As of the date of this posting, the novel coronavirus has taken over 200,000 American lives. And now, the JAGWAR can officially add to that devastating list yet another tragic casualty: the U.S. Army Pathfinder School at Fort Benning, GA.
This past July, reports indicated that the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) was contemplating “reprioritizations and deletions” of several functional training courses. One of the courses on the chopping block was—shockingly—Pathfinder School.
And indeed: via memorandum released on Friday, 23 October 2020, TRADOC has announced that the Pathfinder School will be shuttered in fiscal year 2022.
Wow.
The notorious three-week pathfinder course was created during World War II to train special teams of paratroopers in the vital craft of guiding large airborne formations onto drop zones behind enemy lines. Today, the course also delves deeper into the art-and-science of sling-load operations than does its sibling warrior skills course, to wit, Air Assault School.
Airborne Pathfinders, honing their craft.
Since 1943, Fort Benning has minted Pathfinders beholden to the motto “First In, Last Out”. These specialized soldiers are “inserted or dropped into place in order to set up and operate drop zones, pickup zones, and helicopter landing sites for airborne operation, air resupply operations, or other air operations in support of the ground unit commander.” And as yet, there’s just no GPS substitute for the on-the-ground awareness and intellect a that human can lend to this mission set.
But that consideration wasn’t enough to spare the beloved school. In part, TRADOC’s decision is due to the global pandemic; “bringing soldiers in from around the country and quarantining them for two weeks before starting courses that last about the same timeframe doesn’t make sense to the service,” the Army Times reported this past summer. Military.com also suggests that budgetary considerations are driving this decision—though I suspect fiscal constraints wouldn’t have shuttered the course if the Pathfinder skillset were still deemed strategically indispensable. Clearly, there’s plenty of debate on that point… but I suppose the writing was on the wall after the elimination of the Army’s last pathfinder unit in February 2017.
In any event, COVID-19 has forced the issue (or provided the requisite rationale). For those who daydreamed of securing that signature flaming torch badge, this news comes as a monumentally crushing disappointment.
So talk to your commanders and supervisors now, JAGWARriors! Your last chance of negotiating this so-called “gentlemen’s course” is quickly dwindling. While it’s true that the 101st Airborne Division still runs its own Pathfinder course at the Sabalauski Air Assault School, attending that course requires assignment to the Screaming Eagles… and even then, who knows if they’ll make room for an intrepid lawyer or paralegal seeking to “Soldier first”.
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UPDATE: 12 November 2020
The Army Times just published official confirmation:
www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2020/11/12/pathfinder-school-at-fort-benning-slated-to-officially-get-the-axe/