101st Airborne�s helicopters arrive
The wind died, the skies faired and just before dawn on Saturday morning the weather-delayed USNS Dahl berthed with the last critical U.S. Army weapons needed to attack Iraq. By noon the first of 72 helicopters belonging to the 101st Airborne Division had been hoisted from the hold and moved to a dockside parking lot. Army mechanics in white hard hats swarmed over the initial Apache attack helicopter, stripping away shrink-wrap protective plastic and reattaching rotor blades that were removed two weeks ago before the voyage from Jacksonville, Florida. The helicopters will fly from the port to camps in the Kuwaiti outback over the next two days, to be joined by 96 others from the USNS Bob Hope, which is expected this morning.
With the majority of its helicopters ready to launch deep strikes hundreds of miles into Iraqi territory, the 101st will be ready for war, according to senior officers.
The division is the final major component of a U.S. ground attack force that includes the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, complemented by Special Forces, an enormous air armada, British troops and other units.
The 101st is the Army's only "air assault" division, with a capacity to move a brigade of roughly 4,500 combat soldiers 100 miles by helicopter in six hours - even as the Apaches strike deeper yet. "If we do what we think we're going to do, there will never have been a military campaign t
The wind died, the skies faired and just before dawn on Saturday morning the weather-delayed USNS Dahl berthed with the last critical U.S. Army weapons needed to attack Iraq. By noon the first of 72 helicopters belonging to the 101st Airborne Division had been hoisted from the hold and moved to a dockside parking lot. Army mechanics in white hard hats swarmed over the initial Apache attack helicopter, stripping away shrink-wrap protective plastic and reattaching rotor blades that were removed two weeks ago before the voyage from Jacksonville, Florida. The helicopters will fly from the port to camps in the Kuwaiti outback over the next two days, to be joined by 96 others from the USNS Bob Hope, which is expected this morning.
With the majority of its helicopters ready to launch deep strikes hundreds of miles into Iraqi territory, the 101st will be ready for war, according to senior officers.
The division is the final major component of a U.S. ground attack force that includes the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, complemented by Special Forces, an enormous air armada, British troops and other units.
The 101st is the Army's only "air assault" division, with a capacity to move a brigade of roughly 4,500 combat soldiers 100 miles by helicopter in six hours - even as the Apaches strike deeper yet. "If we do what we think we're going to do, there will never have been a military campaign t
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