- Combat jumps have become less common during the War on Terror.
- But in the years since the September 11 attacks, US troops have still found occasion to leap into action.
It was once the most heroic thing a soldier could do. They'd strap themselves up with the barest of combat essentials and jump out of the back of a perfectly good aircraft into uncertain danger - often ending up miles away from their intended drop zone and, sometimes, completely on their own.
Combat jumps led the Allied Forces to victory in WWII. These same tactics were employed during the Korean War and Vietnam War and, eventually, were used by Rangers and Green Berets in Grenada and Panama.
When it came time for the Global War on Terrorism, well, let's just say there are only a handful of combat jumps that come without asterisks attached.
It should be noted that this list
cannot be exhaustive, as there are likely some jumps that that have yet to be declassified. Also, there were many airborne insertions done in-theater, but those don't qualify you for the coveted "mustard stain," so they don't make the list.
The following are the only jumps that have happened since September 11, 2001 that satisfy all the requirements to fully classify as combat jumps.
1. Objective Rhino.
Just 38 days after the horrific attacks of September 11, the
75th Ranger Regiment sent 200 of their most badass Rangers to meet with the 101st Airborne Division 100 miles south of Kandahar, Afghanistan - the last bastion of complete Taliban control in Afghanistan.
The Rangers landed on a derelict strip of land and expected heavy resistance. In actuality, they found just
one, lone Taliban fighter who presumably s--- himself as 200 Rangers dropped in on him.
There, they established a sufficient forward operating base, called FOB Rhino, which opened the way to take back Kandahar for the Afghan people.
2. Objective Serpent.
The
75th Rangers, who are featured heavily on this list, led the way into Iraq by making combat jumps into Iraq in March 2003 - the first in Iraq since Desert Storm.
The Rangers landed in the region a few weeks earlier by airborne insertion to capture the lead operational planner of the September 11th attacks. They accomplished this within three days of touching boots to the ground.
The next wave of 2nd Battalion 75th Rangers came to secure al-Qa'im and Haditha before making their way into Baghdad.
3. Operation Northern Delay.
In the early morning of
March 26, 2003, 996 soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Division jumped into the
relatively empty Bashur Airfield and stopped six entire divisions of Saddam's army from continuing on to Baghdad.
This marked the first wave of conventional troops in the region and the beginning of the end of Saddam's regime. This was also the only jump conducted by conventional USAF airmen as the
786th Security Forces Squadron also jumped with them.
4. Various Regimental Reconnaissance Detachment jumps in Afghanistan.
Very little is known about the last two publicly disclosed combat jumps, as is the case with most JSOC missions, other than the fact that they were both conducted by the
75th Ranger Regiment's Regimental Reconnaissance Company Teams 3 and 1.
RRC Team 3 jumped into Tillman Drop Zone in southeast Afghanistan on July 3, 2004, to deploy tactical equipment in a combat military free-fall parachute drop.
This was the last RRC time made a jump until Team 1 jumped five years later on July 11, 2009, into an even more remote location of Afghanistan - but this time, scant reports state that the jumps including a tandem passenger to aid in deploying tactical equipment.
We'll just have to wait for the history books to be written, I guess.
- 75th Ranger Regiment
- Paratroopers
- paratrooper
- Afghanistan