WASHINGTON — Since the inception of airborne warfare, the practice of using parachutes to insert troops into combat zones without land passage has turned the tides of conflicts. Commanders use airborne forces to seize the initiative. A brigade of paratroopers can envelop the ground from the sky in moments, allowing an army to strike deep inside enemy territory to gain key terrain and rapidly build combat power.

Paratroopers today learn their craft in the Basic Airborne Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, where Soldiers leapt into history 85 years ago.

On Aug. 16, 1940, 48 volunteer members of the Army Parachute Test Platoon jumped from a Douglas B-18 Bolo bomber at 1,500 feet. The jump was less than 45 days after the establishment of the platoon and marked the true beginning of U.S. airborn

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