82nd Airborne Division
State of the Division
“America’s Guard of Honor”
All American veterans, former leaders and Association members,
I’m excited to share our first “State of the Division” update with you. CSM LaMarquis
Knowles and I plan to send this publication to you on a semi-annual basis so that you
can remain in touch with the All American Division and to keep you up to date on what
the Paratroopers have been doing. We hope that you will find this product useful and
encourage you to please pass this update to anyone who may be interested in it.
1. All American Week (AAW) 2015. We’re looking forward to another fantastic All
American Week and hope many of you will be able to join us May 18-21. This
year marks the 50th anniversary of Operation Power Pack and we look forward
to seeing many of these vets here for their reunion. AAW highlights include a
Division run, reunion breakfasts, Division sporting competitions, a memorial
ceremony, a possible airborne operation and the Division Review.
2. On-Going Operations. There are approximately 2,000 Paratroopers deployed
in support of Operation Resolute Support in Afghanistan, and Operation Inherent
Resolve in Iraq.
a. Operation Resolute Support. The 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB)
has approximately 700 Paratroopers deployed to Afghanistan, providing
vital aviation support to the ongoing train, advise and assist mission.
b. Operation Inherent Resolve. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team (BCT) has
approximately 1,200 Paratroopers deployed to Iraq. In December, more
than 200 Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry
Regiment (PIR), deployed to conduct security operations. In January,
more than 1,000 Paratroopers from 3BCT deployed to conduct train,
advise and assist operations.
3. Fallen Heroes. The Division lost three of its Paratroopers during operations in
Afghanistan last year. We honor their service and remember their sacrifices:
a. Sergeant First Class Samuel C. Hairston – Ghazni, Afghanistan, August
12, 2014. Assigned to 1-504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade
Combat Team.
b. Specialist Brian K. Arsenault – Ghazni, Afghanistan, September 4,
2014. Assigned to 1-504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade
Combat Team.
c. Specialist Joseph W. Riley – Kabul, Afghanistan, November 24, 2014.
Assigned to 1-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat
Team.
SFC Samuel C. Hairston
SPC Brian K. Arsenault
SPC Joseph W. Riley
4. Awards.
a. Fort Bragg Family of the Year. MAJ Rick Johnson, his wife Lea, and
their three children were selected as the Fort Bragg Family of the Year on
December 4, 2014. MAJ Johnson is assigned to 1-319th Airborne Field
Artillery Regiment (AFAR), 3BCT.
b. Draper Armor Leadership Award. Awarded annually to the best troop or
company in a unit comprised of cavalry or armor Soldiers. The program is
governed by the Office of the Chief of Armor. Awarded to 5th Squadron,
73rd Cavalry Regiment.
c. Division Best Medic Competition. Awarded to SPC Joshua Schlyer, 573 CAV, and PV2 Dylan Wilson, 307th Brigade Engineer Battalion (BEB),
3BCT. The event is a two-Soldier team competition lasting 72-hours,
consisting of ten events, and tests medical personnel in a realistic
operational environment.
d. Phillip A. Connelly Award. This award is given in recognition for
excellence in the preparation and serving of food. 2BCT/18th Field
Artillery Brigade (FAB) Dining Facility was awarded the 47th Annual Phillip
A. Connelly award for the Ft. Bragg installation-level Garrison Competition
and the 406th Army Field Support Brigade regional competition. On 26
February, the Dining Facility will compete at the DA-level competition.
e. Forces Command (FORSCOM) Career Counselor of the Year Award.
Awarded to SFC Cheri Lee, 307th BEB, 3BCT. SFC Lee will represent
FORSCOM in the DA-level competition.
f. XVIII Airborne Corps Annual Regimental Engineer Awards. SFC Cory
Wilkins of the 307th BEB, 3BCT, was selected as the XVIII Airborne Corps
nominee for the Sturgis Medal. CPL Michael Graziani was selected as the
XVIII Airborne Corps nominee for the Van Autreve award. Both
Paratroopers will go on to represent the XVIII Airborne Corps at the
FORSCOM board.
5. Changes of Command. We had two Brigade change of commands over the
last 9 months. COL Joseph Ryan assumed command of 2BCT on 12 June 2014.
COL Curtis Buzzard assumed command of 3BCT on 17 June 2014.
COL Curtis Buzzard
COL Joseph Ryan
6. “The Nucleus of the Global Response Force.” Our Division continues to
serve as the nucleus of the Global Response Force (GRF). As such, we provide
options to the National Command Authority and our Combatant Commanders
(COCOMs) to respond to emergent contingency operations. We maintain our
flexibility so as to tailor our force packages to meet the needs for the specific
mission. We maintain an infantry brigade combat team to serve as the core
ground component of the national GRF on a rotating cycle. The BCT maintains a
high-state of readiness and is prepared for a no-notice deployment to conduct
joint forcible entry by parachute assault if necessary, to secure key objectives
and prepare for follow-on military operations.
7. Recent Training Exercises.
a. Ranger Orientation, Preparation & Assessment Training (ROPAT).
In November, the Division conducted ROPAT for female Paratroopers to
assess and prepare them for potential attendance at Ranger school.
There were 36 Paratroopers who completed the training. The 17-day
program featured fundamental infantry skills and evaluations including: the
Ranger physical fitness test, Combat Water Survival test, 12-mile road
march, and the land navigation course. Training also included STX lanes,
Ranger Stakes, Reconnaissance, Ambush, Urban Warfare, and patrolling
skills.
b. Best of the Best Competition. In October, the 18th FAB conducted the
“Best of the Best” competition. The competition is comprised of a series of
tests to evaluate Soldiers’ physical strength, weapons system knowledge,
land navigation skills, weapons proficiency and endurance.
c. Crisis Action Planning. In November, the Division staff participated in a
Crisis Action Planning Exercise with AFRICOM to strengthen our JTFcapable headquarters and our critical relationships with the joint services.
The planning exercise resulted in a shelved concept plan for AFRICOM in
the event a contingency operation occurs requiring the GRF. In March,
the staff will travel to Grafenwoehr, Germany to participate in the second
part of the AFRICOM exercise with the Division headquarters acting as a
JTF headquarters.
d. Warfighter Exercise (WFX). In December, the Division participated in
WFX 15-2 at Ft. Hood, Texas. The exercise commenced with the Division
Assault Command Post conducting an airborne operation to establish
mission command prior to the Division Tactical Command Post taking
control of the fight. The exercise provided the opportunity for the Division
to sustain readiness as a JTF Headquarters and validate distributed
mission command. Instead of the normal 18-month lead time, we had
about 45 days to plan for and execute this exercise.
e. Joint Forcible Entry Vulnerability (JFE VUL). In December, 3rd Brigade
Combat Team participated in JFE VUL exercise with the U.S. Air Force’s
Weapons Officer School at Nellis AFB, Nevada. This is a semi-annual
training event for the Air Force which serves as the capstone exercise for
the school and tests operational access and forcible entry of the Global
Response Force.
f. Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise (EDRE). In January,
2BCT conducted an EDRE in order to validate deployment readiness and
GRF capabilities. The Division’s EDRE program is designed to conduct
tiered quarterly training throughout the GRF cycle in order to sustain GRF
enablers and the OSB. Upon notification, 2BCT alerted and assembled
their Paratroopers, 1BCT established outload support, and with the direct
support of our Air Force partners, 1-325th Airborne Infantry Regiment
deployed on an 18-hour sequence. The exercise, conducted at Ft.
Stewart, GA, included a joint forcible entry, airfield seizure, non-combatant
evacuation operations, and follow-on operations. Our team was also
augmented by GRF enablers from 3rd Infantry Division and 10th Mountain
Division. 3ID provided a mechanized company team with M1 Abrams
Tanks and M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and 10th Mountain provided
rotary wing support.
8. Multi-National Partnership Program.
a. The 82nd Airborne Division maintains an active Multi-National Partnership
Program to develop mission-focused interoperability with our key
international crisis response force partners. The effort is spearheaded by
the Division’s first Deputy Commanding General for Interoperability,
Brigadier Giles Hill, from the U.K. Each of our Brigades are partnered with
key NATO allies.
b. Our most robust interoperability partnership is with the British 16th Air
Assault Brigade. We are working towards the shared vision between each
Army’s Chief of Staff of enabling a U.K. Brigade to operate effectively
within a U.S. Division and vice versa. We’ve made significant progress
towards initial operating capability (IOC) through several of our combined
exercises.
i. 2BCT Joint Operational Access Exercise (JOAX). 2BCT
conducted a JOAX in August 2014, in order to prepare for their
JRTC rotation in September. As a part of the exercise, the brigade
successfully integrated an Infantry Company from the U.K.’s 16th
Air Assault Brigade into one of its Infantry Battalions. Several
individual and collective training events led up to the exercise in
order to ensure its success. In addition to preparing 2BCT for
JRTC, the exercise served as an important milestone towards the
ultimate objective of fully integrating 16th Air Assault Brigade into
the 82nd Airborne Division.
ii. Operation Pegasus Cypher. In January, about 30 British Artillery
Paratroopers from 16th Air Assault Brigade came to Ft. Bragg to
work with 82nd Airborne Division Artillery for Operation Pegasus
Cypher. The exercise helped close gaps to ensure our artillery
units can fully integrate and operate in a combined environment in
order to provide steadfast indirect fires support to our Paratroopers.
This exercise was yet another step towards the accomplishment of
our interoperability objective with the U.K.
9. Realignment of Division Artillery Forces. In January 2006, DIVARTY was
deactivated as a part of the Army’s modularity transformation. In July 2008, the
18th Fires Brigade was moved from XVIII Airborne Corps to the 82nd. This force
structure did not allow the Corps and Division to effectively integrate and
synchronize fires in support of our operations. As a result, DIVARTY was
reactivated and 18th Fires Brigade was redesignated as 18th Field Artillery
Brigade on 16 October 2014. Effective 20 February 2015, 18th FAB was
reassigned to XVIII Airborne Corps.
10. Taking Care of our Paratroopers. The Division is leading the way in the
research of a new treatment of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)/concussion. No
current medications exist for treatment of mTBI, however, medical providers from
the 82nd Airborne Division are working in conjunction with the US Army Medical
Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), the Defense and Veterans Brain
Injury Center (DVBIC), Womack Army Community Hospital and Neuren
Pharmaceuticals to investigate a new medication for its potential to benefit
Soldiers immediately after sustaining a concussion. This study has the potential
to improve recovery of this debilitating injury that can degrade military readiness,
retention, and the quality of life for soldiers and their family members.
11. New Equipment Fielding.
a. Light Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle (LTATV). The Division recently began
fielding, training on, and assessing the capabilities of the LTATV. The
vehicle is a four-wheel drive, all-terrain vehicle that can accommodate a
crew of four and can also serve as a heavy weapons platform. This
vehicle is designed to provide a rifle company with an air-droppable
maneuver and small arms platform. It will make the GRF more agile by
allowing them to get from the drop zone to the objective more rapidly.
The vehicle is being incorporated into upcoming training events to include
the CJOAX in April.
12. Closing. As the ground component of the Global Response Force, the 82nd
Airborne Division continues to train hard to maintain our readiness to deploy
anywhere in the world within 18 hours. Our training continues to focus on our
ability to lead a Joint Task Force headquarters, and provide scalable and
tailorable force packages to the Combatant Commanders in order to accomplish
their missions.
Taking care of our Paratroopers and their Families continues to be a top priority.
We are able to maintain a high level of readiness because of the hard work,
dedication, and continued sacrifices of our ready and resilient Paratroopers and
their Families.
I hope you found this update useful and if you have any suggestions for future
editions, please let us know.
Should you find yourself in the Ft. Bragg area, please feel free to reach out to the
Division Headquarters for a more detailed brief.
Airborne! All the way!