The Rhode Island National Guard’s 56th Troop Command has announced that the Leapfest-International Airborne Competition for 2020 has been cancelled as a consequence of the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams that have already registered for Leapfest 2020 will be notified by the command and will receive full reimbursement of their registration fees. To […]
Marty Skovlund, Jr. recently travelled to the U.S. Army JFK Special Warfare Center’s Military Freefall School in Yuma, Arizona, where special operations service-members are taught how to parachute into to the battlefield clandestinely and safely from high altitudes. Check out his exclusive video report below: […]
Despite the celebrations of VE Day just the day before, and due to the chaos of the fluid situation of the German defeat, the British 1st Airborne Division launched a mission to liberate Norway. Advance parties flew into Norway on 9th May 1945. Their task was to maintain law and order, secure airfields, prevent […]
The Russian Ministry of Defence has released information that a unit of Russian paratroopers have successfully performed a military freefall insertion into the Arctic region from an altitude of 10,000m (32,808 feet). Russian paratroopers equipped with oxygen masks, specially insulated suits, and a new type of special parachute system were in free fall for almost […]
Today is the 33rd anniversary of the creation of the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) component of SOCOM traces its lineage back much further however – all the way back to the early years of WWII in fact. And today’s Throwback Thursday takes a look at a special weapon […]
The Maroon Beret The 82d Airborne Division’s iconic maroon beret dates back to World War II and, like many other berets in the U.S. Army, is a tribute to the British Forces. The maroon beret was originally given to the U.S. Army’s 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment by their British counterparts, in addition to an honorary […]
Enjoy this short film from 1960 about parachute training for the British Army’s Territorial Reserves. […]
Operation Varsity – also known as The Crossing of The Rhine – took place on the 24th of March 1945. Although the airborne component of Operation Market-Garden involved more troops and drops, Varsity was the largest airborne operation of WWII that took place in one location and on a single day. Like the airborne invasion […]
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“Shortly after sunrise on Feb. 23, 1945, elements of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division along with Filipino resistance fighters struck the Japanese prisoner of war camp at Los Baños, Luzon, 40 miles south of Manila and deep in enemy-held territory. It was a daring air, sea and land operation to liberate 2,146 civilian internees — […]