What foreign wings have you earned?

[Hendo]

I saw the new flyer for it today. It's on the 11th and countries participating are Botswana, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Germany, Israel, Ireland, Latvia, Poland and Thailand. Sounds pretty awesome if you get to participate. I won't be here though, TDY to Florida :(

ELEVEN COUNTRIES ?!!!!!!!

[SFC_Allen]

Yea looks like i have a hard slot with corps guys on the 11th, then there is rumor that SWC will also be hosting them for a week along with other units. Might be and expensive week for me.

My brother has 8 sets of wings and is talking trash...so now i have to beat hime. Damn officers :)

[Hendo]

Yea looks like i have a hard slot with corps guys on the 11th, then there is rumor that SWC will also be hosting them for a week along with other units. Might be and expensive week for me.

My brother has 8 sets of wings and is talking trash...so now i have to beat hime. Damn officers :)

Go to Walmart or Toyland (in the PX) and buy a bunch of $10 toys. Last year $40 got me Bronze and Silver German wings along with the Canadian ones I managed to get a hard slot for. If you can hang out at St. Mere Eglise or Raeford DZ that is where they where doing the following jumps the next week. Good luck and I'm jealous by the way.

[SFC_Allen]

Yup, hopefully I can get out for one and day and be able to get there before they do prejump and get on 1 or 2 lifts... worth a shot :)

[Brasso]

IMOH, I really think it's a shame they took the foreign badges off the fatigues, I also think, now that I have been there, it really does not matter where you got the wings from. What matters more is HOW yo got them. I have gotten the THAI wings at least 3 times..but I earned them on my second time when I inserted at 0300 on the Burma border with 10 US & 10 Thai SF and we had to chase a bundle out and then move about 6K to link up with our G Force and I was carrying the lightest ruck which was about 85 pounds since we were going to be on the ground for 5 weeks.....That's when I really knew that I had earned them ...NOW don't get your panties twisted I know not everyone get's a chance to do that...BUT I also really think you should be in THAT country at least....I had the PI Wings and it was the same way I got a couple in Hollywood jumps, then we did a night infil with the PI SF and you just feel better about it.

A MAJ and I had slots to go to the Turkish Jump School since that was the only way you could get them, but when we requested Permissive Jump orders the Main GEN denied it....That sucked......

[mac117]

Got British in '87 (was stationed in Vicenza) when we did an exchange with XV Para, a Reserve Unit, out of Edinburgh, Scotland. 3 balloon and 2 C 130 jumps. The unit had bars in their center and being E-burgh is on the North Sea, everytime a storm blew in the jumps were cancelled and the bars were opened. When it cleared the bars closed and the jumps were open. I swear I made all 5 jumps drunk!....at least I think I did....

[old grunt]

IMOH, I really think it's a shame they took the foreign badges off the fatigues, I also think, now that I have been there, it really does not matter where you got the wings from. What matters more is HOW yo got them. I have gotten the THAI wings at least 3 times..but I earned them on my second time when I inserted at 0300 on the Burma border with 10 US & 10 Thai SF and we had to chase a bundle out and then move about 6K to link up with our G Force and I was carrying the lightest ruck which was about 85 pounds since we were going to be on the ground for 5 weeks.....That's when I really knew that I had earned them ...NOW don't get your panties twisted I know not everyone get's a chance to do that...BUT I also really think you should be in THAT country at least....I had the PI Wings and it was the same way I got a couple in Hollywood jumps, then we did a night infil with the PI SF and you just feel better about it.

A MAJ and I had slots to go to the Turkish Jump School since that was the only way you could get them, but when we requested Permissive Jump orders the Main GEN denied it....That sucked......

************************************************** *****************************************
When I saw the cable(NOT taut is an understatement!) in that ratty Guatemalan C-47 as we bank over the Pacific headed for the DZ at Base de Militar Tropas Paracaidistas "General Felipe Cruz" ..............I EARNED those fuckers! The party afterwards was cool too!

[OTD13ABNCDR]

I have German (Bronze, Silver, & Gold), Australian. British, French, Irish, Chilean, Dutch, and Canadian wings.

Toy Drop this year is 36 Allied JMs from 9 countries participating. Israel canceled on Monday due to all the big fires they're having at home. Current line up is Botswana, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, and Thailand. 1844 will jump on Saturday. 2 C-17s and 12 C130s will be flying on Sicily..... Next week around 1800 from SOF units will jump M-F at St Mere DZ.

[jumpers-hit-it]

picked up Irish wings today, my first and only set of foreign wings (for now...)

[Brasso]

************************************************** *****************************************
When I saw the cable(NOT taut is an understatement!) in that ratty Guatemalan C-47 as we bank over the Pacific headed for the DZ at Base de Militar Tropas Paracaidistas "General Felipe Cruz" ..............I EARNED those fuckers! The party afterwards was cool too!

II forgot about that, the first time I did a Hollywood and when you went to chute turn in some Thai SF guys were there and had caught a Cobra and had cut it's head off about 2 inches below the head and were filling shot glasses with it's blood and we all had a shot of it (well my group did anyway), they sell that shit on the street like it was Viagra....and what a great party, there were about 4 of us on stage playing and signing with the Thai Army combo who knew one song "GLORIA" and the US SF Bn Cdr must have sung it 4 or 5 times so since I was the translator I HAD to tell him they had to stop playing....great party....bad jam session..."SALSA"

[z0phi3l]

II forgot about that, the first time I did a Hollywood and when you went to chute turn in some Thai SF guys were there and had caught a Cobra and had cut it's head off about 2 inches below the head and were filling shot glasses with it's blood and we all had a shot of it (well my group did anyway), they sell that shit on the street like it was Viagra....and what a great party, there were about 4 of us on stage playing and signing with the Thai Army combo who knew one song "GLORIA" and the US SF Bn Cdr must have sung it 4 or 5 times so since I was the translator I HAD to tell him they had to stop playing....great party....bad jam session..."SALSA"

Cobra Gold '92, they killed the cobra and dripped the blood into a bottle of Thai Moonshine and most of us (the paratroopers mostly) took a shot of it, not that bad too, it was done after a demo on the different snakes in the area.


(pretty sure it was 92)

[Hendo]

I die a little bit everyday I see Airborne ROK Officers and support dudes from SOCKOR running around over here. I sawr a KATUSA assigned to SOCKOR the other day wearing a Maroon beret and I know he wasn't Airborne qualified. I see goobers, legs and probable dumbasses walking around with my beloved Maroon beret while I suffer the indignation of the general population beret. Ladies and gentlemen, justice has left the building!

[anj4de]

Hello...

During my time in the German Airborne Forces I "only" got the chance to qualify for the US wings...and the JM course. Having said that...that is all I ever really wanted around jump wings, get the German ones in gold, the Jump Master A on the class A uniform and the equivalent qualification with the US Army. Ever since I was a child, when I saw "The Longest Day" for the first time, I wanted those US wings...Well, I got what I wanted and now am happy.

cheers
Uwe

PS: The British one would be cool but only if getting them jumping that balloon...I have friends who did that, they all say it's a bit suicidal, so quiet, straight down...like jumping from a bridge!

[Ops NCO]

Hello...

During my time in the German Airborne Forces I "only" got the chance to qualify for the US wings...and the JM course. Having said that...that is all I ever really wanted around jump wings, get the German ones in gold, the Jump Master A on the class A uniform and the equivalent qualification with the US Army. Ever since I was a child, when I saw "The Longest Day" for the first time, I wanted those US wings...Well, I got what I wanted and now am happy.

cheers
Uwe

PS: The British one would be cool but only if getting them jumping that balloon...I have friends who did that, they all say it's a bit suicidal, so quiet, straight down...like jumping from a bridge!

Much of "The Longest Day" was filmed in St. Mere Eglise, France. There are several of us here who got the privilege of jumping in there for one of the annual Memorials.

Re: the British balloon. I've heard it's quite unnerving. Apparently, since there's no prop blast, you can hear the rubber bands popping off the pack tray...

[Brasso]

Hello...

During my time in the German Airborne Forces I "only" got the chance to qualify for the US wings...and the JM course. Having said that...that is all I ever really wanted around jump wings, get the German ones in gold, the Jump Master A on the class A uniform and the equivalent qualification with the US Army. Ever since I was a child, when I saw "The Longest Day" for the first time, I wanted those US wings...Well, I got what I wanted and now am happy.

cheers
Uwe

PS: The British one would be cool but only if getting them jumping that balloon...I have friends who did that, they all say it's a bit suicidal, so quiet, straight down...like jumping from a bridge!

COL Robert L Howard (MOH) appeared in two of John Wayne's movies, he did a jump in "The Longest Day" and was an Airborne Instructor in the movie "The Green Berets". He became good friends with "The Duke" and when I was searching for music to put on his tribute video I did for him, I was talking to Neil Horn who built and runs his tribute site. He told me him and the COL were BS one time and the COL said you want to hear a funny story, well of course Neil didn't have time to answer and the COL said "I remember being stuck in a dam hole in a dam battle in 67 and by God all I kept hearing was the theme song from the Alamo and the part when the hundreds of Mexicans are lining up for the final assault and this good old boy walks over to John and says, they sure look pretty don't they....You know that theme is my favorite song!"

So I researched it and found a section with the words to it and my dear friend SGM Guerrero (RIP) who I was working with at the time I was making the video told me "You know that Movie was the start of Americans being called "Gringos", since it was filmed in Texas...It probably does not appeal to most who view the video since their expecting some gung ho music or the Ballad of the Green Berets...but it was good enough to spend six months on the front page of the COL's web site and is now inside the site, so I'm glad I used that theme and I think the COL is also glad I did. RIP SIR!