Every year on August 16, the United States celebrates the professional holiday – National Airborne Day in the USA, which was established in honor of a memorable date in the history of the American Airborne Forces.
On this day in 1940, during army tests, 48 volunteers made the first parachute jump at the American military base Fort–Benning (Georgia). Brigadier General William Mitchell proposed using parachutes in the army in order to transfer troops behind enemy lines.
After successful « trials», the Americans began to use this «innovative» method of conducting combat operations during the Second World War, subsequently improving the technique of throwing military units behind enemy lines. And this first parachute jump also marked the birth of a new combat and very effective unit in the US Army, the – Airborne Forces (Airborne Forces).
Under combat conditions, the American Airborne Forces first landed in November 1942 in North Africa. It was then that the formation of the US Army Airborne Division began, as a division of the fastest possible reaction, whose soldiers later took part in many battles of this global military conflict, and then – and in combat operations in Korea and Panama, Vietnam, Grenada and Haiti, in the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.
As one of the oldest units of the mass American army (not counting infantry), the US Airborne Forces have extensive combat experience. But, unlike the Russian Airborne Forces, the American Airborne Forces are not a separate branch of the military, but are considered as a special, but integral, component of the ground forces.
Organizationally, all airborne divisions of the American army are consolidated into the XVIII Airborne Corps (XVIIIth Airborne Corps), formed back in 1944, which, in addition to parachute and airmobile units, also includes tank, motorized infantry units, army aviation, support units, etc. If necessary, the corps can be reinforced with an armored division. The total number of corps personnel is about 90 thousand people.
The XVIIIth Airborne Forces has its own tasks and specifics of combat use, being the only operational formation of this type in the US Army. During exercises, American paratroopers are required to practice techniques for interacting with other units of the American armed forces, marines, navies and air forces, as well as with troops of other NATO countries.
Units of the US Airborne Forces are used not only in military conflicts, but also in humanitarian missions. Thus, in 2010, after a powerful earthquake in Haiti, paratroopers were sent to help the victims to participate in the search for missing people, evacuating people from the affected regions and protecting them from looting. They were used for the same purposes after Hurricane «Katrin».
The holiday itself, as National Airborne Forces Day, in America was established in 2001 by US President George W. Bush, taking into account the importance and success of the first parachute jump«. In 2009, the Senate approved a corresponding resolution recognizing this holiday.