Airborne Challenge Coins

Challenge coins are a long-standing military tradition, historically signifying group cohesion and rewarded for either outstanding service or passing a major milestone in a soldier’s military career. The members of the XVIII Airborne Corps are often awarded unique challenge coins upon successfully graduating from the United States Army Airborne School or “Jump School” to become qualified as an airborne soldier. These challenge coins commemorate their successful membership among the ranks of the airborne soldiers and their qualification to join the Army Airborne Corps.

Members of the Army Airborne Corps then go on to serve in unique divisions under the corps, serving specialized roles as they perform their duty. Members of these individual divisions are often distributed specially designed “unit coins,” custom challenge coins shared among members of a division to build cohesion and demonstrate their membership to that group.

Divisions in the XVIII Airborne Corps known to maintain their own unit specific challenge coins include:

• The 3rd Infantry Division, “The Rock of the Marne,” which saw heavy fighting in both World War I and World War II, earning their nickname after holding at the Marne River as part of the Aisne-Marne Offensive even as other units retreated.  
• The 10th Mountain Division, “Mountaineers,” the army’s foremost mountain and arctic warfare unit, which is one of the most deployed units in the army in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
• The 82nd Airborne Division, “The All American,” an active-duty airborne division specializing in parachute assault and operating as the main fighting arm of the Airborne Corps.
• The 101st Airborne Division, “Screaming Eagles,” which parachuted forces into Normandy to clear a path onto Omaha and Utah Beach. Since then they’ve been deployed in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan.