Word: combatative
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Just after dawn last Friday, 800 American soldiers, their faces stained brown and green with camouflage paint, parachuted onto a dry cow pasture in central Honduras. The 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers formed a defensive ^ perimeter, crouching in combat positions. But instead of an enemy force, they faced an army of photographers and cameramen -- a fitting confrontation for a troop deployment that was more media event than military action...
...combat soldiers dispatched to Honduras last week first pitched their tents at Palmerola air base, more than 100 miles from the contra sanctuaries in Honduras that were the target of an incursion by Sandinista troops. The Sandinista assault, grandiloquently characterized by the Reagan Administration as an "invasion," had prompted Washington to respond with paratroopers and infantry. There was "no intention" of sending U.S. troops into combat, assured the White House. Officially, the soldiers were there for a "readiness exercise" intended to show U.S. support for the Honduran government -- a rather dubious claim, since the fighting took place in a remote...
...Wednesday morning Nicaraguan troops were detected crossing the border into Honduras to attack rebel bases there. White House officials immediately responded by suggesting to Honduran President Jose Azcona Hoyo an American "show of support" that would stop short of a combat role. On Wednesday evening Ambassador to Honduras Everett Briggs relayed a letter from Azcona to the White House requesting assistance. The letter did not specifically mention troops, but Azcona later confirmed in a news conference that he had orally asked for this option. Reagan then gave the go-ahead to send four battalions -- two each from the 82nd Airborne...
...American M1 Abrams tanks maneuver through war games on the West German plain, NATO strategists worry about how to protect them from increasingly powerful Soviet antitank missiles. Last week the Army announced the development of an armor that will give the Abrams far better combat survivability. "This isn't a 10% upgrade in protection, this is a 100% upgrade," said Phillip Karber, a vice president of the weapons-testing BDM Corp. and an expert on tanks. The new armor, containing depleted uranium encased in steel, will not reduce the tank's top speed of 42 m.p.h. The Pentagon says that...
Processing power is an even more daunting problem for Pilot's Associate, a knowledge system the military hopes to field in the 1990s. The device is designed to advise electronically a fighter pilot in combat about everything from weather to ground and air threats. It will include several expert systems with sophisticated three-dimensional data bases. But if it is to deliver its advice effectively to pilots who have only seconds to respond and act, this system too will require putting into fighter aircraft the type of computing power that today fills entire rooms...