One of the great things about the 82nd Airborne Division is that it wants the general public to fully understand/support its mission, welcomes its veterans and will help any Solider/unit to train to combat standards--even "leg"units.

This does more to demonstrate excellence than any boasting.

However there are a few in the Division who taunt and ridicule the 1st Corps Support Command Soldiers (COSCOM) and abuse their rank because they're not all Airborne qualified.

A "steller-performer" from COSCOM recently graduated with the top of his class but had to put up with obscene sexual gestures with chemlights, taunting, and shoves/tripping because he was wearing a maroon beret with the Airborne tab but not jump wings because he hadn't had the chance to go to jump school.

His dilemma is not unique--there are lots of COSCOM Soldiers placed by the Army into this position and they do not deserve to be mistreated. Each morning every COSCOM Soldier gets up a "0-dark-30" to PT: there are formation runs, calisthenics, weight lifting and organized team sports. Their small groups show teamwork, esperit' de corps and friendship. There is no doubt that they will work together to do the mission. They are not Airborne yet because they haven't had a chance to go to jump school--yet. If someone doesn't want to go to jump school and wants to wear the maroon beret that is another matter.

They are part of the XVIII Airborne Corps team: "us" not "them".

Every Soldier on this post must stop the "them and us", mentality. Instead, lead by example and make people want to follow and be like you.

No one wants to be like the Division PLDC Soldier with the chemlights or the COSCOM NCO seen chewing out two Soldiers in public for wearing PT gear for base clean-up while he was in civvies. Harassment breeds harassment; COSCOM is not perfect but it's our COSCOM with our Soldiers in it and we should want the "Airborne Spirit" to permeate its ranks, also.

The 10-division Army needs everyone of its Soldiers in a world full of armies as large and even larger than it is. Today, the U.S. Army is only the 8th largest in the world!

The post leadership can help solve this inequity by using the Advanced Airborne School to run a two week "no-frills" jump school here so everybody in COSCOM can get "up to speed" without the time loss/expense of being sent to Benning's jump school. This would reduce the pressure on Fort Benning's jump school so 11M Soldiers on contingency alert can pick up this skill.U.S. Army PrePositioned Afloat (APA) Armored Fighting Vehicles and their Brigades of personnel to man them should be on jump status so they do not need concrete runways to land on;

thus being able to link up with their M1 Abrams, M2 Bradley and M113A3 Gavin AFVs off-loaded from their pre-positioned ships by Army lighters and landing craft like the LACV-30 Air Cushion Vehicle that can be carried onboard Army Pre-Po ships for rapid ship-to-shore movement without need of a port or a marine corps to seize it.

We have all the necessary 40' towers, swing landing trainers, etc...to do this. COSCOM Soldiers are harassed enough and do PT daily so the 1st week of Ft. Benning jump school can be omitted. Make 'em PARATROOPERS!.

"Airborne" is a way of life, not a one-time experience at jump school. COSCOM is already a part of the Airborne family. Let's make it so they are full partners.

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