Posted on Nov 27, 2018
How hard is it to get your unit to send you to jump school in the Army National Guard?
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It’s always been a dream of mine to earn my jump wings. My mother and father earned theirs. I’m carrying on the family tradition.
Airborne Student
Airborne Trainee
Posted 6 y ago
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In the Army National Guard, it will be next to impossible.
For the Army Guard, airborne school seats are controlled at NGB level and only allocated to those units in the Guard that are on jump status (SF, SODs, Airborne Infantry, Quartermaster units with riggers, etc). Before an application is approved, the quota source manager at NGB checks that Soldier's paragraph/line duty position for an SQI of P (parachutist) or S (Special Operations Support).
Occasionally, someone in the Guard will get airborne school with an approved Exception to Policy (ETP) with a strong justification outlined, or will get accepted as a walk-on while already at Benning for another longer course.
Your state has one airborne unit, an SF company. There are three duty positions that are not SF, but two of them are AGRs. You could volunteer for SFAS/SFQC.
If you IST next door to WV, there is an SF BN and a SOD with more MOS opportunities (MI, maintenance, commo, supply, HR, CBRN, etc)
For the Army Guard, airborne school seats are controlled at NGB level and only allocated to those units in the Guard that are on jump status (SF, SODs, Airborne Infantry, Quartermaster units with riggers, etc). Before an application is approved, the quota source manager at NGB checks that Soldier's paragraph/line duty position for an SQI of P (parachutist) or S (Special Operations Support).
Occasionally, someone in the Guard will get airborne school with an approved Exception to Policy (ETP) with a strong justification outlined, or will get accepted as a walk-on while already at Benning for another longer course.
Your state has one airborne unit, an SF company. There are three duty positions that are not SF, but two of them are AGRs. You could volunteer for SFAS/SFQC.
If you IST next door to WV, there is an SF BN and a SOD with more MOS opportunities (MI, maintenance, commo, supply, HR, CBRN, etc)
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That is completely dependent on the unit you are in. If you are in a Support unit (transportation, engineers, military police), the chances for you to go to Airborne school are non-existent. If you are in an Infantry unit, you might (maybe) could work a re-enlistment incentive or reward for good deeds, but since our infantry unit isn’t Airborne Infantry, I haven’t seen a lot of school slots tossed around. The other “maybe” option is to be an SMP cadet, and potentially your college’s ROTC will send you. The last option (which is a sure thing if you are successful) is the Special Forces unit. If you are successful getting Selected at SFAS, Airborne School is a requirement to attend the SFQC. Also, some of the support positions (Admin & Supply) have been given opportunities to attend Airborne training. The unit isn’t going to send anyone to the course. Either have to be on your path to earning the Green Beret or providing some kind of staff function.
Best of Luck!
Best of Luck!
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1LT (Join to see)
To Tag on to 1LT Dixon's point about the SMP/ROTC way, if you do decide to go the ROTC route every program is given X amount of slots a year to send cadets to school. For example, i believe my sophomore into junior year (the ideal time for cadets to attend schools) we were given 5 slots. Of the 5, 2 were air assault and 1 was airborne. It's a very competitive process and you need to be in the top of your ROTC class. The caveat to this is there is this theory (which i truly believe from experience) that your school and cadet command only likes to send non SMP cadets to these schools because the person who's branching active duty infantry, for example, will definitely be using his jump wings vs. the person who branched National Guard transportation, regardless if you're equal in your class standings. Of those 5 cadets in my class who went to those schools, none were SMP cadets. Just a thought to consider if you choose to do the ROTC route. But other than that, getting airborne in the Guard like 1LT Dixon stated is a very difficult task. Good luck to you!
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PFC (Join to see)
Thank you sir for the info. I will have a lot of negotiating to do. I will go active one day though. I could possible get a slot then.
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Frankly all this advice is a bunch of bullshit, sure you could go tryout for SF but unless your committed to it then there’s no way in fuck they’re going to take you and on top of that just getting airborne is a stupid unjustified reason for trying out. The most realistic way to get airborne PFC is to get on orders with the warrior training center in fort Benning they are an active guard training unit that is airborne. You would serve in a support or training role but they run several asi producing schools and will happily send you to airborne school. You just need to be willing to do a title 32 tour of ados.
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