Another Kolwezi thread- 82nd jumps in, too

Recalling the previous thread on the Kolwezi rescue mission in Zaire in 1978 conducted by FFL paras to liberate the mining town and thousands of helpless Euro civs and local villagers caught up in this rebellion, IIRC the 82nd Airborne was also put on alert for a combat jump when the crisis 1st broke out, although in the end only the Legionnaires actually parachuted in from French and USAF C130s AFAIK. WI the 82nd had actually been authorised to jump as well alongside their Foreign Legion comrades into Kolwezi to clear the town of the Simbas and rescue the trapped Westerners ? How significant would've been such a combat jump been for the American airborne troopers in terms of battle experience, and would they have been better prepared for subsequent combat parachute drops such as Grenada or Panama ? Could such a victory (the 82nd alongside the FFL paras would undoubtedly have wasted the Simbas without too much trouble- the Legionnaires OTL kicked butt well enough on their own) have acted as a significant political salve for Washington during the post-VW yrs, and significantly improved the US armed forces' combat readiness ?

I see an American Kolwezi jump as moderately improving combat readiness. It would act somewhat like the Grenada Operation but on a lower scale. As bad as the US Army was at the time, they could have easily handled the Simbas. So there would be the psychological benefit of a victory. It also would have put some US doctrine and weapon systems to the test much like Grenanda did.

It would be less useful than Grenada. Urgent Fury gave all branches of the armed forces a chance to fall on their face without too much pain. Kolwezi would only aid the Army and Air Force in ironing out kinks like joint operations and the wisdom of certain tactics and weapons. I would guess that by Grenada, the USA and USAF will work well together but there will still be the problems with joint ops with USMC and USN.

A side note. The USAF did participate in Kolwezi by providing transport planes. Im not 100% certain they dropped 2eme REP but USAF C130s did play some role.

But how likely was US to get directly involved? I remeber when troubles started in Angola US wanted to get involved but feared public reaction so soon after Vietnam. I guess this would be same. Specially if no Us citizens would be captured. "Why risk US troops to rescue some Europeans? Let them sort this mess out themselves."