On this Day: First High-Altitude High-Opening (HAHO) Jump in Combat

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First High-Altitude High-Opening (HAHO) Jump in Combat

Reconnaissance Marines frequently practice air insertions; however, the last time the Marine Corps applied this practice in combat was almost 35 years before this jump took place.

The first Marine Corps documented jump happened on June 14, 1966, during the Vietnam War. A detachment of Reconnaissance Marines conducted a low altitude night jump to establish an observation point within hostile territory. The jump was a success.

On September 5, 1967, nine Marines conducted the second combat airdrop, and it was a disaster. The plan was to jump at 700 feet, but the Marines ended up jumping somewhere between 1,500 – 2,000 feet due to a malfunction. Sudden winds caused the Marines to miss their mark, and the detachment was scattered through thick jungles far away from their target. Multiple Marines were wounded during this jump. Three Marines sustained injuries that required a medical evacuation, and some Marines barely escaped capture. This failure caused the Marine Corps to be hesitant about combat jumps in the future, and another mission wouldn't be conducted for two years. November 17, 1969, marked the last combat jump until 2004.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, ground forces were attracting a lot of attention from insurgents, and Marines ended up taking frequent fire. The Marine Corps decided to deploy a jump team to avoid the attention and set up an observation post behind enemy lines – similar to the first jump during the Vietnam War.

The decision to use a high-altitude high-opening jump (HAHO) instead of a high-altitude low-opening (HALO) jump was due to sound. A higher altitude jump wouldn’t require the aircraft to fly in as close to the target, and the sound of a parachute opening at 10,000 feet is virtually non-existent. On July 23, 2004, six Marines from 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division jumped from a KC-130 Hercules cargo plane from the joint Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadrons 234 and 352, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing The Marines landed and accomplished their mission, avoiding enemy contact – a success.

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