Developed from on-line resources 
by
Gene Adcock, CMSgt, USAF (CCT) Retired

INTRODUCTION

World War II spawned both the conventional and the special operations roots of Air Force Combat Control Teams. Conventional roots sprouted in the European theater while, special operations heritage can be traced to the Pacific theater.  In the European theater German paratroopers surprised the Allies with their effectiveness in April 1940 while invading Norway and Denmark.  Shortly thereafter, they shocked the world with a victory in Crete.

• European Theater 

German paratroopers surprised the Allies by successfully supporting a sea-borne invasion of Norway and Denmark in 1940. However, they shocked the world with their first stunning victory over the British on Crete in 1941.  This operation involved classic door kicking or the seizure of airports and port facilities as well as the subsequent engagement of lightly armed airborne troops as conventional infantry against a well equipped, well trained force five times its size.  While this battle heralded the potential value of the use of airborne forces to the allies, it was catastrophic for the Germans; about half of the paratroopers were casualties.  As a consequence, Hitler never used them in an airborne capacity for the rest of the war.

The Allies first major airborne assault took place in June 1943 when the 82nd Airborne Division jumped into battle near the city of Gela on the island of Sicily.  Over 200 C-47s were involved in this first night mass tactical airdrop.  Before the planes even approached the drop zone(s) they were mistaken for enemy and 10% of them were shot down by US Navy gunners.  Poor visual references and 35 mph winds wrecked havoc with two battalions landing 30 miles off the DZ (drop zone) and a third 55 miles away! Despite this lackluster drop score paratroopers were able to slow a German counterattack and gave seaborne forces time to gain a foothold at the beach-landing site. 

General Gavin, Deputy Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, decreed that future paratroop operations must include some means of placing more personnel on the objective. Thus the Army Pathfinder was born. Specially trained troops would jump in and establish electronic and visual aids for the main assault force. The visual aids were burning buckets of gas-soaked sand and the Eureka radar beacon with its paltry ten-mile range filled the role of an electronic NAVAID. Despite the limits of their equipment, the DZ acquisition aids and the communications abilities of the pathfinders made an unbeatable combination. Where the pathfinders were used, subsequent parachuting operations were far more successful; where they weren't used, operations suffered.  For example, during the Normandy invasion pathfinders jumped in 30 minutes prior to the main force and over 13,000 highly motivated paratroopers were able to effectively engage the Germans. 

Many of the troops landed in dispersed geographical areas owing, in part, to the desire of relatively untrained aircrews to successfully complete their drops on target.  Curiously, this led to confusion by the Germans who were unable to identify the locus of the airborne assaults.  For the most part, however, the troops landed in close enough proximity to their planned DZs to successfully accomplish their assigned missions.

In sharp contrast to D-day, a smaller airborne operation was launched in the South of France in support of a sea-borne invasion but without the use of pathfinders.  The results were similar to those in Sicily.  In comparing the operations it was hard for senior service commanders to escape th conclusion that some means of providing navigational aides, marking drop zones and providing air traffic control to participating aircraft were critical to success.  

Later in the war, troop-carrier squadrons developed glider-borne teams known as Combat Control Teams.  The glider pilot and four enlisted technicians utilized a jeep and a trailer-mounted radio to pass critical information to the follow-on aircraft. Two Combat Control Teams infiltrated into Germany by glider with the 18th Airborne Corps during Operation Varsity.  Following their infiltration, the teams were able to move rapidly to forward airfields where they supported resupply operations and provided airfield control.

It was the European Theater pathfinders that coined the motto First In-Last Out; today, USAF Combat Control Teams use a variation of the pathfinders original motto.

• Pacific Theater

General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold created a unique organization to support operations against the Japanese in Burma. Major General Orde C. Wingate, a British commander, was conducting guerilla warfare with great results but with high causalities. Long term behind the lines operations needed a source of resupply and reinforcement adapted to the mission. Rugged terrain and long distances further complicated the undertaking. General Arnold envisioned an "Air Commando Force" that would transport large numbers of troops deep into enemy territory and wholly supply them by air. Colonel Philip G. Cochran, a veteran fighter pilot from the North Africa campaign, was designated the reluctant commander of the 1st Air Commando Group. He wanted to go "where there was some fighting." General Arnold informed him he would get all the combat he wanted and outlined the mission and left him with the freedom to execute it remarking, "to hell with the paperwork, go out and fight."

With tremendous autonomy the Air Commandos carefully selected equipment and personnel to match the mission. Transports, gliders, light liaison aircraft supported the logistics puzzle while fighters and medium bombers completed the fire support problem. An exhaustive training and rehearsal program honed the unit and confounded outsiders. "Visitors to our installations were confounded by the lack of "rank"…officers and men…sweated shoulder to shoulder…" At first Allied troops were not sure the Air Commandos could do what they promised.

The fighter-bombers began preparing the battlefield in February 1944 while updating intelligence on possible landing sites. On 5 March 1944 the airlift portion of Operation Thursday began in earnest. Pathfinder aircraft carried teams that marked the landing zone for follow-on forces. Long-haul communications reported that initial resistance was light and heavy reinforcements were recalled. Rapid runway construction allowed follow-on forces a much safer landing area. Over the course of the next three months the Air Commandos delivered over 9000 troops, 1,300 pack animals and 245 tons of supplies.

The Air Commandos delivered the fight to the enemy. Ground force coordinated air strikes via radio, wounded were evacuated by air and aerial resupply techniques were honed. When the Burma Road was reopened in January 1945 the Air Commandos were deactivated. The men and equipment were absorbed into conventional units in preparation for the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland. The first use of atomic weapons overshadowed many of the Air Commandos accomplishments. Almost everything the Air Commandos did was an important first:

• First air unit designed to support a ground unit
• First composite air unit
• First air unit employed with total autonomy
• First invasion into enemy territory solely by air
• First nighttime heavy glider assault landing
• First night combat glider recovery
• First glider airlift of large animals
• First major employment of light airplanes in combat
• First air unit to employ helicopters
• First rescue by combat helicopter
• First firing of rockets form aircraft in combat.
  

The legacy of these heroes providing specialized airpower Anytime, Anyplace can be seen today in AFSOC units deployed around the world. 

As World War Two ground to a close the Armed Forces demobilized and reorganized. The United States Air Force  was created on 18th of September 1947 with the National Security Act.  Major reorganization issues took a back burner to the Berlin Airlift and the CCT issue would not be addressed for years to come.

The Allies’ first major airborne assault occurred in June 1943 as the 82nd Airborne Division jumped into battle near the city of Gela on the island of Sicily.  More than 200 C-47s participated in this history making night, mass tactical airdrop.  Poor visual references and 35 mile per hour winds wrecked havoc - with two battalions landing 30 miles off the drop zone (DZ) - and a third 55 miles away!  Despite this lackluster start, paratroopers were able to slow a German counterattack and gave sea-borne forces time to gain a foothold at the beach-landing site.  General Gavin, deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, decreed that future paratroop operations must include some means of placing more personnel on the objective. Thus, Army Pathfinder teams were born.

In Gavin’s plan, specially trained (pathfinder) troops would jump in and establish electronic and visual aids for the main assault force. The visual aids employed by these early pathfinders were burning buckets of gas-soaked sand and the Eureka radar beacon with its 10-mile range filled the role of an electronic navigational aid (NAVAID). Despite the limits of their equipment, the DZ acquisition aids and the communications abilities of the pathfinders made an unbeatable combination. Subsequent parachuting operations were far more successful.  Thus the seeds for future Combat Control Teams were planted by General Gavin in the early days of World War II.  

   HERITAGE     50s       60s      70s      80s     90s      00s           DIST GRADS     LINKS     RECRUITING    TEST   SPONSOR   

                                                                                PATHFINDERS BORN

During World War II, US Army Pathfinders were a group of volunteers selected within the Airborne units; they were specially trained to operate navigations aids to guide the main airborne body to the Drop Zones (DZ).   The pathfinder teams were made up of a group of eight to twelve pathfinders and a group of six bodyguards whose job was to defend the pathfinders while they set up their equipment.  The pathfinder teams dropped approximately thirty minutes before the main body in order to locate designated drop zones and provide radio and visual guides for the main force, in order to improve the accuracy of the jump. Once the main body jumped, the pathfinders then joined their original units and fought as standard airborne infantry.

After the serious problems uncovered during the parachute drop in the Allied invasion of Sicily.  Allied high command questioned the utility of parachute infantry primarily because of the difficulty of dropping the infantry as cohesive units rather than as scattered groups.  A review of procedures and methods resulted in the establishment of the pathfinder teams to aid navigation to drop zones.  Because aircraft navigation, especially at night, was so difficult, the concept was to create specially trained teams of aircraft crews and parachute infantry that would be able to locate the drop zone, parachute into the drop zone accurately, and then set up special radio beacon sets (the Rebecca/Eureka transponding radar beacon) and visual markings to help guide the main airborne force to the drop zones.  Brightly colored panels and smoke grenades were also used for daytime drops.

Pathfinders were first used in a jump to reinforce units involved in combat in Italy in September of 1943.  Pathfinders were involved in the D-Day drop of the Battle of Normandy in June of 1944, the Operation Market Garden drops to secure the bridges required for the ground units advancing into the Netherlands in September 1944, a resupply by air operation of the 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Buldge in December of 1944, and a resupply by air operation of the American 4th Infantry Division near Bleialf, Germany in February of 1945.

Though a number of paratroopers were trained as pathfinders, they did not always jump as pathfinders for all operations. The number of pathfinders for a jump varied depending on the conditions of the destination at the time of the jump.  For instance, the D-Day jump for the Battle of Normandy, a night time jump, had more pathfinder teams than the jump for Operation Market Garden, a day time jump.  For the Battle of Bastogne, the 101st Airborne Division was trucked to the town for its defense against the attacking German forces.  Two sticks of Pathfinders were used when the 101st Airborne was resupplied from the air in order to guide the aircraft dropping the much needed supplies accurately and within the Allied lines.

Pathfinders taking part in the Allied parachute assault on Normandy on 6 June 1944, were trained by the Pathfinder School at RAF North Witham of which the US Army Air Force (USAAF) designation was Army Air Force Station 479.

At 2130 hours on 5 June, about 200 pathfinders began to take off from North Witham, for the Cotentin Peninsula, in twenty C-47  aircraft of 9th Troop Carrier Command Pathfinder Group.  They began to drop at 0015 Hours 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.  However, their aircraft were scattered by low clouds and anti-aircraft fire.  Many never found their assigned drop zones. Some of the drop zones were too heavily defended, some were flooded.

The British 6th Airborne Division, which participated in the D-Day drop for the Battle of Normandy used pathfinder teams as did the British 1st Airborne Division during Operation Market (the parachute infantry portion of Operation Market-Garden).

The origin of US Army pathfinders has been the subject of debate.  According to the late Charlie Doyle¹, a WW-II veteran of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, "[General 'Slim Jim'] Gavin likes to claim credit for 'inventing' Pathfinders, pointing to bad drops in Sicily as the cause.   Let us set the record straight: The 509th, the world's most experienced bad drop specialists, first saw the need for them."

Doyle states the Scout Company of the 509th was the first specialized pathfinder group and it began the training at Oujda, assisted by knowledge gained from the experience of the British Airborne.  Company commander Captain Howland and his XO 1st Lt. Fred E. Perry developed usable techniques.  The Scout Company was later reorganized as a Scout Platoon with ten enlisted men under Perry's command. Perry states,  "We were equipped with a British homing radio and U.S. Navy Aldis lamps, which radiated a beam to guide planes. We trained on this procedure until the invasion at Salerno."

Doyle relates that the 82nd Airborne Division arrived from the United States and camped near the 509th PIB at Oujda. The 509th was attached to the 82nd, but the division did not initially accept the pathfinder concept until after its experience in Sicily.

Doyle adds, "At the time, Major General Matthew Ridgway and his 'All-American' staff thought they knew it all.  Impressed with themselves, although they were not jumpers or experienced glider troopers, they airily dismissed the 509th and its fresh combat experiences, as well as any nonstandard-Limey concept.  They would learn the hard way."

1. "Stand in the Door! The wartime history of the 509th Parachute Infantry" by Charles H. Doyle and Terrell Stewart. Published by Phillips Publications, P.O. Box 168, Williamstown, NJ 08094

• Additional information about the origin of the pathfinders during World War II can be found in the book "American Airborne Pathfinders in World War II" by Jeff Moran, published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA 19310

   HERITAGE     50s       60s      70s      80s     90s      00s           DIST GRADS     LINKS     RECRUITING    TEST   SPONSOR   

                                                                   AIR FORCE PATHFINDERS

During the Korea war, operational security limited the use of Pathfinders in the three main airdrops of the war.  At the same time turf battles raged in Washington as both Army and Air Force leaders tried to figure out how to handle the Pathfinder mission.  The Army wanted to retain its Pathfinder teams, while Air Force leaders believed there were three major disadvantages to Pathfinder operations:

• Insufficient element of surprise,
• Poor use of NAVAIDs, and, not the least,
• Being forced to rely on Army Pathfinders.

Additionally, the Air Staff contended that air traffic control (ATC) was an Air Force-unique mission.  The Department of Defense (DOD) agreed and the mission of the glider borne CCT was combined with that of the Pathfinders and given to the USAF.  The Army, on the other hand, made no bones about its willingness to continue fulfilling the Pathfinder role.  The Army has never deactivated its Pathfinder units although their primary mission has evolved to emphasize helicopter operations.

Initially, the Air Force gave little more than lip service to their newly acquired program. The long-range plan was to do away with Pathfinders. Senior leadership believed that electronic NAVAIDs would relieve them of the requirement to put Pathfinder units in the field altogether.  The crisis came to a head in mid-1952 and something had to be done quickly or the Air Force would lose the mandate to field Pathfinder teams.  The Tactical Air Command (TAC) ordered Eighteenth Air Force to take the necessary steps to fix the problem.  On 14 October 1952, the first 10 USAF Pathfinders attended jump school.

Anticipating an influx of trained Pathfinders, Eighteenth Air Force activated the Pathfinder Squadron, Provisional, on 15 January 1953 at Donaldson Air Force Base (AFB), South Carolina. The initial plan was to fill the unit with sister-service transfers primarily from the Army.  Surprisingly, they hoped to form six Pathfinder teams, but were lucky to get enough men for one team.

On the 27th of March 1953, the Pathfinder Squadron, Provisional, was deactivated and the jumpers were assigned to 1st Aerial Port Squadron (APS) and officially designated a Combat Control Team - or CCT.  The Army leadership continued to be very critical of the Air Force for usurping what they felt was an Army mission.  The USAF was vulnerable to criticism, as it seemed unwilling to fully assume its responsibility, focusing instead on developing supersonic fighters, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), and long-range bombers.

   HERITAGE     50s       60s      70s      80s     90s      00s           DIST GRADS     LINKS     RECRUITING    TEST   SPONSOR   

                                                                          MORE HISTORY FOLLOWS

Read more about the reluctance of the United States Air Force to accept the Pathfinder mission in the HISTORICAL SECTION titled The 1950s.  Click on the link below.