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    Falcon paratroopers assess crisis response capabilities

    Falcon paratroopers assess crisis response capabilities

    Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Eliverto Larios | A paratrooper assigned to the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd...... read more read more

    FORT STEWART, GA, UNITED STATES

    02.04.2015

    Story by Sgt. Eliverto Larios 

    82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs Office

    FORT STEWART, Ga. - They began to receive telephonic alerts at 4:00 A.M. on a Tuesday morning. They spent the day packing, planning and preparing for the sudden mission only hours away. In files, they marched out of the passenger sheds on Pope Army Airfield, parachutes on their backs, rucksacks and reserves strapped in front and weapons at their sides. So weighted, hundreds of Paratroopers boarded the aircraft that had been staged on the flight line. About seventeen hours after the initial notification, and with engines roaring, the planes took flight and headed south through the night sky.

    Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team conducted an Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise at Fort Stewart, Georgia, on Jan. 28, 2015.

    The exercise measured the Falcon Brigade’s readiness and ability to deploy at a moment’s notice while serving as part of the Global Response Force. The GRF provides the nation with flexibility to provide security both at home and abroad against a variety of threats.

    “The GRF gives our nation and our combatant commanders the capabilities to put Paratroopers … anywhere in the world in 18 hours notice,” said Maj. Gen. Richard Clarke, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.

    Clark said the exercise was a joint effort with the Air Force, which provided five C-17 Globemaster III aircraft for the jump. The training exercise was also supported by elements from the 3rd Infantry Division with Bradley Fighting Vehicles and tanks as well as the 10th Mountain Division with rotary-wing aircraft.
    “This is a team effort,” he said.

    Serving as the joint forcible entry component of the GRF, the Division provides multiple scalable and tailorable force packages in order to provide flexible options to military and civilian leaders. The paratroopers regularly conduct tough, realistic training for a variety of potential missions, including humanitarian assistance, airfield seizures and noncombatant evacuations.

    The EDRE began with an airborne operation onto Wright Army Airfield in Fort Stewart. After securing the airfield and setting up a command station, the Falcons launched into a series of follow-on missions. They began with a noncombatant evacuation operation to remove endangered civilians from harm’s way. Then helicopters delivered the artillery battalion’s sling-loaded howitzers in an operation called a two-gun raid.

    Finally, with an extended range of indirect fire support established, they launched an air assault mission to capture a high value target.

    The brigade assumed responsibilities as the GRF in September last year. Since then, they have routinely conducted no-notice deployment exercises.

    “Just the fact that we have done it four times in the last eight months is incredible,” said Col. Joseph Ryan, commander of the Brigade. “Each time, we do it better.”

    Ryan said his Paratroopers take their mission very seriously and his confidence in them is high.

    “They’re incredibly adaptive and agile,” he said. “They get the mission done whatever it is.”

    As a key element of the GRF, the 82nd Airborne Division will continue to train its paratroopers to be capable of insertion anywhere in the world and by any means necessary. The Division and its Falcon Brigade continues to maintain readiness to ensure a successful mission.

    “We are ready to jump tonight and fight and win,” said Clarke.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 02.04.2015
    Date Posted: 02.05.2015 10:13
    Story ID: 153632
    Location: FORT STEWART, GA, US

    Web Views: 109
    Downloads: 8

    PUBLIC DOMAIN