History of Airborne?

[Boatdrivers_Babe]

I know Tracy isn't available to answer directly currently, but if any other of the "old guard" from Army SF can answer this I'd appreciate it. How far back does the history of the Army SF groups go, and when exactly was the original Airborne designation initiated, i.e. issuance of division identifiers for uniforms and/or what would today be called security clearance badges?

[Sweetbriar]

Boat's, according to the 82nd's website, they were the first to be designated "Airborne" on Aug 15, 1942. I hope an SFer will help you with this, but specialoperations.com does have some good unit/history links you might find useful.

[Mac679]

Boat's,
I'll try and jump on and post an indepth answer to this question when I get some time on a faster connection. Here's some info to tide you over though.
10th Special Forces Group ( Airborne ) was activated on either June 19 or 20, 1952 ( can't remember the exact date ); this year being their 50th Birthday.
Airborne forces date to WW2, with the 82d and 101st being "leg" Infantry divisions converted to Airborne units and the 11th Airborne being created from the ground up as an Airborne unit ( of course my grandfather coulda been a bit biased towards the Angels ;) )
If you check through Ft Benning's website, look for Airborne School ( *might*, and it's a slim might, be listed as 1st Bn, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment ), and then on the site there should be information on the history of the Airborne, incl. *the absolute first Airborne unit in the US military*-the Parachute Test Platoon.

Hope it helps,
Mac

[Boatdrivers_Babe]

Sweet, thanks, sis, I found the site shortly after I posted my message and have e-mailed one of the historians. The issue concerns some documents and other military paraphernalia belonging to my father that were found when cleaning out the house. Please e-mail me. You will not believe this, but we had yet another hard drive failure and lost everything again. Bless Gateway, though, they not only replaced the hard drive free, the gave us a bigger hard drive and doubled our RAM --- all for $0!

[roula]

Bless Gateway, though


The Cow comes through once more. [grin]


Interesting historic info on the Airborne. Thanks, Mac.

[Boatdrivers_Babe]

Thanks to everyone for the info. With the amount I've received, I'll be busy until the snow flies -- oh, wait -- I'm not where it flies anymore. Anyhow, the info will keep me busy for a long time.

[Mac679]

Boats,
just curious but what's this for? might be able to narrow down some of the info you're looking for