US 10th Mountain Division soldiers in Afghanistan

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

terminology, a chalk is a group of paratroopers or other soldiers that deploy from a single aircraft. A chalk often corresponds to a

platoon A platoon is a Military organization, military unit typically composed of two to four squads, Section (military unit), sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the Military branch, branch, but a platoon can ...

-sized unit for

air assault Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, such as helicopters, to seize and hold key terrain that has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces behind enemy l ...

operations, or a

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

-minus-sized organization for airborne operations. For air transport operations, it can consist of up to a company-plus-sized unit. Frequently, a load of paratroopers in one aircraft, prepared for a drop, is also referred to as a ''stick''. The term was first coined in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

for airborne troops during

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The ope ...

, the Allied invasion of Europe. The aircraft flight-number was placed on the troops' backs with chalk. It was later used during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, when it was common practice to number with chalk the sides of the helicopters involved in an operation. In current military terminology a "chalk" may mean either passengers or equipment loaded as cargo. Equipment is loaded in the order it will be needed on arrival. It is not uncommon for planners to refer to aircraft loads by their chalk number, "You are in chalk five but your gear will be shipped in chalk two." In the Army 75th Ranger Regiment they use the term chalk. A chalk can be made of a Company or as small as a four man fire team. It takes at least four men to make a fire team so that is the smallest number of men that can be called a chalk. In some instances, when a convoy clearance cannot be obtained, a convoy will be divided up into different groups with four or fewer trucks in each group. Those groups will be referred to as chalk one, chalk two, chalk three, etc. This is to avoid having to obtain a convoy clearance while still maintaining power in numbers while traveling.

References

Military slang and jargon {{US-mil-stub

See also

References