"They are going all the way every day, and whenever the nation calls on them, they are there to answer the call. We are grateful for their service and their leadership," said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine in a recent press release. He's referring, of course, to the 82nd Airborne Division, which always has an element standing by for emergency rapid deployment.
The 82nd maintains what is called the Immediate Response Force or IRF, which has one entire brigade on alert to deploy for contingency operations around the world. The IRF has seen some action in recent years, being activated due to contingencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The paratroopers are capable of accomplishing any mission in any environment, constantly training and ready to jump from Air Force aircraft into ground combat and seize key terrain, just like their predecessors did in Sicily and Normandy, France, during World War II, or to secure or enable the flow of follow-on forces into theater, as in Grenada or Panama," reads the press release about the IRF.
The advertising of the 82nd's capabilities comes at a time of bluster and negotiation between the governments of the United States and Iran, debates about who will lead Iran in the aftermath of Operation Epic Fury, and the security and economic arrangements in place at the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has threatened to seize by force Kharg Island off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf. Such an invasion would likely include an amphibious landing by the Marines and an Airborne insertion by the 82nd.
The American government has called the mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz "Project Freedom" and Caine says that the 82nd Airborne can support that mission with, "next-generation, artificial intelligence-enabled tactical networks to augment intelligence and operations, and the division seamlessly synchronizes all of these effects." There was no explanation of precisely what that means.
The 82nd Airborne is stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina and the IRF has already been slated for deployment to the Persian Gulf.
