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The United States Army Pathfinder Course trains military personnel in the U.S. Army and its sister services to set up parachute drop zones and helicopter landing zones for airborne and air assault missions.
One version of the patch worn on the uniforms of American pathfinders who served during World War II. In military organizations, a pathfinder is a specialized soldier inserted or dropped into place in order to set up and operate drop zones, pickup zones, and helicopter landing sites for airborne operations, air resupply operations, or other air operations in support of the ground unit commander.
The US Army sought to rectify the problem by creating their own Pathfinder units patterned after similar British units, which would jump in ahead of a parachute assault and mark the drop zones, providing terminal air guidance to the drop aircraft.
The pathfinder teams assigned to Drop Zones C (101st) and N (82nd) each carried two BUPS beacons. The units for DZ N were intended to guide in the parachute resupply drop scheduled for late on D-Day, but the pair of DZ C were to provide a central orientation point for all the SCR-717 radars to get bearings.
From there it is a very short flight to Fryar Field (commonly referred to as "Fryar Drop Zone"), where all of the training jumps are accomplished. Fryar Field is named after Private Elmer E. Fryar of the United States Army's 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions in World War II. [2]
Current drop zones are quite large; 600 yd (549 m) or more. Airdropping sequential loads (multiple loads aboard a single aircraft) requires very long drop zones on the order of 0.5 mi (0.8 km) or more, or else the aircraft must make multiple passes over the same area, a tactically unsound thing to do.
At 09:00 the pathfinder detachment set off colored smoke to mark the drop-zone, but fierce winds and uneven ground around the airfield proved hazardous to the parachutists, causing two deaths and seventy injuries during the drop. [72] Despite these casualties the force was rapidly concentrated, and began its advance southwards.
Now 1st Battalion, 507th Infantry Regiment is part of the United States Army Infantry School, subordinate to its Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade, [1] responsible for the Army's Basic Airborne School, Jumpmaster School, Pathfinder School, and the "Silver Wings" Command Exhibition Parachute Team.