Question
 

Did anyone hear of an AIT that was called Airborne Infantry AIT that was at Camp Crockett during the Vietnam Era?

No

Go to this site

http://www.don-valentine.com/grunt1.htm

Boats,

Didn't have time to read all of that....and must have missed the Airborne Infantry AIT thing at Camp Crockett, but never heard of it during Vietnam. Was at Basic at Jackson on Tank Hill, with everybody, then to AIT at Jackson, then after Advanced Infantry, Fort Benning for Jump School....Don't think it exhisted during Vietnam....same same Toccoa. Bill...where did you hear of this?

Pack

Airborne Infantry Training
 

Never heard of Camp Crockett. I took AIT at Ft. Gordon, GA, and they told us that it stood for Airborne Infantry Training. We knew that that wasn't the official name of the school, but it sounded good. 99% of us had volunteered to go Airborne. 95% of us would go on to Ft. Benning for Jump School. The ones that didn't go hadn't volunteered to begin with, or didn't pass the Airborne PT test to go to Jump School.

All of the cadre were Airborne qualified. My platoon sergeant had been with the 101st in Nam. All of the pt was geared to jump school. We were constantly told that if we couldn't do it here, we weren't going to make it through Ground Week at Benning. As we went through the infantry training we were often told "This is how it's done in the 101st," or "the 173rd," or "the 1st Cav." Part of the 1st Cav was all-Airborne at that time. When I got to the 101st and went through P-Training, alot of the AIT training was pretty much what we were being taught there as far as patroling, walking point, or slack. Talked to guys that went through Ft. Polk, Ft. Jackson, Ft. Ord, etc., and said they weren't taught alot of the stuff.

Packo: What the hell is "Toccoa?" Never heard of that either. But you have to remember, this was '66. Alot of changes between you and Bill, and me. The Cav no longer had an all-paratrooper unit; the 101st was changing over to AIRMOBILE and had as many legs as paratroopers; I'm sure alot of the tactics changed; etc..Airborne

Packo .. This is what prompted the question. Out of the blue this guy sends me an email questioning something I had posted on the WWW somewhere relating to the USMC and the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Divisions Operation Apache Snow. He thought I had implied that the USMC had been involved in the Battle for Hamburger Hill. I wrote back telling him that I never said that but it's a fact that the units of the 3rd Marine division were indeed a part of the operation with the northern/northwestern part of the A Shau Valley as their TAOR. He sent me this email to me after that .....

Bill
I just took a look at your pictures - damn, they are awesome!!!!!!!!!!1 I did not realize you came in country just before me, and that you were "one of us".
I enlisted for airborne infantry when I was 18, basic at Ft. Ord, Airborne Inf. AIT at Camp Crockett, Jump School, then SF training at Bragg for 9 months. (I signed out for downtown on a Friday, flew to Newport Beach, CA for my sister's wedding, her maid-of-honor liked my green beret so much that she invited me to her dad's boat - where I stayed for five days!) Anyway, my 1st sgt at the 6th SFG did not like me for getting "free pussy", so I was sent to the 101a week later. My best buddy (AIT, Jump School, and SF) 'got sent to the 506th three weeks before me, and ended up in C-1506. He was in the bunker next to me during the battle for FSB Sword, and ended up getting 4 PH for probably many of the same battles you were in, including 987. We were also at Currahee together when the NVA fired 4 122's into the line we were in for ice cream. (my RTO next to me was badly shredded)

In RECON, we always seemed to have people getting assigned to us for a short time, then they would go back to where they came from.
In our platoon, there were people who smoked and those who didn't. Palmer, myself and others isolated ourselves from them, and basically kept the platoon alive. (we were NOT popular, but we went home in one piece)

I had to spend 6months in the 1/508th at Bragg after my tour. I was a buck Sgt teaching rappelling, so I got over. My buddy from C-1506th came home as a Sp4 with four purple hearts, and he was also assigned to the 1/508th. He had kp and details all the time, but at least we got to make jumps together!

Currahee!

I deleated his name just for GP but he is a member of the 506th Infantry Association. That in itself doesn't mean anything for I have been told before by an officer of the association that they don't really check anyone out but men who served together do the policing if someone claims to have been with so and so at such and such a time.Since he claims to have been in Recon 1/506 I asked him if he knew a certain guy who had been with my company and then transfered to Recon. He wrote me back in another email that yes he did and that he can put me in contact with him. We'll see.

Advanced Individual Training, Advanced Infantry Training, Airbourne Infantry Training. It would be unusual for the Army to use three different meanings for the same acromym.

Frisco,

Toccoa Georgia is where it all began before moving Jump School to Benning.....from what I understand. The originals were called Toccoa Men. The 8th Cav, of which I was assigned, consisted of 2 battalions of Airborne Infantry. They, like the 101st began taking legs in the late 60's, but you are 100% correct that there was an Airborne element of the 1st Cav. "Jumping Mustangs"

Bill...Sid's gonna have to help us here because Dan, Pighumper, and I were both denied SF school because we were under 21. It was my understanding that nobody got to go to SF school unless there were at least 21 years of age. Maybe the Army didn't like Dan and I but doubt it. I still have not heard of this Camp Crokett. James was at Ft Ord...maybe it's a part of that fort? I also question a First Sargents ablility or power to reasign a qualified Green Beret, after all that training...which I thought was at least a year, to a regular Infantry outfit because he got laid in town. Sounds a bit weird to me....but then again I've heard stranger things. One other thing. I thought if you went through SF school you came out an automatic Sgt. I could be mistaken about this but I don't remember ever seeing a real SF guy that wasn't at least an E-5.

Time to hear from our Green Bennie contingent or anybody that knows what this Camp Crockett thing was. If it's mentioned in Boat's article, then that was the 50's not late 60's.

Pack

Tom, that's a true story about having to be 21 [or 20 with a waiver] to get in SF. I told my recruiter that I wanted to be SF. He told me that I would have to enlist: Airborne; Unassigned. He said that while in Basic or AIT an SF recruiter would come talking to all of us. Sure enough, he showed up at Basic at Ft. Ord [no Camp Crockett there]. After his spiel, he asked who was interested. A small group of us stepped forward, and the first thing he asked was how old we were. I turned 19 in Basic. "Sorry, son."

You're also right about all SF grads being AT LEAST E-5. And, I think, you had to commit to more years. They wanted to get their investment back. Sid can probably give more info on that. It always throws up a red flag with me when someone claims to be SF and under 20/21 at the time.

Bill, this guy's story sounds hokey to me too, about the First Shirt kicking him to the 101st. Most Airborne NCO's that I knew would give ya a big "AIRBORNE" for something like that story. This guy was either never in SF training; flunked out; or stepped on his dick so bad that he was kicked out. He never did say why his buddy was also kicked out?

Also, 1/508th was part of the 3rd Bde. of the 82nd when we went to Nam. We arrived there in FEB68 and the brigade would stay there for 22mos.. So if this guy was in 1/508th, it wasn't at Bragg during this time frame. I was in 1/17th Cav when I first got there, but was transferred to 2/505th about a month later.

I'd pump this guy for more info. He'll hang himself eventually.

Oh the Wannabes
 

Well, I don't know for sure about Airborne AIT but I do know something about the SF and one of my SF friends (SOG also) Col. (Ret) Mark Ponzillo) happened to Commanding officer of the jump school at Ft. Benning. Another SF Friend, SMG Farrell, (SOG also) Was SMG of the Ranger School. SO here are some opinions.

1. This guy is overrun with bull shit.
In the 60s and 70s you had to be E5 or above and to apply for SF, you had to be 21 or over (but was waiverable) You had to reinlist for the assignment 4 years normally but i am pretty sure a doc had to do 6 year reup because the sf portion of medical training was a year. NOBODY went to sf from basic or ait or as ait.

Exceptions to above. UNFLASHED, You could be assigned to a SF unit not as sf qualified and worm your way in but you could not wear the SF Flash or Tab. An example would be assigned as a cook, motor pool, admin ETC. You would still have to go to SFQC and still have to reup to do it probably to weapons mos as it is the shortest. Chances of this happening are right up there with the lottery. Officers Could be assigned SF with no age limit or specialized training.

Mark says there was no airborne AIT.

NO 1st Shirt is going to kick you out for getting pussy.in fact no 1sg is going to do anything for reassignment. NOW what would get you courtsmartialed and busted out would be signing out on a friday for downtown and showing up 5 or 6 days later having been in california. Wonder how he did that with no leave papers.