[USMC Chuter]

Good article...Can't forget us Marine Corps jumpers though.. Marine jumpers are the few of the few. Our origins go back to the USMC parachute battalions during WWII.. Several battalions of Marines were trained for parachute insertion. The battalions saw combat in the pacific, but never jumped outside of training. The 1950's saw the advent of the Marine recon community, many of whom became airborne. Recon Marines made one (known) combat jump during Vietnam, to insert a team covertly.

Nowadays, a Marine has three routes to a parachute billet.. The first is by being accepted into a recon unit (force or battalion, or radio recon). The other ways are by being assigned to ANGLICO or air delivery units. The occasional stray Marine may make it to jump school through a joint assignment or an extremely lucky fluke, but it's rare. To earn your gold naval parachutist wings, you must be in a jump billet, ie one of the above mentioned units.