page_title: United States Army Pathfinder School
section_title: Development of the modern U.S. Army pathfinder
hierarchical_section_title: United States Army Pathfinder School / Development of the modern U.S. Army pathfinder
caption_attribution_description: English: A group of Pathfinders in front of a C-47 transport before takeoff. During World War II, the pathfinders were a group of volunteers selected within the Airborne units who were specially trained to operate navigation aids to guide the main airborne body to the drop zones. At 21.30 hours on June 5, about 200 pathfinders began to take off from North Witham, for the Cotentin Peninsula, in 20 C-47 aircraft of 9th Troop Carrier Command Pathfinder Group. They began to drop at 00.15 on June 6, to prepare the drop zones for the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. They were the first US troops on the ground on D-Day.
context_page_description: The mission of the United States Army Pathfinder School is to train personnel in the U.S. Army and its sister services in a three-week course, during which the candidate pathfinder learns how to navigate dismounted, establish and operate a day / night helicopter landing zone, establish and operate day / night parachute drop zones, including computed air release system DZs, ground marked release system DZs and Army verbally initiated release system DZs, conduct sling load operations, provide air traffic control and navigational assistance to rotary wing and fixed wing airborne operations. All training and airborne operations will be conducted in accordance with FM 3-21.220 and FM 3-21.38.
  The U.S. Army Pathfinder School is operated under the auspices of the 1st Battalion, 507th Infantry Regiment. The 1-507th IR also oversees the doctrine and operation of the U.S. Army Airborne School and the U.S. Army Jumpmaster School.
context_section_description: The modern U.S. Army Pathfinders are an elite force making up less than .01% of the total Army. Their primary mission is to infiltrate areas and set up parachute drop zones and helicopter landing zones for airborne and air assault missions.
  The Pathfinders were created in World War II when American paratrooper units needed a way to mark areas and guide aircraft to a specific spot.  Early airborne operations resulted in scattered drops up to seven miles from the target. Darkness and inclement weather made it extremely difficult for aircraft to find the drop zone. The 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion and 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division were working on an idea they had learned from the British.  An elite force would go in prior to the main assault with visual and electronic signaling devices to guide aircraft to the drop zone and gliders to their landing zones. Their first use in combat was 13 September 1943 during combat jumps into Italy.
  WWII-era Pathfinders are most remembered for their jump into Normandy during the invasion of 1944 on June 6th, when they led the way for Allied forces into Europe. They were employed throughout Southern France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany in the course of Allied airborne operations until the end of the war in Europe. They were also used in the Pacific theater with the 11th Airborne Division during the liberation of the Philippines.
  The Korean War saw limited use of the Pathfinders by the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team during two combat jumps and operations. The Vietnam War saw the largest use of Pathfinders due to the developments of helicopter insertion and resupply which were pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division (Test). Nearly every Army aviation battalion had a Pathfinder detachment and deployed them on nearly every mission.
  After the Vietnam War pathfinders were with the major Airborne units and various combat aviation battalions/groups. They also saw a growth in Army National Guard and Army Reserve Pathfinder platoons during the 1970s and 1980s. Many conducted joint task force missions in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.
  In the late 1980s through 1990 the Army started inactivating its pathfinder units in the belief those skills could be learned by regular troops attending Air Assault School and by individuals within the unit who were pathfinder qualified. Operations during the Panama invasion and the Gulf War showed that Pathfinders were an important factor in successful airborne operations and the Army needed more of them. The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), which had retained a pathfinder unit during and after the Vietnam War, expanded its existing company and raised a second in 2005 by converting its long range surveillance detachment (LRSD) into another pathfinder company, giving each of its two aviation brigades a company. The 82nd Airborne Division followed suit by converted its LRSD to a pathfinder company under the 2d Battalion, 82nd Aviation Regiment. Additionally, the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Fort Drum, New York, and the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii have formed provisional pathfinder companies (e.g., they are not reflected in the units' tables of organization and equipment) and conduct combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The pathfinder units today still live by the motto of "First In-Last Out" and wear the Pathfinder Torch.
  From a high of five pathfinder companies in the past decade, a reduction began with the 15 May 2015 inactivation of the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade in the 101st Airborne Division, which included the brigade's pathfinder company. Concurrently the 101st CAB was redesignated as the CAB, 101st Airborne Division, bringing it in line with other non-numbered divisional CABs. At this point the division assumed the same organizational structure as the 10th Mountain Division, a light infantry unit.
  In the summer of 2016 the provisional pathfinder company in the 25th Infantry Division was inactivated, followed by the inactivation on 2 August 2016 of the remaining pathfin
caption: U.S. Army pathfinders pose in front of a C-47 before boarding the aircraft in order to parachute into France in support of the Normandy landings.
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