I was wondering cause I haven't found anything online, but to become SF do you have to become HALO qualified? Is anything other than regular ABN a prerequisite?

Short answer...no.

One operational detachment per company is usually a dedicated HALO/HAHO team, one SCUBA, and the other four teams are 'ruck' teams. You'll find lot's of guys who've been through the course all over SF (when I went through it was all at Bragg...now most of it is at Yuma), but not all are assigned to HALO teams.

Regards,

D

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SinePariDonster,

Only slightly related to the topic at hand, but the Military Channel was running a very good 2 part series on HALO school a while back. It covered a class going through the school. I've watched it 4 or 5 (thousand) times! A good one to see if you're interested in spec ops training.

HALO is an additional skill qualifier. You have to be SF qualified before you go to HALO school.

What about the guys in regiment that are on the RRC. They're not sf qualed.

I think AO was refering to those in group. If you are in SF you must be SF qualified in order to go to HALO school, or a rigger as a few of them go as well, but someone in say a support role like S-1 or chem will not be going to HALO school. You must also be on a designated HALO team in order to get the extra pay. Group or someone in big Army did this as a way to cut costs and not have to pay everyone the extra $75.00 per month. Same goes for dive school.

Now yes HALO has Rgr Regt, PJ's, CCT, USMC Recon and a few guys from certain LRSD units. For example in my class I went from Rgr Regt as I was assgined to a team that had its' main insertion technique as HALO, my jump buddy was a Force Recon Gunnny. Rgr Regt was also experimenting with taking guys right out of RIP into RRD, consquently a buddy of mine in the class before mine had some E-2 with about 6 months in the Army and maybe 10 static line jumps, was not a Jump Master and here he was in HALO school. This sent an angry shock wave through the Bn's as more so than any other unit there is a major pecking order in the Bn's and sending some unproven E-2 to one of the most coveted schools in the Army made huge waves. I think they stopped this rather quickly. The guy did graduate though, so good on him.

If you ever consider going to HALO school you better get in INCREDIBLE SHAPE, as it is not easy trying to do the beers around the world (at Fat Daddy's I beleive) and then get up at 3am and make 3 jumps. Thank God for 02 bottles.

P.S The one thing HALO school also did for me was give me the honor of being the last man in the regt. to wear OG 107's . As Oct 88 was the end date and we went to BDU's, I was in HALO school when they issued the new BDU's so I came back wearing OG 107's and stuck it to the man for about 1 hour.

The US Army Military Free Fall School (HALO) is the only freefall parachuting school in the US military, and consequently has students from the Navy, USMC, and USAF, as well as the Army. All students must have already completed the basic static-line parachutist course. In my class in 1991 we had USAF PJs, some Rangers, a couple of riggers, and the rest were from the various SF Groups. At the time the only way to get a slot was to be in or scheduled to be assigned to a HALO Team. At the time I was the team leader of the HALO Team in B Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (ABN). One of the riggers quit on the first jump from altitude, after having been through the wind-tunnel at Wright -Patterson AFB. Some people just can't jump out of an airplane at 13,000 feet in cold blood. They just strapped him back into his seat and he was gone from the course the next day.

quote:

Originally posted by MFFJM2:
One of the riggers quit on the first jump from altitude, after having been through the wind-tunnel at Wright -Patterson AFB.

Wow, that's so strange. 1,500 ft. or 13,000 ft. it'll all kill you and you'd think a Rigger would be as comfortable as anyone.

Not entirely accurate. The Navy has its own HALO and Static Line school in San Diego. Typically it is only open to EOD and SEALs.

quote:

The Navy has its own HALO and Static Line school in San Diego. Typically it is only open to EOD and SEALs.

HALO I wouldn't doubt but having their own in-house static line course seems such a redundant waste of money.

The main difference is that the Navy static line course is only 1 week vice 3 at Benning. Most of the tactical training for EOD and the SEALS is done around the San Diego area and affords less trasition time. Navy students are still sent to Benning and Yuma, it just depends on how many billets are needed.

I suppose a small class could get reasonably trained in a week for static line parachuting but they are missing out on a lot of valuable things (250 ft. tower, 32 ft. tower, and lots and lots of PLFs). Benning is 3 weeks because they have to grind the mechanics into PFC Snuffy's brain. Rote muscle memory is a good thing.

I agree to a certain extent, but my knees are happier.

Actually, the school at Brown Field south of San Diego is run by Tactical Air Operations, Inc., a civilian contractor. The instructors are mostly former SEALs and Recon (as you might expect at a Navy School) and former UK Airborne types with some good civilian riggers.


Anybody remember when the one and only US MFF HALO/HAHO course was through JFKCENMA and it was all at Bragg? Yuma wasn't even on the map except for mission-specific training.....unless you tested missiles for a living.

They are civilian contractors, however, there only mission is to teach Navy personnel. This is what I meant by Navy having its own jump school. The reason for making this school contracted was because the Army refused to let the Navy have its own jump school and the only way to get funding was to have it contracted out. This is similar to the Army dive school in Key West, has to be certified by the Navy. If the Navy had refused to let the Army have it own dive school they would have either used the Navy's or contracted it out. Either way, the Brown field school is certified by the Army now.

I've always found it funny the SEALs use Brown's Field and their DZ (Trident?) is right next to the border fence.

God forbid you catch a southerly breeze!

quote:

Originally posted by Shardik:
I've always found it funny the SEALs use Brown's Field and their DZ (Trident?) is right next to the border fence.

God forbid you catch a southerly breeze!

Well Bob,

If it's a real bad day, they'll wind up at the west end of runway 27R at Tijuana International Airport...but hey, it's only a 100 meter run to the fence, right?

Doh Bart