It seems all the documentaries I have seen over the years, troops were always flown in with Hueys.

yes, i think the 173rd jumped

I thought I'd heard of at least one big jump in Vietnam.  Memory is fried on the subject though.

yes 173rd airborne

Operation Junction City

Interesting, thanks!

 

Yup.  I work with a retired Lt. Col. who jumped once and landed in a bunch of trees instead of an open area, breaking his leg.  He went right back after his leg healed.

You mean combat jumps or Airborne Troops fighting in Vietnam?

Combat jumps.

 

It seems this list is missing a few smaller ones from Afghanistan.



http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/airborne-jumps.htm



 

A small number of SOG recon teams made a few static-line jumps into Laos and Cambodia in 1970 from Hueys and there was a HALO jump as well but most developed into bad situations once the teams were on the ground.  RT Montana also HALO'd into the Ia Drang Valley around the same time but SOG was anything but a conventional paratrooper unit.

I think after the 173rd herd tried it once or maybe twice in Vietnam they decided to stick with airmobile tactics and use helicopters.  Many of those trees were 150-200 feet tall or more, so landing in one of those or getting snagged in the triple canopy on top was not a good thing.  With a big airmobile assault you could strategically place a large number of combat ready troops together in a single location with little chance of injury.  The biggest air assault mission I was ever involved in contained over 50 CH-53 & CH-46 choppers all chock full of troops.  We inserted them at one time in one big giant two-wide trail formation.  It was kind of a clusterfuck having that many ships involved at once, but it worked out pretty well.  

Not to piss on anybody's parade, but big airborne op's are just too WWII to be practical anymore.  These days, the special op's guys in their little glider suits like HALO because they can exit their aircraft a long way away from the LZ at night and drop in unnoticed, so there are still some applications where parachute insertions work.

The 173rd did the only "combat" jump in Vietnam and IIRC, there was no combat, but to be honest I never asked or was told any details, so it was more of a bragging rights thing.



My buddy's dad was in the jump

2000, I saw an E-5 Puerto Rican National Guard soldier with the 173rd SSI on his right sleeve and a mustard stain.

This.

Damn, I bet that poor FAC pilot had his hands full orchestrating that mess.

It was a big joint operation in mid-1972 involving all services.  There was Naval gunfire, Arclights and TAC Air all hitting the LZ within minutes of our arrival with the troopships.  The FAC's had their hands full to say the least.  As you can imagine, once the operation was underway the radios were pretty much one big continuous loud sqeal.  We used all twelve of our Army Cobras to cover the Marine and Navy troopships.

It's funny how 1972 - the last full year of direct U.S. combat in the war - saw a lot of innovations.

That was  the year that saw the first combat use of laser guided bombs (against the Paul Doumer Bridge in Hanoi - which dropped a span or two).

More in keeping with your background, 1972 also saw the first time in history that a helicopter gunship destroyed an enemy tank, when a Snake from "The Blue Max" knocked out a Russian T-54 near An Loc during the Easter Offensive.

I salute you for your service in Vietnam.

Here's a link to a painting which depicts that incident at An Loc.

The Defense of An Loc

When I was at the Big Red One reunion, the 1/4 cav guys all joked about the 173rd landing on top of their tracks.





 

Funny you talk about all that Omega62,  I was Blue Max and the big operation I'm talking about was done by Blue Max up in Quang Tri after we finished the 3-month battle down at An Loc.  I have a signed original of that painting hanging right here in my den.  I was there the day we knocked out the first T-54's.

It is an honor to have you as a member here, Sir.

Operation dumbo drop.  Duh!

As a post Viet Nam UH-1H Crew Chief I'll second that.

THX guys, it's nice to know that there are still folks out there that remember the details of those crazy days.  Eight brave Blue Maxer's died in the fighting at An Loc. I don't intend to ever forget that.

Actually, laser guided bombs were used before 1972, just on a very limited basis.  Holes were put in The Citadel at Hue by LGBs in 1968.  They were also used on caves in Laos by Prarie Fire and Ravens.

yes, 173rd as mentioned. Also I've heard lots of stories of older vets talking about jumps that weren't recognized as "combat" jumps, but still being shot at on the way down, not talking black ops stuff, just normal paratroopers

+1  Thanks for sharing, Snake; that's awesome.

My friends dad was Airborne. He got to jump into Cambodia also.
He was in some LRRP group that wasn't publicly recognized in the 80's.
I believe CBS did a spot on them.

I heard we also sent some paratroopers to serve with the French as advisers during the Indochina War and that some of them jumped into Dien Bien Phu.  There was an article in the L.A. Times I think a couple of years ago about a veteran from Co. E of the 506th (of BoB fame, but he wasn't a character in the series) who had stayed in after WWII.  They featured him because he surprised a kid who was a BoB fan for a BoB themed birthday party and told stories and the like about his experiences to the kids.  They mentioned in the article he had jumped into Dien Bien Phu and was one of the few who escaped during the siege.  Kinda wished I still remembered his name.  I think he was also one of the original Easy Company guys.

I thought at first it was Robert "Burr" Smith who stayed in and was involved with Special Forces (and was apparently an advisor to Delta), but the guy you're thinking of was Clarence Lyall.


 

That's the guy.  Lives down here in my part of California.

Marvin the Arvin did also a combat jump at Ap Bac in 1963.

It was, of course, an epic clusterfuck.

See my first post.

The French did a ridiculous number of jumps during the Indochina conflict.

I'd be interested to see a list of militaries ordered by number of combat jumps.

 

I will expand a bit to those US Combat jumps.  If you notice my avatar it is the 503d PIR crest.  I was in the 2d Bn 503d but never in combat.

The first US Combat jump was the 2d Bn 503d.  The text shows it as the 509th.  The 2d Bn 503d was fighting in North Africa when the Army decided to deploy Airborne troops in the Pacific.  The 503d was chosen as the Rgt to be deployed in the Pacific.  They transferred colors only and formed a new unit.  As sometimes happens in war, plans or orders become confused.  The 2d Bn 503d in Europe was redesignated as the 2d Bn 509th PIR, but they never got the word.  They continued fighting the war including that very first US Parachute Assault in North Africa as the 2d  Bn 503d PIR.  This was the only time in US History that the same regiment was in two places at the same time.

The 2d Bn 503d also made the combat jump in Viet Nam.  I served with a lot of Herd guys but none who made the jump.  I had a squad leader who was in the 3d Bn 187th under LTC Hunnycutt in the Ashau Valley in Viet Nam.  He used to rant and rave about the 173d's combat jump in Viet Nam.  He said the drop zone was heavily defended by US Armor and that it was the safest place in Viet Nam at that time.  He said the Ashau Valley was terrible and that they would go in and take a hill then leave and then go back in at a later time and take it again.  Now don't mistake what I am typing here.  I am a proud former member of the 2d Bn 503d PIR and I am not confirming the 3-187 guys story.  I just used to get a kick out of him going off when someone mentioned that jump.  And again, I state that I never personally met anyone who made that jump.  Rocks Lead the Way!

IIRC, the Rhodies are at the top. They were making 2-3 drops per day as part of their FireForce tactics; they were small, however.

French are probably #2.

173rd got fucked up in vietnam, the unit guys still talk about it.

That's what I was thinking. I read somewhere that there are RLI vets with 40 or 50 combat jumps, and one guy with around 80.