Will dropping Airborne status hurt my career moving forward?

You don’t have to drop your airborne status, that’s a decision you can make in the future. If you’re placed on an Airborne AI you can choose whether or not to take it. No need to close doors before new opportunities present themselves

As a very broken airborne CI guy I will tell you it will absolutely limit your assignment options. All of SOF and other “special” places minus a small few require you to jump. Don’t get me wrong there are still cool guy opportunities out there, but they’re limited. Also CI is restructuring at some point into a CID like command structure, so likely airborne will go away for most. Not sure when it’s coming or the latest news, but prior to my dropping my retirement packet it was current (10 months ago). Good luck sky God!!! If you have any questions let me know

Yes and no. Any reduction in qualifications will always naturally limit your possibilities, but in this case, the limitations are negligible. The majority of the Army isn't airborne, yet they get promotions and great assignments still. If jumping isn't in your interest anymore, don't put yourself in a position where you will end up dreading a great future assignment, simply because you have to deal with jumping. That said, the 82D style of jumping is vastly different than some other units. There are plenty of non-airborne assignments where you will get a wealth of experience at various echelons.

In my honest professional opinion, being Airborne can actually limit our overall experience, due to sometimes getting trapped in a cycle of follow-on Airborne assignments, which are not representative of the full depth of CI. Then again, if you remain Airborne for the time being, you maintain the ability to try out both sides before making a final decision to remove yourself from one side completely.