Word: 82nd
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Also disconcerting to the U.S. was the weak performance of Salvadoran infantrymen who had just returned from 14 weeks of training by U.S. 82nd Airborne Division instructors at Fort Bragg, N.C. Many of those troops were pinned down by the rebels in Morazan until the Dragonfly jets forced the guerrillas to abandon their positions. U.S. military advisers in El Salvador have been trying to persuade army troops to move in five-man patrols as they comb the countryside. Instead, the Salvadorans travel in vulnerable column formations along main roads. Says a frustrated U.S. aide in San Salvador...
...Starlifters appeared over the Mojave Desert at Fort Irwin, Calif., some 130 miles northeast of Los Angeles. From three landing zones on the desert floor, plumes of colored smoke began to rise. At that go-ahead signal, the sky blossomed with parachutes as 2,300 troops of the elite 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., began the first phase of operation Gallant Eagle '82, a massive $45 million mock invasion by the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force. It was one of the largest peacetime airdrops ever. It would also prove to be one of the most tragic...
...horror as the helpless soldier wearing it plummeted some 800 feet to his death. Near the landing zones, powerful updrafts blew dozens of paratroopers off course and slammed them into the ground. One crashed into a military vehicle and was killed. The wind dragged other members of the 82nd, sometimes head over heels, across the rocky terrain when they were unable to pop safety catches to release their chutes. Said Army SP/4 Daniel Maynard, 24, of New York City, who suffered a fractured pelvis: "I hit the ground, rolled about three times and started to pass out." Five troopers were...
...western end, where most of the injuries occurred, they were surprised to find that the gusts measured more than 20 m.p.h. Some investigators theorize that these winds had careened off a nearby range of low mountains and swept back across the desert, creating crosscurrents and general turbulence. Said 82nd Airborne Major John Dye: "Desert people have seen the phenomenon before. We had not, even though we jumped into this place four weeks ago on another exercise." The military investigation is expected to continue for several weeks. One grim lesson already has been learned-in the future, more complete wind measurements...
...strongly pressed for it. They still recall that an earlier peace-keeping group that did not include Americans was expelled by Egypt's late President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1967, helping to set the stage for the Arab-Israeli war that followed less than a month later. The 82nd Airborne is not likely to be dislodged that easily from its new Middle East mission...