#Paratroopers

Photojournalism is the process of storytelling using the medium of photography as your main storytelling device. While a journalist will use their pen and paper to tell stories, a photojournalist will use their camera to capture the visual representation of a story. In our Photo Of The Day, we have paratroopers assigned with the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. They’re preparing to push forward as they train with their Polish Allies assigned to the Polish 19th Mechanized Brigade during a combined arms live-fire exercise in southeastern Poland, on March 17.

Photo Of The Day: Above a member of the 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment fires an NLAW anti-tank missile. The NLAW is a joint British and Swedish venture, providing a fire-and-forget anti-tank mis s ile system. It’s designed to be used by infantry soldiers and fires from the shoulder, after which it’s disposable. Apart from the United Kingdom, the NLAW is also used in Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden.

Photo Of The Day – We are looking at Greek soldiers assigned to the 71st Air Mobile Brigade fast-rope towards a building alongside U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade. This happened during the Exercise Iron Sword 19 in Kilkis, Greece, in November, 2019.

Photo Of The Day and we bring ourselves to Greece, where Greek soldiers assigned to the 71st Air Mobile Brigade secure a wooded area alongside U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Today’s Photo Of The Day shows two Paratroopers, from France and Britain, during Exercise Falcon Amarante.

Earlier on TFB we reported on the transition from MILES to DISE within EUCOM. However, it must be noted that the MILES system is still in use, even if sparingly. In fact, during Swift Response ’16, a multi-national airborne training operation, we have seen some of the most recent usages of the updated versions of the MILES gear. Most of the upgrades appear to be in weight reduction, with soldiers carrying less cumbersome and bulky versions of the personally worn vest. However there is another introduction that has the MILES Small Arms Transmitter taking advantage of the picatinny rail installed on most of the U.S. Army’s weapon systems. From a distance the Small Arms Transmitter could easily be mistaken for a black PEQ15 ATPIAL instead of the training device that it is. Since the 1980s MILES has gone through a number of manufacturers throughout its design phases, however most recently Cubic Global Defense is providing the latest iterations of the design, to include the picatinny mounted Small Arms Transmitter. From Cubic Global Defense-

On January 28th, TFB TV undertook a daunting task. We wanted to try and recreate an organizationally correct U.S. Army Paratrooper squad, with the same small arms and live ammunition that squad would have used in 1944. Recreating World War II small arms has been done through reenactments and in the film industry, but these only involve blanks. Shooting World War II small arms at a square range go doesn’t very far in understanding how these weapons functioned in combat. But neither is truly using these small arms as intended. These M1 Garands, M1A1 Carbines, and 1919 LMGs were created to be used by American soldiers in accomplishing their task of assaulting Fortress Europe and conquering the Japanese in the Pacific theatre. They were adopted and issued to be used by entire units of men, working together to neutralize an opposing enemy force.

The M1A1 carbine is perhaps one of the more iconic rifles from American forces in World War Two. It was specifically designed for the Paratroopers, and was used extensively in numerous campaigns of the War. With a folding stock, it allowed Paratroopers to carry less weight, and squeeze the carbine into their gear for their combat jumps over Sicily, Normandy, Holland, and Germany with the 17th Airborne Division. Today it fetches a collector premium over other M1 carbines in their original, unaltered form.

The German FG42 (Fallschirmjägergewehr 42) was a rifle designed as a multi-role combat small arm for airborne troops that was part rifle and part light machine gun. Only about 10,000 were made during WWII, but the design was very influential after the conflict ended (especially in the USA).
A company In Decatur Texas is now reproducing these guns in semi-auto only configuration, and in this video we put one to the test!