Being Non-Airborne In An Airborne Unit Isn’t A Bad Thing

Soldiers often carry the concern that they are being assigned to or are in an airborne unit despite not being airborne qualified, and how this could impact their career.

Well, it won't negatively impact anyone’s career - unless they want it to. Being in an airborne unit, yet not being qualified, does not impact your career in any way actually. There are too many factors that limit airborne qualification. There are medical issues, such as knee problems, back problems, or not being able to pass the airborne physical for whatever reason. There’s also the modified table of equipment (MTOE) allowance; this is where soldiers are not slotted or allocated an airborne position in the unit.

Being non-airborne in an airborne unit really just means the following. When a Soldier is not in a designated airborne unit, they typically will not get a slot to attend the course. That is unless they reenlist for an airborne option that will then send them on to an airborne unit upon completion of the course.

Sometimes they may return back to the previous unit with an airborne tab, but not actively on airborne status.

The genetic makeup of the unit I was in was not airborne, but the other companies in the battalion were airborne units. We spent a lot of time supporting their airborne missions when they happened. I was assigned to the 95th Chemical Company, 6th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Engineer Brigade, 4-25 Infantry Division, located on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) in Alaska. Outside of being the Pacific Command asset for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) matters, we also assisted the battalion with their airborne operations, ranging from providing transportation, shaking 'chutes, recovering parachutes, and other associated equipment procedures as necessary. This may be viewed as a negative thing because the word "detail" is associated with the task, but in reality it’s not. Being on this detail actually frees up soldiers to participate in operations and not cause a personnel strain. Often, airborne units need to rotate their jumpers due to inadequate amount of personnel available to support the “jump”, thus putting their “jump pay/stats/status” in jeopardy. Think of it as taking care of other soldiers and being a battle buddy. After all, this mission is bigger than you!

From a personal career standpoint, soldiers who are in these types of units and qualify to become airborne can request their Chain-of-Command to fill a vacant slot and attend airborne school. If you are haphazardly assigned to an airborne unit, but cannot be airborne for whatever reason, you can always request to be assigned to a support unit on the installation and carry on with your career as normal. This is normally the case when you are assigned to installations like Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Drum in New York, Joint-Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, and Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

The next time you come up on assignment or request an assignment that involves an airborne qualification mandate, don’t fret about it. Unless you are abhorrently against the idea of being an airborne soldier, there is no shame in not being airborne, and equally there is no shame in not being qualified to be airborne.