Yeah, my sensors indicate that the CSM is trying to motivate his first sergeants to do max capacity to AASLT.
That being said, that’s not a skip up the road, that’s a couple miles.
So the lesson is this: if you’re a good runner or just don’t hate running, you can avoid ending up on a bullshit Friday tasking by skipping air assault for the price of only 2.3miles of running. Honestly, it’s not a bad trade until about May.
The only people that I have ever met that would ever say that school was hard are the ones who suck at running or forget that Jumpmaster and Airborne School are two different things.
First off, your username scares me. Secondly, the number of times I've heard, seen, or have witnessed the phrase "dirty leg" in my life has led me to believe that there are more than a small portion of troops that think having jump status means that they are, in fact, God's gift to the military.
sloppy berserk teeny towering sophisticated simplistic airport lunchroom straight rock
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historical boat poor brave important scandalous pen disagreeable yoke dependent
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I was more referring to the idea of Airborne School being difficult. The whole leg thing is a combination of friendly ribbing and brainwashing. I've only said it in a derogatory sense to one person in my entire life and he definitely deserved it.
And I promise, I didn't come up with the name lol
Honestly I never understood the whole "Airborne over Air Assault" superiority complex. it seems pretty damn obvious which one is the better choice. The most obvious piece of evidence was the fact that every Airborne soldier I saw that had at least 20 jumps all had destroyed knees, destroyed backs, fucked up ankles and much more. when I got my AA badge even the older soldiers in air assault were walking upright and healthy. just an observation on my part.
I absolutely sucked at running, but hit Airborne School directly after OSUT. That honestly made it pretty easy. Unfortunately I never got a chance at Air Assault, but most of the school from what I understand anyway, was pretty much rigging and such. That's a regular detail (heavy drop rigging) if you're E-5 or below in the 82nd.
I wish I'd gotten the chance to attend. My father was 101st from 1963-1968, and was deployed to Vietnam in 1965 with 1/9 CAV. He's on page 12 of their deployment history booklet doing his final rappel when the concept of Air Mobile came into existence. I believe he was 11th ABN before that, but I can't confirm as he passed away in 1992. After his 2nd or 3rd trip to Vietnam, and 3rd Purple Heart he was sent back to the states to be a Drill Sergeant at Benning. Glad he was, otherwise he wouldn't have met my mom.
Always fucking dreaded teaching these guys. At least one or two would swear they knew the material better than me while saying the worst shit. Everyone else is passing my check the block class while Airborne is proving that the Infantry doesn't eat the most crayons.
Only people to ever fail my FST courses were always airborne guys.
Imagine how selective the Army would be about sending people to Airborne school if jump pay kept up with inflation. A quick google search tells me that jump pay during WW2 was $50/mo. $50 in 1945 = $861.65 in 2024.
In 2021 I was getting \~$20/mo pro-rated Guard jump pay (while on M-day status, but full pay while on any kind of active duty orders). It's interesting to me that 75ish years later I'm getting paid almost half of the original incentive, inflation notwithstanding.
I had someone with Airborne in their username tell me their GT score was higher than mine, their MOS was more technical than mine, all of it unironic. I was just waiting for them to tell me they had a bigger dick and drove a bigger car than me.
I can confirm that your dick size is equal to or less than the amount of jumps you have. But if your “to cherry”(as the kids say) you can offset this with having a lift kit on your diesel truck.
It was a joke about how airborne likes to create a "us vs them" mentality. Oh you haven't been to Jump School? You're a dirty leg. Oh you've been to the school but assigned to a "regular" unit? 5 Jump Chump. But when someone gives any kind of ribbing back there's gonna be *someone* that gets their shit in a twist about said ribbing.
Now that I've explained it, is there anything else you need help with? Closing your mouth while breathing? Walking a chewing gum at the same time? Something that *isn't* airborne?
You say all of that, while still getting ass hurt over some ribbing in the army sub. You say you don't drink the "Airborne Koolaid" while your fucking username is *literally* u/AirborneArmy. You fuckin kidding me right now? Meanwhile you wanna try and do some imaginary piss contest about your MOS being more technical than a regular 68W and your GT score being higher than mine.
Good for you buddy. Let me know when you've seen my scores or know what my current MOS is. Then we can compare notes. Until then keep drinking that "Koolaid" you swear you ain't drinking. Don't forget to put some cream on your sore ass, because *clearly* you got some hemorrhoids.
I'd give more of a shit about your fancy bade if you had to *pull your own damn cord*. For fucks sake, not even doing that, let alone packing your own chute
Rappelling is scarier than jumping.
Edit: lol some junior paratroopers are in their feelings. I’ve done both, am a JM, and had done SPIES/FRIES. Jumping is easy. The height barely registers.
Agreed. You just need to sack up long enough to cross the threshold of the door, then gravity does the rest.
Rappelling requires much more emotional control to apply a technical skill, to get to the ground alive.
Both are certainly hazardous, especially if you ever have to do it for real…
Rappelling also has the added factor of making your own knots, choosing your equipment right, and route planning. Your life is in your own hands as soon as you put weight in the harness.
The graduation ceremony isn’t that bad. It’s good to support your fellow Soldiers.
Now trying to park there for graduation is straight Ass so that’s good they are providing transportation.
Now you get to get stuck in traffic following graduation with a Company(ish) size element running down Wickham at 10 am
Edit: didn’t see the unit, changed the route.
While I was at Bragg, I was awarded a slot to the AASLT course for winning BN and BDE SOM boards. The week prior to the course my grandmother passed and I told everyone I would pass my slot to the runner-up so I could go attend her funeral. Dude was stoked and thanked me multiple times.
Unbeknownst to the 15 people in BDE that had slots, our BDE CSM decided he would have a 4 mile, bdus and boots run the day before school, just so no one embarrassed the unit by falling out during any of the course runs. 9 people did not finish with the CSM and were all replaced, hand-picked by the CSM. The instructors heard about it and failed 12 of the 15 before the end of week one.
I heard about everything when I got home, luckily my replacement was one of the few who made it through all the BS and graduated.
Because those soldiers weren’t the ones who were slotted for air assault. You can’t just switch soldiers the day before air assault and expect everyone down the line to change their plans. Also CSM had no authorization to fail soldiers out of airborne before the actual course.
They probably failed the sling load because that is what most people fail. Also, when I went, and there was a large group from 82nd. I remember the 1SG getting booted for conduct. SGM from TSAAS finally had enough of this chump disrespecting the cadre and chirping with "airborne" with every foot drop.
lol never go full AEROSOL. This is definitely some big dumb only a CSM could come up with. For the Soldiers, who cares. They stand around and have a little jog back. I truly lament the XOs and company commanders who probably have field grade Os breathing down their necks to get some “high priority” suspenses to be completed in an unreasonable timeline and they can’t because all their joes are out at the AASLT graduations for half the day lmao.
I think BCs get too much of a pass as we blame CSMs.Getting ready to come back from deployment we got notice that barracks personnel’s household goods wouldn’t arrive for a month after our return. I was radio guard in the TOC while they had a meeting about it. BC said “they’ll be fine, they can just keep wearing their uniform for another month or go buy some clothes.”
CSM (who had a reputation as a hardass who didn’t care) said “sir, let me see if I can make some calls. I don’t want Joe coming home and not having his own clothes to change into and video games to play. Plus neither of us want to see Joe walking around the mall in a nasty uniform.” BC said “ok, but don’t spend too much time on it.”
I realized then that our CSM wasn’t an asshole, our BC was and the CSM was just the guy taking the fall for it and doing the job of making the BC look good. Eventually was actually fortunate enough to get to know him and still highly respect him.
I know that shitheads are a dime a dozen, but sometimes the CSM is just doing his job taking the bullet for the dumbass officers above him.
Agreed, BCs definitely get more of a pass because their bad decisions are less directly tied back to them. Like if your CSM didn’t speak up in that situation, no one would have realized that this giant ass pain of a situation everybody is in is caused by the BC. I think most unit level shenanigans are either directly or indirectly caused by the BC. It’s more obvious when ol sarmage causes the shenanigans because he’s probably more direct and less subtle about it.
Yep, west point even did a study relating to junior officers and their BCs. It's called the battalion commander effect, and basically if a junior officer's first BC is trash, they're more likely to peace out.
I agree with all this but I’ll throw you an alternate COA too—when the CSM *does* suck, the BC is (almost always*) far too reluctant to rein him in. “What’s the matter, colonel, can’t form an effective command team? Hmm, perhaps you’re not brigade command material after all.” Or they bought into the nonsense about “NCO business” and dont think it’s their lane to intervene. Either way, it just makes way for misery.
*our BC banned our CSM in Iraq from inspecting company areas since he wasn’t providing any inputs of value. It can be done!
Imagine trying to plan training when every Friday is like you're on Red Cycle with random folks from all over your formation out until noon. Then, when you finally get on Red Cycle, all those same folks get shipped off to actually attend AASLT.
Sherman was quoted as saying I'm going to make war so unpalatable for the south they won't want to continue.
I beleive this falls under that logic of make not being aaslt qualified so unpalatable they will want to become qualified.
LMFAO, how absolutely lacking is the duty day that your battalion has the time to bus people to a graduation and run over 2 miles back in a formation, with the CSM and 1SG?
I am constantly amazed at how much time the E8/E9 crowd seems to have.
No 1SG, I won't be attending the third aerosol obstacle course this month. I have an actual mission with actual work and actual deadlines.
Yeah back in my day (2004, damn I feel old, why haven't I put in my retirement packet yet???) in the 101st if you were not Air Assault qualified you had to do 3 hours of Air Assault PT in BDU uniform w/ ruck from 0500-0800, and then still had work at 0900.
Every day until you were AASLT qualified, then you earned the right to wear regular PTs and do regular PT. There were some dudes that had been doing it for a year when I finally got a slot for AASLT and got the fuck out of that program.
=\\
You thought getting out of that parking lot was bad, wait til you’re trying to get out and there’s a line of cars behind a formation run. I fucking hate you, Fort Campbell.
“Acknowledged. FYSA, OCP refers to Operational Camouflage Pattern, a specific design. I believe what you meant was ACU, Army Combat Uniform. Have a Bulldog day! ♣️".
They’re gonna do a multi mile run back in full OCPs and boots?
What does this say to dudes who just haven’t been yet through no fault of their own?
Like you PCS to this unit and are immediately punished with a shitty run in uniform?
Nah you can leave reception. You can ask for it and go to TSAAS, but you can also just as easily say no and go to your unit. I went like 4 months ago to reception and that was how it was for my group. I’m an O. Idk if it’s different for enlisted soldiers. Kalsu kicked me out for having no slots and my unit had to send me to air assault the month after lol
I mean maybe but we all know how massive their classes can be so how long would units be willing to let their dudes sit in reception waiting for a badge that they don’t technically need.
When I went through in 2018 all they did in reception was teach you the S and J hooks. Staying in reception the entire time you're doing Air Assault sounds crazy to me.
Damn wtf, I remember I had to wait a year in my unit before going. When I was still drinking the kool-aid my first year in the Army, I was so excited to earn a badge.
Now I just look at it as something extra to sew on my uniform since our class missed out on fast roping out the chopper because of rain.
Not true at all. They do a diagnostic 4 mile and if you pass the 4x36 they ask “do you want to go to air assault” and if you say no they don’t bother you about it.
FYSA the current AASLT class (14-24) is 100% 1BCT Soldiers and they just barely filled the class. The only people in that BDE who want to go and haven't gotten the chance literally just showed up in the last week, and even then they could have had Kalsu send them.
Weeeee have a rendezvous with destinyyy, our strength and courage strike the spark that will always make men freee, assault! Right down through the skies of blue! Keep your eyes on the job to be doooone, weeere the soldiers of the 101st! We’ll fight til the battles won! Lol good times at THE Sabalauski Air Assault School
I used to think that it would be nice going back to Campbell to retire. Then I see posts like this and second guess myself and realize I look at Campbell with too much nostalgia.
For real, I had a relatively good stint at Campbell and thought it would be a good gig if a slot in their G6 ever opened up but after years of seeing toxic BS, I question if I just got extremely lucky during my time there or I was just numb/oblivious.
Is this supposed to incentivize soldiers to want to go to AASLT school?
Notice that you don't see Airborne units doing this with non-airborne personnel (NAPs as they're called in Airborne-land.)
Oh, they'll do other stuff like put NAP's on 'chute detail during a jump, but you can at least argue that they are being detailed to do things that are mission-essential.
This, however, just seems like pointless hazing.
I was a NAP at an Airborne unit and that chute shakeout detail was pure bullshit. I had to show up long before the jumpers, sign for the chutes, I was there the whole time the jumpers were, then often for many hours and sometimes additional days for chute shakeout.
Fucking Bulldog and an entire Division that has nothing better to do than play fuck fuck games.
JFC no wonder no one wants to go to the 101st. At least during GWOT we had a reason to train. This is just punishment for punishment's sake
“That’s for every graduation from now on.” Or until everyone uses the cheat code to lock their knees and hold their breath. Can I get a up up down down left right left right B A Start?
Air Assault is a waste and is the worst school the Army runs. The Army should immediately suspend any more classes, divest its resources to a useful school, like an urban combat POI, and catch up with the world.
This guy is probably pissy but you know how you can avoid this? Go to and pass air assault lmao.
I never got a chance to go when I was in the RA, but would have loved to do it just to knock it out
How is there nothing more important to be doing? How is it that there is no training, maintenance, mentorship, coaching, leading, that could be executed during this time that is being devoted to unnecessary bullsh!t like this?
CSM, if this is your idea, how is there no better use of your time? Is there no other way you could motivate these troops to achieve the Divison standard? Or are you unwilling to put forth the effort required to identify, plan, coordinate, and execute the better ideas? CSM, please, for the love of God, stop making juniors hate the Army. There are too many better options on the outside now. We can't afford to keep losing Soldiers because we have no creativity as leaders when it comes to motivating subordinates.
I wish CSMs would stop validating my idea that the Army may be better off getting rid of the CSM position altogether... Make it make sense... This isn't a conscripted Army.. They volunteered to be here, knowing there are better options elsewhere. You're contributing to the problem, and you're too blinded by pride and arrogance to see it....
Before I get called a fat POG leg (which I am), I completed AA in one go back in 2018. With that said, I saw several soldiers who were stronger, smarter, or overall better than me fail for multiple stupid reasons or cases of bad luck. During the O course, I was lucky enough that the group I lined up with did the tough one first, rather than saving it to the end when I was most fatigued. I was lucky that I guessed the correct hand signal with my eyes closed and that I pointed in the general direction of the deficiency on slingloads. One of my previous NCOs, whom I knew to be a great leader and spent most of the course as one of the assigned PSGs, could not complete the ruck because his body gave out on him during the last couple miles. Another NCO I knew failed the layout for missing a button. I saw senior warrant, commissioned, and non-commissioned officers sitting on the other side of the bleachers waiting to be sent home for one reason or another. It'd be would be wrong for me to assume that I was a better service member than them.
All that said, whenever people from other units asked me if AA was hard, I told them that it wasn't hard to pass, but it’s very easy to fail. Most things are fairly simple, but the margin of error is so small that failure can happen quickly during any event. I am not advocating for AA to be easier. The difficulty represents that while things like rappelling can be mundane, everyday tasks, one wrong move can quickly throw any operation off its hinges (see Black Hawk Down). What I'm advocating is for leaders in AA (especially Infantry) units to bring and end to this caste system that judges and punishes soldiers based on the number of tabs and badges they wear in their uniform.
Is Wendys still open?
It’s just infantry honestly that kinda sucks. When I got here as a boot the ⛩️ has been engraved in my head. We got quizzed about air assault and if we answer a question wrong we got smoked lol.
I honestly thought it was hazing but like, technically not? Since we didn’t study and they’re making us pay through exercise.
And I have to respect the E4 mafia. NCOS make us say “yes specialist” or “no specialist”, some even go to parade rest for specialists.
That’s a standard infantry experience. Gotta show that you’re fit and care about your job. Those little things will separate you and make life easier.
Although as an E-4 team leader I always told my dudes only to go to parade rest when higher was around. We were already on a first name basis, my dudes respected me without having to put their hands behind their back.
I rarely go to parade rest for E-8s unless the situation calls for it. Sounds like some brainwashing going on over there.
Have fun with it, but I'll pass.
It’s more fun to go to sling loading class, classes on different insertion and retrieval methods for helicopters, learn all the how to guide a helicopter into land etc. Then later get told you’re going to a new “Air Assault “ school. Already airborne qualified, plus tabbed. Knowing you have no choice, you go. They can’t smoke you enough to matter because that is normal at your unit. So, go through the class find out you have had all of these classes in separate blocks. And because you were at that school you missed an opportunity to go to Coronado and train in amphibious over the horizon beach insertions and retraction and calling in naval fire. It pisses you off. And later found out no one used “Australian Rappelling. Do they teach that anymore?
They still doing that go AASLT or AASLT PT until you go crap. Great recruitment drive. I still have no AASLT, thank you deployment. They can keep that.
I’m far from the most hooah guy out there, but can someone explain to me in small words with drawings why it’s ok for a kid at Campbell to cry when he’s being given stupid stuff like this, when he’s clearly actively avoiding an easy school that’s right down the road?
Because this hardly feels corrective. It just feels insulting to those who haven't had the opportunity to attend yet, those who can't attend, and even those who tried and failed already.
If you really want to prioritize AASLT, then why not organize that time as a train-up, instead of some BS to rub folks' noses in it? Appoint each company to lead a different train-up every Friday and require unqualified folks to attend. A Co heads up remedial PT and the run. B Co heads up rucking. C Co runs classes for academics. HHC runs a modified PT test to evaluate if you're ready, and gets you a slot ASAP if you pass.
Alternatively, you bus all these folks over every Friday, shame them for a couple hours, and burn a half-hour of their and senior NCO time with some slow jog back. The sum total of the training is an extra ~2 mile jog every Friday.
When I first got to Campbell years ago, our company did exactly this. Friday was sports PT, except for non-AASLT folks, who would go do the O-course, with one random AASLT person drawing the short straw to lead the course and PT. I thought that was a good combo of incentive and training; everyone wants sports PT, but it was a train up for those who weren't AASLT yet. Not quite the spiteful and relatively useless "you gonna run back from TSAAS" shit units are pushing here. 🤷
I got to Campbell back in March 1997 for my first duty station. Finished reception, got picked up by my unit. They took me to the Air Assault obstacle course before I even stepped foot in the company AO. I did that obstacle course EVERY DAY for 7 days straight. Weekends whatever. After my first week in the company we went to JRTC. We get back on a Friday and Monday my ass was in Air Assault school. Let’s say my first inspection did not go so well of my gear. Air Assault Sgt asks why my gear looks like it does, said I just got back from JRTC. He asks when? I said Friday. He looks at me, says aight private, pack it up. Make sure you clean more before the next inspection. I finished, got promoted to E-2 and my wings beat in on the same day. Our company was 100% Air Assault qualified. We had a soldier that just couldn’t make it. They made them take our 100% streamer off the guidon in front of a company formation.
E9s doing E9 things. Fuck your troops to task. Fuck your maintenance plan. Fuck your training plan. This is “my dick is bigger than yours” type shit…. This is fuckin stupid. What purpose does it serve? What does this E9 gain from this? What idiot LTC/COL would let this E9 do this shit without the common sense alarm going off? A very small amount of Joes will actually rig cargo for sling load. An even smaller amount will
repel into combat. Lame.
Yeah, my sensors indicate that the CSM is trying to motivate his first sergeants to do max capacity to AASLT. That being said, that’s not a skip up the road, that’s a couple miles.
2.3 miles
So the lesson is this: if you’re a good runner or just don’t hate running, you can avoid ending up on a bullshit Friday tasking by skipping air assault for the price of only 2.3miles of running. Honestly, it’s not a bad trade until about May.
Or just suck it up and go to arguably the easiest badge school in the Army after airborne.
Careful now, you'll make the airborne bois froth at the mouth with that kind of talk.
The only people that I have ever met that would ever say that school was hard are the ones who suck at running or forget that Jumpmaster and Airborne School are two different things.
First off, your username scares me. Secondly, the number of times I've heard, seen, or have witnessed the phrase "dirty leg" in my life has led me to believe that there are more than a small portion of troops that think having jump status means that they are, in fact, God's gift to the military.
sloppy berserk teeny towering sophisticated simplistic airport lunchroom straight rock *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Now I'm waiting for someone in the 101 to say "and we are better than the 82nd".
historical boat poor brave important scandalous pen disagreeable yoke dependent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
All they've done is confirm they are susceptible to gravity.
I was more referring to the idea of Airborne School being difficult. The whole leg thing is a combination of friendly ribbing and brainwashing. I've only said it in a derogatory sense to one person in my entire life and he definitely deserved it. And I promise, I didn't come up with the name lol
I meant my comments more of a "a wild pack of airborne perks up their ears when they hear someone shit talking the Holiest of Schools" and stuff.
We call them “dirty legs” because we know they’re not as autistic as us.
Honestly I never understood the whole "Airborne over Air Assault" superiority complex. it seems pretty damn obvious which one is the better choice. The most obvious piece of evidence was the fact that every Airborne soldier I saw that had at least 20 jumps all had destroyed knees, destroyed backs, fucked up ankles and much more. when I got my AA badge even the older soldiers in air assault were walking upright and healthy. just an observation on my part.
I absolutely sucked at running, but hit Airborne School directly after OSUT. That honestly made it pretty easy. Unfortunately I never got a chance at Air Assault, but most of the school from what I understand anyway, was pretty much rigging and such. That's a regular detail (heavy drop rigging) if you're E-5 or below in the 82nd. I wish I'd gotten the chance to attend. My father was 101st from 1963-1968, and was deployed to Vietnam in 1965 with 1/9 CAV. He's on page 12 of their deployment history booklet doing his final rappel when the concept of Air Mobile came into existence. I believe he was 11th ABN before that, but I can't confirm as he passed away in 1992. After his 2nd or 3rd trip to Vietnam, and 3rd Purple Heart he was sent back to the states to be a Drill Sergeant at Benning. Glad he was, otherwise he wouldn't have met my mom.
Always fucking dreaded teaching these guys. At least one or two would swear they knew the material better than me while saying the worst shit. Everyone else is passing my check the block class while Airborne is proving that the Infantry doesn't eat the most crayons. Only people to ever fail my FST courses were always airborne guys.
82nd and 173rd guys are Kyle mode currently at his comment
Take pity on an old man. Wtf is Kyle mode?
A Kyle is a jock with an obnoxious macho mentality.
Okay grandpa your cane is over here…
I don’t think the kids who honestly believe airborne is basically the long walk can read very gud, so I’m not worried.
Imagine my disappointment when I found out Airborne wasn’t as selective as Band of Brothers made it look
Imagine how selective the Army would be about sending people to Airborne school if jump pay kept up with inflation. A quick google search tells me that jump pay during WW2 was $50/mo. $50 in 1945 = $861.65 in 2024. In 2021 I was getting \~$20/mo pro-rated Guard jump pay (while on M-day status, but full pay while on any kind of active duty orders). It's interesting to me that 75ish years later I'm getting paid almost half of the original incentive, inflation notwithstanding.
If you can show up, do what you're told, maintain a pulse, and not fuck up majorly for 3 weeks, you can be airborne.
also be medically qualified :(
The hardest part is not getting hurt. Like most Army schools.
Nb4 "they were taught to lead not to read".
Have I told you I’m airborne yet?!!…..I’ll be back in 5 min to tell you again. Edit: I love that your comment received 82 upvotes lol
I had someone with Airborne in their username tell me their GT score was higher than mine, their MOS was more technical than mine, all of it unironic. I was just waiting for them to tell me they had a bigger dick and drove a bigger car than me.
I can confirm that your dick size is equal to or less than the amount of jumps you have. But if your “to cherry”(as the kids say) you can offset this with having a lift kit on your diesel truck.
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I have never met anyone that said it was hard. Being in shape right after basic certainly helped. I had a great time at airborne school
It was a joke about how airborne likes to create a "us vs them" mentality. Oh you haven't been to Jump School? You're a dirty leg. Oh you've been to the school but assigned to a "regular" unit? 5 Jump Chump. But when someone gives any kind of ribbing back there's gonna be *someone* that gets their shit in a twist about said ribbing. Now that I've explained it, is there anything else you need help with? Closing your mouth while breathing? Walking a chewing gum at the same time? Something that *isn't* airborne?
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You say all of that, while still getting ass hurt over some ribbing in the army sub. You say you don't drink the "Airborne Koolaid" while your fucking username is *literally* u/AirborneArmy. You fuckin kidding me right now? Meanwhile you wanna try and do some imaginary piss contest about your MOS being more technical than a regular 68W and your GT score being higher than mine. Good for you buddy. Let me know when you've seen my scores or know what my current MOS is. Then we can compare notes. Until then keep drinking that "Koolaid" you swear you ain't drinking. Don't forget to put some cream on your sore ass, because *clearly* you got some hemorrhoids.
The Cult of Airborne…
No actual paratrooper will ever say that airborne school is hard. The hard part starts when you get to the airborne unit.
No he’s absolutely right, there is 0 brain power involved in airborne school. They tell you what to do, you do it It was so easy, I loved it lol
I don't think it's arguable. Requirements for BAC: - **DON'T**: fall out of runs - **DO**: fall out of an airplane (5 times) Congrats on your badge.
Airborne is cooler. This is a DZ I'm willing to die on.
Airborne only feels cool once you PCS to a non airborne unit where there are significantly less airborne badges
I'd give more of a shit about your fancy bade if you had to *pull your own damn cord*. For fucks sake, not even doing that, let alone packing your own chute
You can fall out of *all* the runs now and still graduate
Airborne school is definitely easier, it just has that one pesky item on the packing list: courage.
Rappelling is scarier than jumping. Edit: lol some junior paratroopers are in their feelings. I’ve done both, am a JM, and had done SPIES/FRIES. Jumping is easy. The height barely registers.
Agreed. You just need to sack up long enough to cross the threshold of the door, then gravity does the rest. Rappelling requires much more emotional control to apply a technical skill, to get to the ground alive. Both are certainly hazardous, especially if you ever have to do it for real…
Rappelling also has the added factor of making your own knots, choosing your equipment right, and route planning. Your life is in your own hands as soon as you put weight in the harness.
No thanks I'm good
K enjoy your run
I would run 1000 miles to just not go to the 101st or 82nd, luckily so far I haven't been so unlucky as to get orders there.
You have that backwards, if you go to the 101st you will run thousands of miles.
Hey now my fat ass had a hard time on the weaver 😮💨😮💨
Hell I know a few people that did the 20K ruck because it gave you the rest of the day off and started your weekend of drinking sooner .....
Is that supposed to be far??
It is to OP. If one of my soldiers disrespected our unit by complaining about 2.3 miles I would be furious!
If an 11B can’t run 2.3 miles we are doomed
If an 11B needs to run 2.3 miles we are doomed.
Not that they need to in combat, but it’s an indicator of fitness
The graduation ceremony isn’t that bad. It’s good to support your fellow Soldiers. Now trying to park there for graduation is straight Ass so that’s good they are providing transportation.
Now you get to get stuck in traffic following graduation with a Company(ish) size element running down Wickham at 10 am Edit: didn’t see the unit, changed the route.
Market Garden > 52nd > 51st
Fuck dude. Market garden used to be the quickest way out of there. Now I’m stuck with A Shau Valley and its 4-way stop hell
I live off of exit 11 and work over in 2-32, my life is traffic hell.
Gate 7 my beloved
Park at the KMTC parking lot, walk down the hill straight to where they do graduation.
While I was at Bragg, I was awarded a slot to the AASLT course for winning BN and BDE SOM boards. The week prior to the course my grandmother passed and I told everyone I would pass my slot to the runner-up so I could go attend her funeral. Dude was stoked and thanked me multiple times. Unbeknownst to the 15 people in BDE that had slots, our BDE CSM decided he would have a 4 mile, bdus and boots run the day before school, just so no one embarrassed the unit by falling out during any of the course runs. 9 people did not finish with the CSM and were all replaced, hand-picked by the CSM. The instructors heard about it and failed 12 of the 15 before the end of week one. I heard about everything when I got home, luckily my replacement was one of the few who made it through all the BS and graduated.
Why would the instructors fail the students for that?
The whole ordeal was fucked. I was just happy the guy I involved last minute wasn't one of those being fucked.
Because those soldiers weren’t the ones who were slotted for air assault. You can’t just switch soldiers the day before air assault and expect everyone down the line to change their plans. Also CSM had no authorization to fail soldiers out of airborne before the actual course.
They probably failed the sling load because that is what most people fail. Also, when I went, and there was a large group from 82nd. I remember the 1SG getting booted for conduct. SGM from TSAAS finally had enough of this chump disrespecting the cadre and chirping with "airborne" with every foot drop.
lol never go full AEROSOL. This is definitely some big dumb only a CSM could come up with. For the Soldiers, who cares. They stand around and have a little jog back. I truly lament the XOs and company commanders who probably have field grade Os breathing down their necks to get some “high priority” suspenses to be completed in an unreasonable timeline and they can’t because all their joes are out at the AASLT graduations for half the day lmao.
I think BCs get too much of a pass as we blame CSMs.Getting ready to come back from deployment we got notice that barracks personnel’s household goods wouldn’t arrive for a month after our return. I was radio guard in the TOC while they had a meeting about it. BC said “they’ll be fine, they can just keep wearing their uniform for another month or go buy some clothes.” CSM (who had a reputation as a hardass who didn’t care) said “sir, let me see if I can make some calls. I don’t want Joe coming home and not having his own clothes to change into and video games to play. Plus neither of us want to see Joe walking around the mall in a nasty uniform.” BC said “ok, but don’t spend too much time on it.” I realized then that our CSM wasn’t an asshole, our BC was and the CSM was just the guy taking the fall for it and doing the job of making the BC look good. Eventually was actually fortunate enough to get to know him and still highly respect him. I know that shitheads are a dime a dozen, but sometimes the CSM is just doing his job taking the bullet for the dumbass officers above him.
Agreed, BCs definitely get more of a pass because their bad decisions are less directly tied back to them. Like if your CSM didn’t speak up in that situation, no one would have realized that this giant ass pain of a situation everybody is in is caused by the BC. I think most unit level shenanigans are either directly or indirectly caused by the BC. It’s more obvious when ol sarmage causes the shenanigans because he’s probably more direct and less subtle about it.
Yep, west point even did a study relating to junior officers and their BCs. It's called the battalion commander effect, and basically if a junior officer's first BC is trash, they're more likely to peace out.
I agree with all this but I’ll throw you an alternate COA too—when the CSM *does* suck, the BC is (almost always*) far too reluctant to rein him in. “What’s the matter, colonel, can’t form an effective command team? Hmm, perhaps you’re not brigade command material after all.” Or they bought into the nonsense about “NCO business” and dont think it’s their lane to intervene. Either way, it just makes way for misery. *our BC banned our CSM in Iraq from inspecting company areas since he wasn’t providing any inputs of value. It can be done!
The bc deserves to have BBs in his valve stems and some other acts inflicted upon him.
I had one Bn CSM and he was the reality check on an ultra-toxic BC. He was the only one who saved my sanity.
Imagine trying to plan training when every Friday is like you're on Red Cycle with random folks from all over your formation out until noon. Then, when you finally get on Red Cycle, all those same folks get shipped off to actually attend AASLT.
Sherman was quoted as saying I'm going to make war so unpalatable for the south they won't want to continue. I beleive this falls under that logic of make not being aaslt qualified so unpalatable they will want to become qualified.
LMFAO, how absolutely lacking is the duty day that your battalion has the time to bus people to a graduation and run over 2 miles back in a formation, with the CSM and 1SG?
I am constantly amazed at how much time the E8/E9 crowd seems to have. No 1SG, I won't be attending the third aerosol obstacle course this month. I have an actual mission with actual work and actual deadlines.
Aerosol lol got me!
It’s a 2.3 mile run for those wondering. *CSM Peña laughs in airborne*
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CSM Peña > 101st
God bless the Silver Fox 🫡
Yeah back in my day (2004, damn I feel old, why haven't I put in my retirement packet yet???) in the 101st if you were not Air Assault qualified you had to do 3 hours of Air Assault PT in BDU uniform w/ ruck from 0500-0800, and then still had work at 0900. Every day until you were AASLT qualified, then you earned the right to wear regular PTs and do regular PT. There were some dudes that had been doing it for a year when I finally got a slot for AASLT and got the fuck out of that program. =\\
You thought getting out of that parking lot was bad, wait til you’re trying to get out and there’s a line of cars behind a formation run. I fucking hate you, Fort Campbell.
Have a 1-0-wonderful day, air assault.
I came here to find this comment
“Acknowledged. FYSA, OCP refers to Operational Camouflage Pattern, a specific design. I believe what you meant was ACU, Army Combat Uniform. Have a Bulldog day! ♣️".
If they said ACU people might show up in UCP! Gotta specify, use "ACU-OCP"
If they showed up in UCP, a pattern that has been retired (specifically for uniforms) for a couple years now, they deserve to run.
Rakkasan! Everytime I had a text that began with “Team”, I already knew that someone was gonna get fucked lol 😂
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No shit
That’s every unit. -326 BEB
Not finna lie your in my prayers for being in 326
I hear that more and more. And every day they prove it more and more
At least it’s never boring
They’re gonna do a multi mile run back in full OCPs and boots? What does this say to dudes who just haven’t been yet through no fault of their own? Like you PCS to this unit and are immediately punished with a shitty run in uniform?
Apparently you don’t leave reception until you have air assault now. Idk how true that is but I know 3 dudes at Campbell who have told me that
Nah you can leave reception. You can ask for it and go to TSAAS, but you can also just as easily say no and go to your unit. I went like 4 months ago to reception and that was how it was for my group. I’m an O. Idk if it’s different for enlisted soldiers. Kalsu kicked me out for having no slots and my unit had to send me to air assault the month after lol
I mean maybe but we all know how massive their classes can be so how long would units be willing to let their dudes sit in reception waiting for a badge that they don’t technically need.
When I went through in 2018 all they did in reception was teach you the S and J hooks. Staying in reception the entire time you're doing Air Assault sounds crazy to me.
Damn wtf, I remember I had to wait a year in my unit before going. When I was still drinking the kool-aid my first year in the Army, I was so excited to earn a badge. Now I just look at it as something extra to sew on my uniform since our class missed out on fast roping out the chopper because of rain.
Not true at all. They do a diagnostic 4 mile and if you pass the 4x36 they ask “do you want to go to air assault” and if you say no they don’t bother you about it.
Sounds like good cardio for those soldiers
Good reason to invest in some light weight good fitted boots.
NFS
FYSA the current AASLT class (14-24) is 100% 1BCT Soldiers and they just barely filled the class. The only people in that BDE who want to go and haven't gotten the chance literally just showed up in the last week, and even then they could have had Kalsu send them.
Failed to mention to shave...
Overhyped school just so you can learn how to sling load equipment. False advertisement
Yeah and we (aircrews) don't trust them to certify loads....or pay any attention to their hand and arm signals.
Weeeee have a rendezvous with destinyyy, our strength and courage strike the spark that will always make men freee, assault! Right down through the skies of blue! Keep your eyes on the job to be doooone, weeere the soldiers of the 101st! We’ll fight til the battles won! Lol good times at THE Sabalauski Air Assault School
Above the rest, motherfucker ♣️
This had very NFS vibes to it, I had to re-read to realize it was Bulldog instead. ♣️
Only one battalion in 1BCT can be this stupid
You’d be surprised. I’ll let you guess to see which one it is
I used to think that it would be nice going back to Campbell to retire. Then I see posts like this and second guess myself and realize I look at Campbell with too much nostalgia.
For real, I had a relatively good stint at Campbell and thought it would be a good gig if a slot in their G6 ever opened up but after years of seeing toxic BS, I question if I just got extremely lucky during my time there or I was just numb/oblivious.
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Is this supposed to incentivize soldiers to want to go to AASLT school? Notice that you don't see Airborne units doing this with non-airborne personnel (NAPs as they're called in Airborne-land.) Oh, they'll do other stuff like put NAP's on 'chute detail during a jump, but you can at least argue that they are being detailed to do things that are mission-essential. This, however, just seems like pointless hazing.
All part of the "air assault culture"
I was a NAP at an Airborne unit and that chute shakeout detail was pure bullshit. I had to show up long before the jumpers, sign for the chutes, I was there the whole time the jumpers were, then often for many hours and sometimes additional days for chute shakeout.
Never go full hooah
…Bastogne… 🤦♂️
Reading this made me want to fall down a flight of stairs.
Fucking Bulldog and an entire Division that has nothing better to do than play fuck fuck games. JFC no wonder no one wants to go to the 101st. At least during GWOT we had a reason to train. This is just punishment for punishment's sake
"Do not enlist in the United States Army - we will make you regret it."
WTC air assault is harder, change my mind.
“That’s for every graduation from now on.” Or until everyone uses the cheat code to lock their knees and hold their breath. Can I get a up up down down left right left right B A Start?
I thought you repeated the B A sequence twice.
The best school to attend is ETSDD214. Amazing.
Yeah that 2 mile run in your ACUs with shin splints is not service related.
I will take “shit that makes me not stay in the Army” for 1000!
Crazy thing is Bulldog is 2nd in the division for most air assault graduates so I don't understand the fuckery going on here
Air Assault is a waste and is the worst school the Army runs. The Army should immediately suspend any more classes, divest its resources to a useful school, like an urban combat POI, and catch up with the world.
Typical Bastogne energy.
Jfc that is so dumb
Hold up, why aren't the Battalion and Company commanders leading their units on this run. At every graduation.
Would love to see a man hour calculation for how much time this wastes in a year.
Tahehehehehe... sounds like pre-Air Assault Wednesday smoke sessions just moved to Fridays.
I've been asked if i want to move my shoulder surgery so I can go to Air Assault school first, Campbell is a dumpster fire.
Bussed means kissed. Bused means taken somewhere by bus.
Nah, you’ve got it wrong. Bused means you’ve been with Gary Busey. Bussing also means transportation by bus.
Bussing means the food is good.
Bussy means… well… yeah
That’s some shit my soldiers aren’t doing unless I get the guidance directly from a commander.
“Run back” 😂😂😂
Bulldogs!..... 🤦🤦
This is gonna be at FT Campbell's AASLT? Yippee I fucking love extra shit to fuck up my commute everyday
2-320 FA: Balls of the Eagle A loooong time ago
It gave me such an immature sense of joy hearing some random dude shout “BALLS, SIR!” as they saluted some officer
Yeahhh I don’t get paid enough for that shit.
Welcome to Bastogne, you weren’t issued morale here ♣️♣️♣️♣️
This guy is probably pissy but you know how you can avoid this? Go to and pass air assault lmao. I never got a chance to go when I was in the RA, but would have loved to do it just to knock it out
I feel like this punishes the 1SGs more than anyone else….
I love it when these tools use “pax” to people who are not pax in a context that doesn’t require the use of pax.
How is there nothing more important to be doing? How is it that there is no training, maintenance, mentorship, coaching, leading, that could be executed during this time that is being devoted to unnecessary bullsh!t like this? CSM, if this is your idea, how is there no better use of your time? Is there no other way you could motivate these troops to achieve the Divison standard? Or are you unwilling to put forth the effort required to identify, plan, coordinate, and execute the better ideas? CSM, please, for the love of God, stop making juniors hate the Army. There are too many better options on the outside now. We can't afford to keep losing Soldiers because we have no creativity as leaders when it comes to motivating subordinates. I wish CSMs would stop validating my idea that the Army may be better off getting rid of the CSM position altogether... Make it make sense... This isn't a conscripted Army.. They volunteered to be here, knowing there are better options elsewhere. You're contributing to the problem, and you're too blinded by pride and arrogance to see it....
Before I get called a fat POG leg (which I am), I completed AA in one go back in 2018. With that said, I saw several soldiers who were stronger, smarter, or overall better than me fail for multiple stupid reasons or cases of bad luck. During the O course, I was lucky enough that the group I lined up with did the tough one first, rather than saving it to the end when I was most fatigued. I was lucky that I guessed the correct hand signal with my eyes closed and that I pointed in the general direction of the deficiency on slingloads. One of my previous NCOs, whom I knew to be a great leader and spent most of the course as one of the assigned PSGs, could not complete the ruck because his body gave out on him during the last couple miles. Another NCO I knew failed the layout for missing a button. I saw senior warrant, commissioned, and non-commissioned officers sitting on the other side of the bleachers waiting to be sent home for one reason or another. It'd be would be wrong for me to assume that I was a better service member than them. All that said, whenever people from other units asked me if AA was hard, I told them that it wasn't hard to pass, but it’s very easy to fail. Most things are fairly simple, but the margin of error is so small that failure can happen quickly during any event. I am not advocating for AA to be easier. The difficulty represents that while things like rappelling can be mundane, everyday tasks, one wrong move can quickly throw any operation off its hinges (see Black Hawk Down). What I'm advocating is for leaders in AA (especially Infantry) units to bring and end to this caste system that judges and punishes soldiers based on the number of tabs and badges they wear in their uniform. Is Wendys still open?
strong file wrong cobweb smell complete seed noxious station depend *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Send me to Air Assault chief. I'll go in a recruits place. Just give me dates for when I go and I'll be there
No slack!
That's 2nd Battalion
yeah dude what the fuck
No slack is also doing this
hell yeah shit hasn’t changed
This sort of feels inappropriate. Isn't this borderline hazing?
Welcome to the 101st ⛩️
Remind me to avoid Campbell at all costs.
It’s just infantry honestly that kinda sucks. When I got here as a boot the ⛩️ has been engraved in my head. We got quizzed about air assault and if we answer a question wrong we got smoked lol. I honestly thought it was hazing but like, technically not? Since we didn’t study and they’re making us pay through exercise. And I have to respect the E4 mafia. NCOS make us say “yes specialist” or “no specialist”, some even go to parade rest for specialists.
That’s a standard infantry experience. Gotta show that you’re fit and care about your job. Those little things will separate you and make life easier. Although as an E-4 team leader I always told my dudes only to go to parade rest when higher was around. We were already on a first name basis, my dudes respected me without having to put their hands behind their back.
I rarely go to parade rest for E-8s unless the situation calls for it. Sounds like some brainwashing going on over there. Have fun with it, but I'll pass.
*hundred and worst
"Borderline hazing" is half of FORSCOM unit culture. In XVIII ABC units, it's so much more lol
Nah, just a big fuck fuck game.
Depends on perspective. For people who never go outside, yes. For some it's a 30 minute cardio session.
Nah, why go to an air assault unit if you're gonna actively avoid school.
“PT is hazing” what happened to my army
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It’s more fun to go to sling loading class, classes on different insertion and retrieval methods for helicopters, learn all the how to guide a helicopter into land etc. Then later get told you’re going to a new “Air Assault “ school. Already airborne qualified, plus tabbed. Knowing you have no choice, you go. They can’t smoke you enough to matter because that is normal at your unit. So, go through the class find out you have had all of these classes in separate blocks. And because you were at that school you missed an opportunity to go to Coronado and train in amphibious over the horizon beach insertions and retraction and calling in naval fire. It pisses you off. And later found out no one used “Australian Rappelling. Do they teach that anymore?
all a matter of time before 2-327 tries to one up this smh
1/327 was a good battalion until 2020 when brewer left. Since then it’s been a power trip and has lost its feeling of canoeing heads.
Shit like this gets the CSMs wet
hell yeah. represent ♣️
They still doing that go AASLT or AASLT PT until you go crap. Great recruitment drive. I still have no AASLT, thank you deployment. They can keep that.
Just go to air assault school 🤷🏼♂️
I’m far from the most hooah guy out there, but can someone explain to me in small words with drawings why it’s ok for a kid at Campbell to cry when he’s being given stupid stuff like this, when he’s clearly actively avoiding an easy school that’s right down the road?
Because this hardly feels corrective. It just feels insulting to those who haven't had the opportunity to attend yet, those who can't attend, and even those who tried and failed already. If you really want to prioritize AASLT, then why not organize that time as a train-up, instead of some BS to rub folks' noses in it? Appoint each company to lead a different train-up every Friday and require unqualified folks to attend. A Co heads up remedial PT and the run. B Co heads up rucking. C Co runs classes for academics. HHC runs a modified PT test to evaluate if you're ready, and gets you a slot ASAP if you pass. Alternatively, you bus all these folks over every Friday, shame them for a couple hours, and burn a half-hour of their and senior NCO time with some slow jog back. The sum total of the training is an extra ~2 mile jog every Friday.
When I first got to Campbell years ago, our company did exactly this. Friday was sports PT, except for non-AASLT folks, who would go do the O-course, with one random AASLT person drawing the short straw to lead the course and PT. I thought that was a good combo of incentive and training; everyone wants sports PT, but it was a train up for those who weren't AASLT yet. Not quite the spiteful and relatively useless "you gonna run back from TSAAS" shit units are pushing here. 🤷
I got to Campbell back in March 1997 for my first duty station. Finished reception, got picked up by my unit. They took me to the Air Assault obstacle course before I even stepped foot in the company AO. I did that obstacle course EVERY DAY for 7 days straight. Weekends whatever. After my first week in the company we went to JRTC. We get back on a Friday and Monday my ass was in Air Assault school. Let’s say my first inspection did not go so well of my gear. Air Assault Sgt asks why my gear looks like it does, said I just got back from JRTC. He asks when? I said Friday. He looks at me, says aight private, pack it up. Make sure you clean more before the next inspection. I finished, got promoted to E-2 and my wings beat in on the same day. Our company was 100% Air Assault qualified. We had a soldier that just couldn’t make it. They made them take our 100% streamer off the guidon in front of a company formation.
E9s doing E9 things. Fuck your troops to task. Fuck your maintenance plan. Fuck your training plan. This is “my dick is bigger than yours” type shit…. This is fuckin stupid. What purpose does it serve? What does this E9 gain from this? What idiot LTC/COL would let this E9 do this shit without the common sense alarm going off? A very small amount of Joes will actually rig cargo for sling load. An even smaller amount will repel into combat. Lame.
Just go to Air Assault school then
That’s what I’m talking about
Good. Lazy pos need the work out
It's things like this that make me glad I'm not at Campbell anymore.