STABO

The STABO helicopter extraction system was designed, and widely used,during the Vietnam War.

Sergeant First Class (SFC) Clifford L. Roberts, U.S. Army, Special Forces, drew up the first design on a napkin, after having a rescue attempt fail as a wounded Special Forces soldier fell out of a McGuire rig, during a combat extaction. SFC Roberts went to the parachute room, and made the first prototype on the sewing machines they used to repair parachutes. He was then sent to present the design. The design was approved and 500 rigs were ordered. SFC Roberts was awarded a Bronze Star for the design. SFC Clifford L. "Kip" Roberts was from Shawnee, Oklahoma.

The STABO rig was a machine stitched harness similar to a parachute harness and was quite expensive and time consuming to manufacture. The harness webbing was made of a heavy lift nylon webbing material, much like a parachute harness. The STABO rig served two main functions: it was an extraction harness, which itself also served as the operator's Load bearing equipment (LBE) in the field. STABO harnesses were made in small, medium, and large sizes.

To ready a STABO harness for rope extraction, the two leg straps (normally folded and stowed during ground operations (secured by utility tape)) were freed from the back of the harness, routed up between the legs, and each leg strap was then snapped onto a V ring, with one mounted on each lower waist of the harness. A standard issue pistol belt was laced through the center sections of the rig, and fastened tightly around the operator's waist, serving as the main closure device for the overall rig on the operator.

The operator was extacted using a dual-strap 'Y' design system (per each STABO rig), lowered by the helicopter. Each strap end retained a large carabiner fastener, which was clipped to a large V ring permanently attached to each upper shoulder strap of the rig. Once both carabiners were attached to the V rings on the rig, the operator could then be pulled out vertically by the helicopter. (This extraction method was often referred to as the "strings" method.)

The STABO rig was far more secure, safe, and comfortable than the McGuire rig, and perhaps most importantly, it allowed the unrestricted use of the operator's hands, to operate any weapons during the frequently 'hot' extractions from an LZ/PZ (Landing Zone/Pickup Zone).

As the STABO rig was used as an operator's personal LBE, it was worn for the full duration of the combat operation, in which to allow for rapid extraction by the rope ("strings") method, if a conventional helicopter LZ could not be established (which was frequently experienced in South East Asia, as recon teams were operating deep in heavily-forested enemy territory).

The current US Military method for extracting troops using the helicopter rope method, is the SPIES system, a direct and close descendant of the STABO rig system that was developed and pioneered in Vietnam/SEA Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction.

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