It's Official: XVIII Airborne School and Air Assault School Opens on Fort Bragg

by Kelly Twedell

The XVIII Airborne School and Fort Bragg Air Assault School officially opened Sept. 5 on Fort Bragg.

The purpose of the school is to train soldiers in air assault operations, sling-load operations and rappelling. Upon graduation of the course, each soldier will be able to perform skills required to make maximum use of helicopter assets in training and in combat to support their unit operations.

Soldiers are trained on the missions performed by rotary wing aircraft, aircraft safety, aero-medical evacuation procedures, pathfinder operations, principles and techniques of combat assaults, rappelling techniques, and sling-load operations. The core POI requires minimum support assets and is adaptable to organic aviation elements.

Both the core instruction and the additional instruction are conducted in a classroom/field environment, before putting it into practice in a battlefield environment. 

Having the school open the facility to train its soldiers at Fort Bragg is a big win, especially among the recent sequestration cuts. Establishing the air assault training will save the installation big bucks since they won't be paying for soldiers to attend the training at other posts, like Fort Campbell, Ky., where the Army's 101st Airborne Division specializes in air assault training. 

While it is somewhat a rite of passage for badge seeking soldiers, upon the air assault training leaders stress that the soldiers will be better versed in acting more safely and gaining equipment knowledge thanks to the training.

Air Assault!