All-female parachute jump at Fort Bragg, May 14, 1980 - 82nd Airborne

[Firaq]

On May 14 of 1980, the Army conducted an all-female parachute jump, with 150 female paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, the first of it's kind. 

 

 

Troops preparing for their jump in various ways, like resting, practicing their jump or gearing up.

Paratroopers conversing after reaching the assembly point

 

And here's some soldiers hooking onto the anchor line.

 

I especially love these 4 photos, the little plushie in the pocket is such a cool charm. Interesting she has her collar buttoned up, you don't see that often. I'm wondering if anyone knows why she has her suspender hooked hooked to her suspender when she has a belt on? Did they prefer another way to connect the two parts?

 

Hope this is useful (or interesting) for some people, I've seen some of these b&w photos around but didn't know about the context.

[atb]

On 2/26/2026 at 6:15 AM, Firaq said:

On May 14 of 1980, the Army conducted an all-female parachute jump, with 150 female paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, the first of it's kind. 

 

 

Troops preparing for their jump in various ways, like resting, practicing their jump or gearing up.

Paratroopers conversing after reaching the assembly point

 

And here's some soldiers hooking onto the anchor line.

 

I especially love these 4 photos, the little plushie in the pocket is such a cool charm. Interesting she has her collar buttoned up, you don't see that often. I'm wondering if anyone knows why she has her suspender hooked hooked to her suspender when she has a belt on? Did they prefer another way to connect the two parts?

 

Hope this is useful (or interesting) for some people, I've seen some of these b&w photos around but didn't know about the context.

Isn't that the support strap from the ammunition case on the equipment belt?

[Firaq]

Good catch, she has her suspender hook to her belt instead of hooked into the mag pouch eyelet, and then she has another strap running from her mag pouch eyelet to the webbing keeper of her suspender again? I wonder why.. haven't seen those secondary hooks before.

[Rhscott]

11 minutes ago, Firaq said:

Good catch, she has her suspender hook to her belt instead of hooked into the mag pouch eyelet, and then she has another strap running from her mag pouch eyelet to the webbing keeper of her suspender again? I wonder why.. haven't seen those secondary hooks before.

They were made onto the M1956 pouches she was wearing.  Designed to support the weight of the pouch.  Went away with LC1/2 ALICE.

[Firaq]

1 minute ago, Rhscott said:

They were made onto the M1956 pouches she was wearing.  Designed to support the weight of the pouch.  Went away with LC1/2 ALICE.

Ohh, right! Thank you for the info, I should learn more about the development of ALICE from LINCLOE. I imagine the metal web keepers on ALICE suspenders are just something they didn't bother removing / kept around to keep compatibility? I believe one of the manuals I have designates it as something related to webbing but I may be wrong and can't check right now. 

[The Rooster]

Now those are some brave Women!

Airborne is voluntary. If you can pass the PT test and make through .. it was a two week course.

You can be airborne.

Personally... I never wanted to jump out of a perfectly

good aircraft.

That takes a different kind of mind set.

[Armygas]

I was at Bragg from 78 to 81 on jump status as a field medic 91B1P.  I remember this jump making the Paraglide, (base paper) and getting all manner of commentary both on and off post.  What jogged my memory is how many different uniforms we were using at the time; OG-507, camo jungles (which were a CIF item), ERDL and a few females still had OG-107.  Also they have rucks, and LBE but no weapons cases ?  those darn weapons cases caused many a broken legs and ankles.  As for jumping from "perfectly good aeroplanes?  There has not been one made that I could not get out of fast enough!!!  I will take my chances under silk day or night before I find flying fun.

Cheers, Armygas