Fort Campbell, Kentucky (dpa) – It is equally at home on the Sinai Peninsula
as on Haiti, and the same goes for Bosnia and Venezuela. Its soldiers have
fought in Normandy and in Germany, in Vietnam and in Iraq. “Screaming Eagles”
is their nickname and “Rendezvous with Destiny” their motto.
The soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division are among the best the U.S. Army
has to offer. The elite force’s home base is Fort Campbell in the southeastern
state of Kentucky. On its huge exercise grounds of 60,000 hectares, the 26,000
men and women practise for every conceivable emergency.
The path of attack is always the same – using helicopters to land behind
enemy lines. This tactic was developed after the Vietnam War and successfully
executed in operation “Desert Storm” in Iraq.
“We are the only airborne attack division in the world,” says base commander
Colonel Ray Fitzgerald with a tone of pride in his voice.
One of three battle brigades is always kept in a state of alert, one is
undergoing training and one is on a break. The cycle changes at nine-week
intervals. And at any given time, one-third of the core division is on duty
somewhere on the planet, nowadays chiefly in peace-keeping missions.
But within 36 hours’ notice, the 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers of the brigade on
alert can be put into battle action at any given point of conflict in the
world.
“Fast, flexible, and preferably under the protection of darkness,” is how
Fitzgerald describes the operational strategy.
In a best-scenario situation, bombers have already reduced the enemy’s
potential to 30 per cent of its original fighting strength. Then it’s the turn
of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division. their main instrument are 48
high-tech, highly-armed “Apache” helicopters.
“Deadly, precise and reliable” is how the Apaches are supposed to operate
well behind enemy lines, Fitzgerald says.
The soldiers, organised in two-man teams and eight-man groups, are trained
for everything from house-to-house fighting to advancing in difficult terrain
loaded with traps.
They can overcome 10-metre high barricades during an attack wave and at
lightning speed descend from dizzying heights by rope.
All this is the daily stuff of the brigade which is undergoing its nine-week
training cycle. The men in their battle uniforms and blackened faces exude an
air of relaxed self-confidence, sharp nerves and an elitist outlook which makes
one thing clear: the world’s policemen are now in training.
The 101st did not take part in the Kosovo conflict a year ago. And the men
around Colonel Fitzgerald are visibly embarrassed when it is mentioned that
the “Apache” helicopters which were transferred from Germany, never went into
action and almost became the laughing stock of the war. But none of the
soldiers wants to make a comment.
But all the more ready are they to talk about their units’ performance in
the U.N. peace missions SFOR and KFOR. Prior to such missions, the soldiers
have to undergo a special four-month training course.
“And afterwards, we have to train them how to fight again,” notes Lieutenant-
Colonel Frank Wiercinski.
The U.S. Army expressly does not want any specialisation for just one or the
other task.
“If a soldier is not suited for a peace mission he also is not suited to go
into battle, and vice versa,” was the way one army man described it. But
whatever their mission, peace or combat, they all have a “rendezvous with
destiny”.
