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The 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army was constituted in the National Army as the 82nd 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 82nd fought in three major campaigns and helped to break the German Imperial Army.

  • World War I Casualties
  1. 1,298 Killed in Action
  2. 6,248 Wounded in Action

After the Great War, the 82nd was demobilized May 27, 1919 at Camp Upton, at Yaphank, New York. The 82nd was reconstituted on June 24, 1921 in the Organized Reserves as Headquarters, 82nd Division, and was organized on September 23, 1921 at Columbia, South Carolina.

World War II

Louisiana to Italy
The 82nd Division was redesignated February 13, 1942 as Division Headquarters, 82nd 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 82nd Infantry Division became the first airborne division in the U.S. Army, and was redesignated the 82nd Airborne Division. In April 1943, paratroopers of the 82nd 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 82nd 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 82nd 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 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment was not assigned to the division for the invasion. On June 5, 1944 and June 6, 1944, the paratroopers of the 82nd'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 82nd became part of the newly organized XVIII Airborne Corps, which consisted of the U.S. 17th, 82nd, and 101st 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 82nd 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 82nd, while the 507th was assigned to the 17th Airborne Division. On September 17, the 82nd conducted its fourth combat jump of World War II, into the Netherlands. Fighting off German counterattacks, the 82nd 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 82nd 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 82nd 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 82nd was ordered to Berlin for occupation duty. In Berlin General George Patton was so impressed with the 82nd's honor guard he said, "In all my years in the Army and all the honor guards I have ever seen, the 82nd's honor guard is undoubtedly the best." Hence the "All-Americans" became also known as "America's Guard of Honor." The 82nd 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.

  • Casualties
  1. 1,619 Killed in Action
  2. 6,560 Wounded in Action
  3. 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 82nd made its permanent home at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and was designated a regular Army division on November 15, 1948. The 82nd 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 82nd 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 3rd Brigade, the 82nd 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 82nd Airborne Division was again called to action. During the Tet Offensive, which swept across the Republic of Vietnam in January 1968, the 3rd Brigade was alerted and within 24 hours, was en route to Chu Lai. The 3rd 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 3rd Brigade troopers returned to Fort Bragg on December 12, 1969.

  • Vietnam Casualties
  1. 184 Killed in Action
  2. 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 82nd 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 82nd were called back to the Caribbean to the island of Grenada. The first 82nd unit to deploy in the invasion of Grenada was a task force of the 2nd and 3rd 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 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was already in Panama. After the night combat jump and seizure of the airport, the 82nd 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 82nd 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 2nd 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 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers protected the XVIII Airborne Corps flank as fast-moving armor and mechanized units moved deep inside Iraq. A 2nd 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 82nd drove deep into Iraq and captured thousands of Iraqi soldiers and tons of equipment, weapons, and ammunition. After the liberation of Kuwait, the 82nd 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 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd 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 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd 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 3rd 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 82nd's 49th Public Affairs Detachment and several individual 82nd soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and the Central Command Area of Responsibility to support combat operations.

In June, 2002, elements of the Division Headquarters and 3rd Brigade deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In January, 2003 1st Brigade relieved 3rd Brigade, and continued the Division's support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During 1st Brigade's tour in Afghanistan, 70 soldiers from B Company, 3rd Battalion, 504th Infantry in conjunction with A Company, 2nd 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 2nd brigade of the Division took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom in early 2003. The brigade returned to the US by mid-February, 2004. The 3rd 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 82nd 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 82nd 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 82nd 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 2nd Battalion of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment and the 3rd 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 82nd 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

  1. St. Mihiel
  2. Meuse-Argonne
  3. Lorraine 1918
  1. Sicily
  2. Naples-Foggia
  3. Normandy (with arrowhead)
  4. Rhineland (with arrowhead)
  5. Ardennes-Alsace
  6. Central Europe
  1. Dominican Republic
  2. Grenada
  3. Panama
  1. Defense of Saudi Arabia
  2. Liberation and Defense of Kuwait
  3. Operation Enduring Freedom

Decorations

  1. Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for STE. MERE EGLISE
  2. Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for SOUTHWEST ASIA
  3. French Croix de Guerre with Palm, World War II for STE. MERE EGLISE
  4. French Croix de Guerre with Palm, World War II for COTENTIN
  5. French Croix de Guerre, World War II, Fourragere
  6. Belgian Fourragere 1940
  7. Cited in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action in the ARDENNES
  8. Cited in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action in BELGIUM AND GERMANY
  9. Military Order of William (Degree of the Knight of the Fourth Class) for NIJMEGEN 1944
  10. Netherlands Orange Lanyard

External links

Airborne divisions of the United States Army | World War II divisions of the United States | 1917 establishments

82. US-Luftlandedivision | 82e division aéroportée américaine | 第82空挺師団 (アメリカ軍) | 82 dywizja powietrzno-desantowa (USA) | 82. zračnoprevozna divizija (ZDA)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "U.S. 82nd Airborne Division".

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