Airborne

The 101st Airborne Division ("Screaming Eagles")is a specialized modular light infantry division of the US Army trained for air assault operations.[ The Screaming Eagles has been referred to as "the tip of the spear" by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates   and the most potent and tactically mobile of the U.S. Army's divisions by former Chief of Staff of the Army GEN Edward C. Meyer (ret).[4]  The 101st Airborne is able to plan, coordinate, and execute brigade-size air assault operations capable of seizing key terrain in support of operational objectives,and is capable of working in austere environments with limited or degraded infrastructure.[5]  These particular operations are conducted by highly mobile teams covering extensive distances and engaging enemy forces behind enemy lines.[6]  According to the author of Screaming Eagles: 101st Airborne Division, its unique battlefield mobility and high level of training have kept it in the vanguard of US land combat forces in recent conflicts.More recently, the 101st Airborne has been performing foreign internal defense and counterterrorism operations within Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 101st Airborne Division has a history that is nearly a century long. During World War II, it was renowned for its role in Operation Overlord (the D-Day landings and airborne landings on 6 June 1944, in Normandy, France), Operation Market Garden, the liberation of the Netherlands and its action during the Battle of the Bulge around the city of Bastogne, Belgium. During the Vietnam War, the 101st Airborne Division fought in several major campaigns and battles, including the Battle of Hamburger Hill in May 1969.

In mid-1968, it was reorganized and redesignated as an airmobile division and then in 1974 as an air assault division. The titles reflect the division's shift from airplanes to helicopters as the primary method of delivering troops into combat. Many current members of the 101st are graduates of the US Army Air Assault School. It is known as the ten toughest days in the US Army, and its average attrition rate is approximately 50 percent.[11]  Division headquarters is at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In recent years, the division has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At the height of the War on Terror, the 101st Airborne Division had over 200 aircraft.The division now has slightly over 100 aircraft.As of December 2017, the division had about 29,000 soldiers, down from 35,000 soldiers just three years prior because of budget restraints.

The 82nd Airborne Division is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army, specializing in parachute assault operations into denied areaswith a U.S. Department of Defense requirement to "respond to crisis contingencies anywhere in the world within 18 hours".Based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 82nd Airborne Division is part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 82nd Airborne Division is the U.S. Army's most strategically mobile division.[4]  More recently, the 82nd Airborne has been conducting operations in Iraq, advising and assisting Iraqi Security Forces.

The division was constituted, originally as the 82nd Division, in the National Army on 5 August 1917, shortly after the American entry into World War I. It was organized on 25 August 1917, at Camp Gordon, Georgia and later served with distinction on the Western Front in the final months of World War I. Since its initial members came from all 48 states, the division acquired the nickname All-American, which is the basis for its famed "AA" on the shoulder patch. The division later served in World War II where, in August 1942, it was reconstituted as the first airborne division of the U.S. Army and fought in numerous campaigns during the war.

After 11 September attacks on the United States, the 82nd's 49th Public Affairs Detachment deployed to Afghanistan in October 2001 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom along with several individual 82nd soldiers who deployed to the Central Command area of responsibility to support combat operations.

Operation Iraqi Freedom I, 2003–2004


U.S. Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division patrol the streets of the Al Sudeek district of Mosul, Iraq, in January 2005.

In March 2003, 1-325, 2–325 and 3-325th INF of the 2nd BCT were attached to the 75th Ranger Regiment as part of a special operations task force to conduct a parachute assault to seize Saddam International Airport in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. On 21 March 2003, Company D crossed the Saudi Arabia–Iraq border as part of Task Force Hunter to escort heavy rocket artillery indirect fire systems to destroy Iraqi artillery batteries in the western Iraqi desert. Upon cancellation of the parachute assault to seize the airport, the battalions returned to their parent 2nd Brigade at Talil Airfield near An Nasariyah, Iraq. The 2nd Brigade then continued operations in Samawah, Fallujah, and Baghdad. The 2nd Brigade being the primary participant in the Battle of Samawah. The brigade returned to the United States by the end of February 2004.[56]

The early days of the 82nd Airborne's participation in the deployment were chronicled by embedded journalist Karl Zinsmeister in his 2003 book Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq.

In April 2003, according to Human Rights Watch, soldiers from a subordinate unit, the 325th Infantry, fired indiscriminately into a crowd of Iraqi civilians protesting their presence in the city of Fallujah. They killed and wounded many civilians. The battalion suffered no casualties.[57]

The 3rd Brigade deployed to Iraq in the summer, redeploying to the U.S. in spring 2004. The 1st Brigade deployed in January 2004. The last units of the division left by the end of April 2004. The 2nd Brigade deployed on 7 December 2004 to support the free elections and returned on Easter Sunday in 2005. During this initial deployment 36 soldiers from the division were killed and about 400 were wounded, out of about 12,000 deployed. On 21 July 2006, the 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment, along with a platoon from Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment and a troop from 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment deployed to Tikrit, Iraq, returning in December 2006. Just days after returning home, the battalion joined the rest of the 2nd Brigade in another deployment scheduled for the beginning of January 2007.