Methinks the 101st Air Assault has had duplicate equipment prepositioned in Kuwait and Diego Garcia for some time now.
More to this than meets the eye.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Posted on 02/28/2003 8:11:32 PM PST by knak
WASHINGTON, February 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In a move interpreted by some as part of final preparations for the looming war, the U.S. began Friday, February 28, moving troops from the elite 101st Airborne Division from their base in Kentucky for the Gulf.
Most of the division's 20,000 troops are expected to be in the region within a week, said John Minton, a spokesman for the 101st Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"We're in the deployment process right now," he stressed.
"It began approximately a week ago; as of noon today, we will have deployed approximately 5,500."
The division, dubbed the "Screaming Eagles," specializes in airborne assaults deep into enemy territory, airlifting troops into battle by helicopter under cover of AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships.
The elite air assault division played a key role in the 1991 Gulf war and was also deployed in Afghanistan last year.
Experts contended the 101st division is usually deployed after the war decision has already been taken.
Minton said the 101st Airborne Division has about 270 helicopters, including the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the UH-60 Black Hawk.
"Our primary mission is to conduct operations using air assault technique, that is rappelling out of helicopters," Minton said.
"We're a rapid deployment force. We have the largest aviation brigade in the United States Army."
The 101st Airborne shed its parachutes during its service in the Vietnam war and became an air assault division, building into a specialty the use helicopters to move troops in that conflict.
In January 1991, the division launched a massive helicopter-borne assault in Iraq, helping to isolate Iraqi forces and drive them from Kuwait in a ground conflict that lasted just 100 hours, without suffering a single casualty.
Most recently, soldiers from the division's Third Brigade took part in another air assault in March in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province.
News of the movement followed announcements that the navy is sending the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to the Gulf and that the air force's sole B-2 stealth bomber wing has received orders to deploy "for potential combat operations."
Where and when the B-2s are moving was not disclosed, but the order was significant because the radar-evading bombers are generally used in the opening air strikes of a conflict.
Special climate-controlled shelters have been built for them in Fairford, England and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, giving commanders the option of positioning them closer to Iraq.
The Nimitz, meanwhile, is supposed to replace the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which was heading home when the latest crisis broke out.
The United States already has more than 225,000 troops spread out from the eastern Mediterranean to Afghanistan, including 111,000 in Kuwait, the main staging area for a possible invasion of Iraq.
The forces in Kuwait include some 60,000 marines who have been coming ashore from fleets of amphibious warships and taking up positions in the desert near the border with Iraq.
The army's 20,000-strong 3rd Infantry Division, a 5,000-strong brigade combat team from the 82nd Airborne Division and a welter of army aviation, artillery and support units are also in the country.
Troops from the army's mechanized 4th Infantry Division were awaiting the word to begin flowing into the region.
They are expected to deploy to Turkey to open a second front in northern Iraq, but U.S. vessels carrying their tanks and armored vehicles have been idling offshore awaiting an agreement sealed by the Turkish parliament, which is scheduled to take up the matter Saturday, March 1.
"The purpose of flowing forces is to demonstrate the seriousness of purpose of the international community," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday, February 27.
"And I think that is exactly what's taking place."
The pace of deployments has intensified as the United States heads into a decisive week of diplomacy at the United Nations, where all sides are poised to jump on chief arms inspector Hans Blix's report on Iraqi disarmament.
SFC Webster Anderson
Vietnam
2/320 Field Artillery
CPT Paul W. Bucha
Vietnam
3/187 Infantry
*LTC Robert G. Cole
World War II
3/502 Infantry
SP4 Michael J. Fitzmaurice
Vietnam
2/17 Cavalry
*CPL Frank R. Fratellencio
Vietnam
2/502 Infantry
* 1 LT James A. Gardner
Vietnam
1/327 Infantry
*SSG John G. Gertsch
Vietnam
1/327 Infantry
*SP4 Peter M. Guenette
Vietnam
2/506 Infantry
SP4 Frank A. Herda
Vietnam
1/506 Infantry
SSG Joe R. Hooper
Vietnam
2/501 Infantry
PFC Kenneth M. Kays
Vietnam
1/506 Infantry
*SP4 Joseph G. LaPointe, Jr.
Vietnam
2/17 Cavalry
*PFC Milton A. Lee
Vietnam
2/502 Infantry
*LTC Andre C. Lucas
Vietnam
2/506 Infantry
*PFC Joe E. Mann
World War 11
3/502 Infantry
SGT Robert M. Patterson
Vietnam
2/17 Cavalry
SGT Gordon R. Roberts
Vietnam
1/506 Infantry
*SSG Clifford C. Sims
Vietnam
2/501 Infantry
*SP4 Dale E. Wayrynen
Vietnam
2/502 Infantry
Methinks the 101st Air Assault has had duplicate equipment prepositioned in Kuwait and Diego Garcia for some time now.
More to this than meets the eye.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Leni
Tuesday's child is full of grace. Augers well.
"Declaration of war Wednesday"?
Wednesday's child is full of woe. Bye, bye, Saddam.
Leni
Playing old favorites like:
S'cuse me, while I kill this guy
While your mom gently weeps
We're an American band
Smoke on your bunker
I fought the law and the law won
(please don't) let it bleed (that's my femoral artery)
Saturday Night's all right for fightin'(but we'll kill you sunday too)
And their crowd pleasing favorite, a cover version of the Cheap Trick anthem...SURRENDER
Gitcher tickets quick- this show will not be in town for long.
Here's to one of my brothers, Jimmy, who was in the 101st back in the early 60s. He passed away a few years ago. I'm not sure how many jumps he made , a couple hundred at least.
To all of his brothers serving today in service of our country in this unit and many others
God Bless and Godspeed
101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION ASSOCIATION
Can she summons a giant moth with high-pitched warbling? ;^)
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