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"All American"
 (Updated 6-15-08)
The 82nd Airborne Division is an elite parachute unit
of the U.S. Army whose home base is at Ft Bragg, North Carolina. The Division
has the ability to begin combat operations anywhere in the world within
eighteen hours of notification. The primary mission of the airborne is airfield
and seaport seizure. Once entry is obtained by parachute, helicopter, vehicle,
or by foot, the terrain is secured to rapidly receive additional combat forces.
Every soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division is jump qualified and almost every
piece of combat equipment assigned to the Division can be dropped by parachute
onto the battlefield.
The 82nd Division was organized on March 25, 1917 at
Camp Gordon, Georgia. Members of the Division came from all over the country so
the unit was given the nickname of "All American." This is the reason for the
distinctive "AA" on the unit's shoulder patch. Less than a year after its
formation the Division was deployed to France to fight in World War I. In less
than five months of combat the 82nd participated in three major campaigns. The
famous hero of WWI, Alvin York was a member of the 82nd Division. Sergeant York
was awarded the Medal of Honor for attacking a German machine gun and killing
twenty enemy soldiers and capturing one hundred and thirty-two others. After
the war the 82nd was demobilized in May of 1919.
The Division would gain its reputation in the next
war. Recalled for World War II in March of 1942, the Division was re-designated
the 82nd Airborne Division the following August. The 82nd was the first
airborne division in the United States Army. During WWII the Division conducted
parachute assaults into Sicily, Salerno, Normandy, and Holland. At the battle
of Anzio in Italy, a German officer gave the paratroopers one of their many
nicknames when he referred to them as "those devils in baggy pants."
The 82nd Airborne Division was not sent to the Korean
War, but rather began its use as America's strategic reserve and rapid
deployment force. In January of 1968, during the Tet Offensive, the 3rd
Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division was alerted and en route to Chu Lai within 24
hours. The 82nd stayed in Vietnam for 22 months of combat. The All-Americans
fought in the Hué - Phu Bai area, and then later fought battles in the
Mekong Delta, the Iron Triangle, and along the Cambodian border. The 3rd
Brigade returned to Fort Bragg in December of 1969.
As the most highly trained light infantry division in
the world, the 82nd Airborne has participated in practically every potential
combat deployment of the U.S. Army since Vietnam. This includes Grenada in
1983, Honduras in 1988, the invasion of Panama in 1989, Operation Desert
Shield/Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and into Iraq in 1990-91, Bosnia in 1995,
Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan in 2002, and the invasion of Iraq in early 2003. As
of 2007, elements of the 82nd Airborne Division are on rotation to Iraq in
support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The 82nd Airborne Division also carries the moniker of
"America's Guard of Honor." They are the nation's strategic offensive force,
maintaining the highest state of readiness. Generations of veterans have lived
up to the Division's motto. They truly went "All the way!"
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