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The 82 Airborne Division of the
United States Army was constituted in
the National Army as the 82 Division on August 5, 1917, and was organized
on August 25, 1917, at Camp Gordon, Georgia. Since members of the division came
from all 48 states, the unit was given the nickname "All-Americans," the basis
for its famed "AA" shoulder patch. Famous soldiers of the division include
Sergeant Alvin C. York and General James M. Gavin.
World War I
Between April and July, 1918, less than a year after its formation, the
division deployed in small unit groups to France to fight in World War I. In
nearly five months of combat the 82 fought in three major campaigns and helped
to break the German Imperial Army.
- 1,298 Killed in Action
- 6,248 Wounded in Action
After the Great War, the 82 was demobilized May 27, 1919 at Camp Upton, at
Yaphank, New York. The 82 was reconstituted on June 24, 1921 in the Organized
Reserves as Headquarters, 82 Division, and was organized on September 23, 1921
at Columbia, South Carolina.
World War II
Louisiana to Italy
The 82 Division was redesignated February 13, 1942 as Division Headquarters,
82 Division. After the outbreak of World War II, it was recalled to active
service on March 25, 1942, and reorganized at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, under
the command of Major General Omar N. Bradley. During this time spent in
training, the division brought together three officers who would ultimately
steer the US Army during the next two decades: Matthew B. Ridgway, James M.
Gavin, and Maxwell D. Taylor
On August 15, 1942, the 82 Infantry Division became the first airborne
division in the U.S. Army, and was redesignated the 82 Airborne Division. In
April 1943, paratroopers of the 82 Airborne Division deployed to North Africa
under the command of Major General Matthew B. Ridgway to participate in the
campaign to invade Italy. The Division's first two combat operations were
parachute and glider assaults into Sicily on July 9 and Salerno on September 13,
1943. The initial assault on Sicily, by the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment,
was the first regimental sized combat parachute assault conducted by the United
States Army.
In January 1944, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was temporarily
detached from the division to fight at Anzio, adopted the nickname "Devils in
Baggy Pants," taken from an entry in a German officer's diary. While the 504th
was detached, the remainder of the 82 was pulled out of Italy in November 1943
and moved to the United Kingdom to prepare for the liberation of Europe. See RAF
North Witham and RAF Folkingham.
France to Germany
With two combat jumps under its belt, the 82 Airborne Division was now ready
for the most ambitious airborne operation of the war, Operation Neptune -- the
invasion of Normandy. The operation was part of Operation Overlord, the
amphibious assault on the northern coast of Nazi-occupied France. In preparation
for the operation, the division was reorganized. Two new parachute infantry
regiments, the 507th and the 508th, joined the division. Due to a need for
integrating replacement troops, rest, and refitting following the fighting in
Italy, the 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment was not assigned to the division for
the invasion. On June 5, 1944 and June 6, 1944, the paratroopers of the 82's
three parachute infantry regiments and reinforced glider infantry regiment, the
325th, boarded hundreds of transport planes and gliders and began the largest
airborne assault in history.
By the time the All-American Division was pulled back to England, it had seen
33 days of bloody combat and suffered 5,245 paratroopers killed, wounded, or
missing. The Division's post-battle report, authored by Ridgway, stated in part,
"...33 days of action without relief, without replacements. Every mission
accomplished. No ground gained was ever relinquished."
Following the Normandy invasion, the 82 became part of the newly organized
XVIII Airborne Corps, which consisted of the U.S. 17, 82, and 101 Airborne
Divisions. Ridgway was given command of XVIII Airborne Corps, but was not
promoted to Lieutenant General until 1945. His recommendation for succession as
commander was Brigadier General James M. Gavin. Ridgway's recommendation met
with approval, and upon promotion Gavin became the youngest two-star general
since the Civil War to command a US Army division.
On 2 August 1944 the division became part of the First Allied Airborne Army.
In September, the 82 began planning for Operation Market Garden in the
Netherlands. The operation called for three-plus airborne divisions to seize and
hold key bridges and roads deep behind German lines. The 504th, now back at full
strength, was reassigned to the 82, while the 507th was assigned to the 17
Airborne Division. On September 17, the 82 conducted its fourth combat jump of
World War II, into the Netherlands. Fighting off German counterattacks, the 82
captured its objectives between Grave, and Nijmegen. Its success, however, was
short-lived because the defeat of other Allied units at Arnhem. After a period
of duty on the Arnhem front, the 82 was relieved by Canadian troops, and sent to
France.
On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched a surprise offensive through the
Ardennes Forest which was known as the Battle of the Bulge. Two days later the
82 joined the fighting and blunted General Gerd von Rundstedt's northern
penetration in the American lines. During this campaign, in one of the most
memorable quotes of the war, PFC Martin, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, told a
sergeant in a retreating tank destroyer to, "...pull your vehicle behind me -
I'm the 82nd Airborne, and this is as far as the bastards are going!" After
helping to secure the Ruhr, the division ended the war at Ludwigslust past the
Elbe River, accepting the surrender of Lieutenant General Kurt von
Tippelskirch's 21st Army Group. Over 150,000 troops surrendered to the division.
General Omar N. Bradley's reaction is worth an aside; he claimed in a 1975
interview with Gavin that Montgomery told him German opposition was too great to
cross the Elbe. When Gavin's division crossed it, it moved 36 miles in one day
and captured over 100,000 troops, causing great laughter in Bradley's 12th Army
Group headquarters.
Following the surrender of Germany, the 82 was ordered to Berlin for
occupation duty. In Berlin General George Patton was so impressed with the 82's
honor guard he said, "In all my years in the Army and all the honor guards I
have ever seen, the 82's honor guard is undoubtedly the best." Hence the
"All-Americans" became also known as "America's Guard of Honor." The 82 was
scheduled to partake in the invasion of Japan, but the war ended before their
departure.
During the invasion of Italy in World War II, Will Lang Jr. of Time
(magazine) was considered an honorary member of the 82nd Airborne Division by
General Matthew B. Ridgway.
- 1,619 Killed in Action
- 6,560 Wounded in Action
- 332 Died of Wounds
Post WWII
1946 to 1990
The division returned to the United States January 3, 1946. In 1947 the 555th
Parachute Infantry Battalion was attached to the 82nd. Instead of being
demobilized, the 82 made its permanent home at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and
was designated a regular Army division on November 15, 1948. The 82 was not sent
to the Korean War, as both Presidents Truman and Eisenhower deemed it necessary
to keep the division as a strategic reserve in the event of a Soviet ground
attack anywhere in the world. Life in the 82 during the 1950s and 1960s
consisted of intensive training exercises in all environments and locations,
including Alaska, Panama, the Far East and the continental United States.
In April 1965, the "All-Americans" were alerted for action in response to the
civil war in the Dominican Republic. Spearheaded by the 3 Brigade, the 82
deployed to the Caribbean in Operation Power Pack. More than 3,000 Dominican
died and "peace and stability were restored" by June 17.
Three years later, the 82 Airborne Division was again called to action.
During the Tet Offensive, which swept across the Republic of Vietnam in January
1968, the 3 Brigade was alerted and within 24 hours, was en route to Chu Lai.
The 3 Brigade performed combat duties in the Hué - Phu Bai area of the I Corps
sector. Later the brigade was moved south to Saigon, and fought battles in the
Mekong Delta, the Iron Triangle and along the Cambodian border. After serving
nearly 22 months in Vietnam, the 3 Brigade troopers returned to Fort Bragg on
December 12, 1969.
- 184 Killed in Action
- 1,009 Wounded in Action
During the 1970s, division units deployed to the Republic of Korea, Turkey,
and 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
82 to full alert. Then in May 1978, the division was alerted for a possible drop
into Zaire, and again in November 1979, the division was alerted for a possible
operation to rescue the American hostages in Iran. The division formed the
nucleus for the newly created Rapid Deployment Forces, a mobile force at a
permanently high state of readiness.
On October 25, 1983, elements of the 82 were called back to the Caribbean to
the island of Grenada. The first 82 unit to deploy in the invasion of Grenada
was a task force of the 2 and 3 Battalions of the 325th Airborne Infantry
Regiment. On October 26 and 27, the 1st Battalion, 505th Infantry, and the 1st
Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment, with support units deployed to Grenada.
Military operations in Grenada ended in early November.
The operation tested the Division's ability to act as a rapid deployment
force. The first aircraft carrying division troopers touched down at Point
Salinas 17 hours after notification.
In March 1988, a brigade task force made up of two battalions from the 504th
Parachute Infantry Regiment and 3rd battalion from the 505th Parachute Infantry
Regiment conducted a parachute insertion and airland operation into Honduras as
part of Operation Golden Pheasant. The deployment was billed a joint training
exercise, but the paratroopers were ready to fight. The deployment of armed and
willing paratroopers to the Honduran countryside caused the Sandinistas to
withdraw back to Nicaragua. Operation Golden Pheasant prepared the paratroopers
for future combat in the increasingly unstable world.
On December 20, 1989, the "All-Americans," as part of the United States
invasion of Panama, conducted their first combat jump since World War II onto
Torrijos International Airport, Panama. The goal of the 1st Brigade task force,
which was made up of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 504th Parachute Infantry
Regiment as well as the 4th Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, was to
oust a dictator and restore the duly-elected government to power in Panama. They
were joined on the ground by 3 Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment,
which was already in Panama. After the night combat jump and seizure of the
airport, the 82 conducted follow-on combat air assault missions in Panama City
and the surrounding areas. The paratroopers returned to Fort Bragg on January
12, 1990.
1990 to 2001
Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm: Iraq
Seven months later the paratroopers were again called to war. Six days after
the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the 82 became the vanguard of
the largest deployment of American troops since Vietnam as part of Operation
Desert Shield. The first unit to deploy to Saudi Arabia was a task force
including the division's 2 Brigade. Soon after, the rest of the division
followed. There, intensive training began in anticipation of fighting in the
desert with the heavily armored Iraqi Army.
On January 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm began when Allied war planes
attacked Iraqi targets. The ground war began almost six weeks later. On February
23, the vehicle-mounted 82 Airborne Division paratroopers protected the XVIII
Airborne Corps flank as fast-moving armor and mechanized units moved deep inside
Iraq. A 2 Brigade task force was attached to the 6th French Light Armored
Division becoming the far left flank of the Corps. In the short 100-hour ground
war, the 82 drove deep into Iraq and captured thousands of Iraqi soldiers and
tons of equipment, weapons, and ammunition. After the liberation of Kuwait, the
82 began its redeployment back to Fort Bragg with most of the Division returning
by the end of April.
Hurricane Andrew
In August 1992, the division was alerted to deploy a task force to the
hurricane-ravaged area of South Florida and provide humanitarian assistance
following Hurricane Andrew. For more than 30 days, division troopers provided
food, shelter and medical attention to the Florida population.
Operation Restore Democracy: Haïti
On September 16, 1994, the 82d Airborne Division was alerted as part of
"Operation Restore Democracy". The entire 82nd Airborne Division was scheduled
to make combat parachute jumps into two locations in Haïti, Pegasus Drop Zone
and Papia Airport, in order to help oust the military led dictatorship of Raoul
Cédras, and then to restore the democratically ejected president, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. At the same time as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell were negotiating with Cédras
to restore Aristide to power, the 82nd's first wave was in the air, with a
number of paratroopers waiting at Green Ramp to Air Land into Haïti once the
airfields there had been seized. When the Haïtian military dictators verified
from sources outside of Pope Air Force Base that the 82nd was on the way to
invade, Cédras capitulated and stepped down from power, thus averting the
invasion.
Former Vice President Al Gore would later travel to Fort Bragg to personally
thank the paratroopers of the 82nd for their actions, noting in a speech on
September 19, 1994, that it was the reputation of the 82nd Airborne that was
enough to make Cédras change his mind:
- "But it did get a little close there for awhile. As you may know,
there were 61 planes in the air headed toward Haïti at the time they finally
agreed. And at one point General Biamby came in and told General Cédras that
he had just gotten word on his telephone that the airplanes had taken off
from Pope Air Force Base, with soldiers from Fort Bragg, and that both
disconcerted them and caused them to be suspicious of the intent of the
negotiations, but it also created a situation where immediately after that,
the key points they had been refusing to agree to were agreed to, a date
certain, other matters that I won't go into in detail here."
Operation Restore Hope: protecting Cuban refugees
In December 1994, the 2 Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82
Airborne Division was deployed as part of Operation Restore Hope. The battalion
was recalled to Fort Bragg for deployment while on Division Ready Force 1 in
order to restore order against hundreds of Cuban refugees who had attacked and
injured a number of Air Force personnel to protest their detainment at Empire
Range along the Panama Canal. The Battalion participated in the safeguarding of
the Cuban Refugees and the active patrolling in and around the refugee camps for
two months, returning to Fort Bragg in February of 1995.
Operation Joint Endeavor: Bosnia
In December 1995, battalions of the 82nd were alerted to prepare for a
possible parachute jump to support elements of the 1st Armored Division which
had been ordered to Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of Operation Joint Endeavor. Only
after engineers of the 1st Armored Division bridged the Sava River on December
31, 1995 without hostilities did the 82nd begin draw down against plans for a
possible Airborne operation there.
Operation Allied Force: Kosovo
In March 1999 the 2 Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82 Airborne
Division was deployed to Albania and forward deployed along the Albania/Kosovo
border in support of Operation Allied Force, NATO's bombing campaign against
Serbian forces in the Former Yugoslav Republic. Immediately after the bombing
campaign began in June of 1999, the battalion was ordered to move into Kosovo as
the Initial Entry Force, becoming the first ground force sent into the Kosovo
region of the Balkans. The battalion quickly established control of the
southeast sector of Kosovo, facing constant conflict between the KLA (Kosovo
Liberation Army) and Serbs, including responding to murders, rapes, and arsons
committed in their area of responsibility. In September 1999, 2-505 was replaced
by the 3 Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 3-504 was replaced in
January 2001 by the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment.
2001 to present
Operation Enduring Freedom: Afghanistan
After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the 82's 49 Public
Affairs Detachment and several individual 82 soldiers deployed to Afghanistan
and the Central Command Area of Responsibility to support combat operations.
In June, 2002, elements of the Division Headquarters and 3 Brigade deployed
to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In January, 2003 1st
Brigade relieved 3 Brigade, and continued the Division's support of Operation
Enduring Freedom. During 1st Brigade's tour in Afghanistan, 70 soldiers from B
Company, 3 Battalion, 504th Infantry in conjunction with A Company, 2 Battalion,
75th Ranger, conducted a combat jump into western Afghanistan. This was the
first combat jump for the division since the United States invasion of Panama in
1989, but was uncelebrated as it remained classified for over a year.
Operation Iraqi Freedom: Iraq
The 2 brigade of the Division took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom in early
2003. The brigade returned to the US by mid-February, 2004. The 3 brigade of the
division deployed to Iraq in the summer of 2003, redeploying to the US in
Spring, 2004. The 1st brigade deployed briefly to Iraq in January, 2004. The
last units of the division left Iraq by the end of April, 2004. During this
initial deployment thirty-six solders from the division were killed and about
400 were wounded, out of about 12,000 deployed in total. The early days of the
82 Airborne's participation in the occupation were chronicled by embedded
journalist Karl Zinsmeister in his 2003 book Boots on the Ground: A Month
with the 82 Airborne in the Battle for Iraq.
Support of 2004 elections in Afghanistan
In late September 2004 The National Command Authority alerted 1/505 PIR for
an emergency deployment to Afghanistan in support of the elections scheduled for
October.
Two infantry battalions from the 82 Airborne deployed to Iraq before the
scheduled October 15 referendum on the proposed constitution, and are expected
to remain through the December national elections. The battalions involved are
the 2 Battalion of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment and the 3 Battalion of
the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
First Brigade of the 82nd Airborne deployed to Afghanstan in April of 2005 in
support of OEF 6, and returned in April of 2006.
Hurricane Katrina
The 82 Airborne was also deployed to support search-and-rescue operations in
New Orleans, Louisiana after the city was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in
September 2005. About 5,000 paratroopers commanded by Maj. Gen. William B.
Caldwell IV, operated out of New Orleans International Airport.
Division Reorganization
In January 2006, the division began reorganizing from a division based
organization to a brigade based one. Activations include a Fourth Brigade Combat
Team (508th PIR) and the deactivation of the Division Artllery Brigade (319th
AFAR), along with the Division Support Command(DISCOM)
Honors
Campaign Participation Credit
- St. Mihiel
- Meuse-Argonne
- Lorraine 1918
- Sicily
- Naples-Foggia
- Normandy (with arrowhead)
- Rhineland (with arrowhead)
- Ardennes-Alsace
- Central Europe
- Dominican Republic
- Grenada
- Panama
- Defense of Saudi Arabia
- Liberation and Defense of Kuwait
- Operation Enduring Freedom
Decorations
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for STE. MERE EGLISE
- Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for SOUTHWEST ASIA
- French Croix de Guerre with Palm, World War II for STE. MERE EGLISE
- French Croix de Guerre with Palm, World War II for COTENTIN
- French Croix de Guerre, World War II, Fourragere
- Belgian Fourragere 1940
- Cited in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action in the
ARDENNES
- Cited in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action in BELGIUM
AND GERMANY
- Military Order of William (Degree of the Knight of the Fourth Class) for
NIJMEGEN 1944
- Netherlands Orange Lanyard
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