduct large scale airborne operations (as well as air assault operations:)). In the 101st, airborne qualification is not a pre-requisite and the unit hasn't conducted an airborne operation for at least 40+ years (for argument's sake, although I think they have a demonstration parachute team and maybe a recon platoon or something that jumps, but 99+% of the unit has no tactical ability to conduct a parachute operation).
Thus, although it's on the unit's patch and they are called the 101st Airborne to pay homage to unit's WWII legacy, no 101st "Screaming Eagle" can call himself "airborne", unless he is also a qualified parachutist.
In your Vietnam example, the 82d trooper at least parachuted sometime before coming to the unit and could have been called to in Vietnam, however his 101st counterpart probably had never parachuted and his unit could not have conducted an airborne operation, though it did conduct plenty of air assault (then called air mobile) operations.
In the same way, although these Soviet guys are wearing green "airborne" patches with the representation of a parachute on them, they are not airborne since they are not wearing parachutist badges and never jumped. Russian military refer to airborne forces as vozduzhnye desantniki and the air assault forces as shturmovye desantniki.
