Airborne Alerts In The 1970’s

During the 1970’s the All Americans continued their cycle of training, support and readiness. Division units deployed to the Republic of Korea and Turkey and to Greece for exercises in potential future battlegrounds.

The division was also alerted three times. War in the Middle East in the fall of 1973 brought the 82d to full alert. Then in May of 1978, the division was alerted for a possible drop into Zaire, and again in November of 1979, the division was alerted for a possible operation to rescue the American hostages in Iran. In each case political consideration prevented military intervention.

In 1982, as the Army’s most combat ready fighting division, elements of the 82d were assigned as peacemakers in the volatile Sinai region. The division also participated in the Operation Bright Star in Egypt and other training exercises in Europe.

Grenada

On October 25, 1983, as the Army’s most combat ready fighting division, elements of the 82d were called back to the Caribbean, this time to the tiny island of Grenada. The first 82d unit to deploy in Operation Urgent Fury was a task force of the 2-325th Infantry. The troops were rigged for an airborne insertion, but two hours out of Pope Air Force Base, they would be air landed since the airfield had already been secured.

On October 26th and 27th respectively, the 1-505th Infantry and the 1-508th Infantry, with support units deployed to Grenada. Military operations on Grenada ended in early November.

Operation Urgent Fury tested the division’s ability to deploy as a rapid deployment force. The first aircraft carrying division troopers touched down at Grenada’s Point Salines 17 hours after notification.

Panama

On December 20, 1989, the All Americans conducted their first combat since World War II onto Torrijos International Airport, Panama, to oust a ruthless dictator and restore the duly elected government to power. The 1st Brigade comprising the 1st and 2nd Battalion along with the 4-325th Infantry, joined the 3-504th Infantry, already propositioned in Panama.

After the night combat jump and seizure of the international airport, the 82d conducted follow on combat air assault missions in Panama City and in the surrounding areas.

The victorious paratroopers returned to Fort Bragg on January 12, 1990, in style, conducting a mass jump onto Sicily Drop Zone.

Persian Gulf

With the 82d celebrating and congratulations still fresh in the minds of most paratroopers, the 82d Airborne Division was called upon once again to perform a rapid deployment mission ... this time it was to draw a line in the sand.

Six days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the 82d became the vanguard of the largest deployment of American troops since Vietnam.

The first unit to deploy to Saudi Arabia on August 8 was a task force comprising of the 2d Brigade. Soon after, the rest of the division followed. Their intense training began in anticipation of paratroopers fighting it out in the desert with the heavily armored Iraqi army.

Their training concentrated on chemical defense, anti-armor tactics and live-fire maneuver exercises. The troopers of the Division were rarely more combat ready. The adage, or battle cry, picked up by the paratroopers was "The road home ... is through Baghdad."

On January 16, 1991, Operation DESERT STORM began when an armada of Allied warplanes pounded Iraqi targets. The ground war began six weeks later, when on February 23, the 82d, as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps, conducted flanking movements deep inside Iraq. A 2d Brigade task force was attached to the 6th French Light Armored Division becoming the far left flank of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 82d's 1st and 3rd Brigades followed as support and reinforcements.

In the short 100-hour ground war, the vehicle-mounted 82d drove seep into Iraq capturing thousands of Iraqi soldiers and tons of equipment, weapons and ammunition.

After the liberation of Kuwait, the 82d began deployment back to Fort Bragg, with most of division returning by the end of April.

Following the division’s return and victory parades, the troopers began to reestablish some of the systems that had became dormant during their eight months in the desert. On top of the list was the regaining of individual and unit airborne proficiency, the continuation of tough realistic training, and reinstalling the go-to-war mentality in new and old paratroopers.

In July 1993, the 82d Airborne Division began planning for possible operation in Haiti. Early in the evening of September 18, 1994, nearly 3,000 paratroopers, who would form the initial assault force of Operation Restore Democracy, were in rout to Haiti. Aviation elements were already deployed to the nearby inland of Great Inauga. Elements of the 3/73rd Armor were waiting aboard ships. When Haitian leaders heard the 82d was on the way, a peace agreement was reached and the division was recalled. From September 26 to October 25, elements of the 3/73rd Armor supported XVIII Airborne Corps peacekeeping operations in Haiti.

KOSOVO DEFENSE CAMPAIGN

82d Airborne Division Paratroopers were among the first ground troops sent into the war-torn Kosovo region of the Balkans in summer 1999, when the 2-505th Infantry moved in from neighboring Macedonia. The 3-504th Infantry, who would be followed by the 1-325th Infantry in January 2001 as part of regular peacekeeping operation rotations, followed them shortly.