In 1947, the first divisional pathfinder platoon was organized in the Headquarters Company, 82d Airborne Division.

The unit converted to the airborne role in 1944 and became the pathfinder unit of the 2nd Indian Airborne Division and renamed " 44th Divisional Reconnaissance Squadron ( GGBG )".

The unit today is about a company-plus strength and maintains very strong affiliation to the Cavalry, Guards and the Airborne fraternity with 100 percent troopers airborne qualified and equipped for mechanized warfare. However the Special Forces ( Airborne ) units are mainly assigned such tasks as they are specialist in pathfinder operations using HALO / HAHO.

One of the pathfinder C-47s for the 101st Airborne was forced to ditch en route to Normandy.

Additionally, the organization and manning of a line Airborne infantry company is different from that of a pathfinder company conducting training support.

In addition to these troops Belarus was the area of deployment for units subordinated directly to the USSR Defence Ministry and chiefs of different Soviet Armed Forces services, namely the 103rd Guards Airborne Division, the 38th Guards Airborne Brigade, the 11th corps of the 2nd Separate Air Defence Army, the 26th Air Army and also units and formations of the Strategic Rocket Forces, Long Range Aviation, the Navy and special forces.

Under long-standing bilateral agreements flowing from NATO membership, Italy hosts important U. S. military forces at Vicenza – home of 173d Airborne Brigade – and Livorno ( USA ); Aviano ( USAF ); and Sigonella, Nisida, and Gaeta – home port for the U. S. Navy Sixth Fleet.

These Special Operations forces will include the Airborne Regiment, the Commandos Regiment, the Navy Commandos Regiment, and the Counter-Sabotage Regiment of the Military Intelligence.

* 1965 – The 173rd Airborne is ambushed by over 1, 200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War, while the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment fight one of the first set-piece engagements of the war between Australian forces and the Vietcong at the Battle of Gang Toi.

The operation was carried out by elements of the United States 10th Mountain Division, 101st Airborne Division, the U. S. special forces groups TF 11, TF Bowie, and TF Dagger, British Royal Marines, the Norwegian Forsvarets Spesialkommando ( FSK ), Hærens Jegerkommando and Marinejegerkommandoen, Canada's 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Canada's Joint Task Force 2, the Afghan National Army, the German KSK, and elements of the Australian Special Air Service Regiment and of the New Zealand Special Air Service.

* Looking Glass is USSTRATCOM's Airborne Command Post, designed to take over in case NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Directorate is destroyed or incapable of communicating with strategic forces.

The forces used, consisting of the 187th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (" Rakkasans "), led by Colonel Frank Wiercinski, and soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division, led by Lieutenant Colonel Paul LaCamera, to secure these blocking positions.

The operation was composed of elements of the United States 10th Mountain Division, 101st Airborne Division, TF Rakkasan, B Co. 159th Avn Rgt, 75th Ranger Regiment, the US Special Operation Forces groups to include elements of forces from USSOCOM, JSOC and CIA's Special Activities Division, TF 11, TF Bowie, and TF Dagger, British Royal Marines, Canada's 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and Joint Task Force 2, the Afghan National Army, the German KSK, the Turkish Maroon Berets, the Norwegian FSK and Marinejegerkommandoen, and elements of the Australian Special Air Service Regiment, the New Zealand Special Air Service and Danish special forces from Jægerkorpset and the Danish Frogman Corps.

After Normandy, the airborne forces had been withdrawn to reform in England, re-forming into the First Allied Airborne Army of two British and three U. S. airborne divisions and a Polish brigade.

* Market: airborne forces of Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton's First Allied Airborne Army to seize bridges and other terrain, under tactical command of I Airborne Corps under Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning, and

During the Invasion of Normandy, French Airborne forces fought in Britanny, ( Operation Dingson, Operation Samwest ).

In the 21st century, French Airborne units have merged with Alpine troops and special forces units to create the Commandements des Operations Speciales ( equivalent of US SOCOM ).

* Airborne forces

Airborne forces are military units, usually light infantry, set up to be moved by aircraft and " dropped " into battle.

Airborne forces can be divided into three categories:

Though Airborne troops are usually defenceless in transit, their sudden appearance can surprise or ' shock ' defending forces for a short time.

Airborne forces are generally composed of infantry and light, non-armored vehicles and guns.

By the late 1930s, the USSR possessed the largest Airborne forces in the world, but development stagnated prior to World War II as a result of the Great Purge.

Their strategic capabilities have ensured that Airborne forces are still a part of armies today with the U. S. 82nd Airborne Division and Russian Airborne forces being the largest formations of paratroopers in the world.

Airborne assault ( десантно-штурмовые войска or DShV ) units wore similar striped shirts ( as did the naval infantry ) but used helicopters, rather than the Military Transport Aviation's AN-12s, AN-22s, and IL-76s, which carried the Airborne Troops and their equipment.

Robert Pirosh had based the script on his own experiences during the Battle of the Bulge, although he did not serve with the 101st Airborne.

Thus " the 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon of Item Company, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division ," did not exist at the time of the Ardennes campaign.

The 101st Airborne Division did fight in Nuenen, although the story was dramatised for the television series.

The 1st Airborne Division had lost nearly three-quarters of its strength and did not see combat again.

Before D-Day, General Gale knew that the capture of the bridges would be critical for the resupply and reinforcement of 6th Airborne but he did not know that the bridges were incapable of supporting tanks.

The first unit of the 6th Airborne Division to land in Normandy, as part of Operation Deadstick, was a coup-de-main force from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, under the command of Major John Howard ; although separated from the rest of the Brigade geographically, the small unit did form a part of 5th Parachute Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Nigel Poett.

Although the 82nd Airborne considered the landings inaccurate because they did not land on LZ O, most came down within of the original LZ.

He did go on to make one combat jump in Korea with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment.

The unit immediately began training, but did not stay attached to the 1st Airborne Division for very long ; during mid-1943, the division was transported to the Middle East, where it would eventually participate in Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily.

The trick did not work twice: in August an assault on the Argentine Army's Villa Maria explosives factory in Cordoba and 17th Airborne Infantry Regiment at Catamarca by 70 ERP guerrillas dressed in army fatigues, met mixed fortune after killing and wounding eight policemen and soldiers and they lost 16 men who were shot after they surrendered to 300 paratroopers of the 17th Airborne Infantry Regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Eduardo Humberto Cubas.

The United States Army 82nd Airborne Division was given the nickname " All-American " because its members came from all 48 U. S. states which, at that time, constituted the United States ( Hawaii and Alaska did not enter the union until 1959 ).

Though the 93rd Rangers is fictional the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War did have Ranger-Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol units.

He served in the U. S. Army from 1982 to 1988, attaining the rank of Sergeant in the 101st Airborne, where he " wrestled and did a little boxing.

The sequel Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood is also based on the last missions of the 101st, such as link up with 82nd Airborne Division and capture of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte ( which historically did not involve the 101st A / B as a whole, but some members volunteered to assist the undermanned 82nd Division ).

On 5 September the division was taken out of the frontlines and returned to England for rest and recuperation ; Gale did not remain with the division, instead being appointed to the headquarters of First Allied Airborne Army.

He did several tours in Vietnam, first in the 101st Airborne Division, then as a member of the Army Rangers, and finally as a Green Beret.

Both operations were cancelled, however, due to the rapid movement of Allied ground forces as they advanced through France and towards Belgium, as such a rapid advance did not allow First Allied Airborne Army enough time to plan an operation and deploy its forces before its objectives were overrun by ground forces.

* Slightly contemptuous military slang used by US Army Airborne troops to refer to conventional infantry and other non-jumping Soldiers ; short for " straight leg " as originally non-airborne troops did not blouse their trousers into their boots like the Airborne, and thus lacked the distinctive crease just above the trouser hem.

The division effectively ceased being an airborne unit, although the official transformation to the 101st Airborne Division did not take place until mid-1968.