The US army's most recent airborne ops were in Iraq during Op IRAQI FREEDOM, with the 173rd Airborne Bde dropping into northern Iraq to support Kurdish PESHMERGA insurgents and Green Berets (March 2003), and in Afghanistan (Oct 2001) when some 100 Rangers of 1st Bn/75th Ranger Regt parachuted into action near Kandahar as part of the hunt for OBL and AQ during Op ENDURING FREEDOM. Could anybody design any other PODs for other alternate US Army parachute drops thruout the last decade or so, since the invasion of Panama in Op URGENT FURY (Dec 1989), and speculate on the likely outcomes ?
How about with the following possible scenarios ?
-Baghdad Jan/Feb 1991- 82nd Airborne drop on Baghdad
-Mogadishu Dec 1992- XVIII Airborne Corps lead Op RESTORE HOPE instead of 1st Marine Div, with mass parachute landings on vital installations
-Monrovia anytime between 1990 and 1992- US airborne landings as part of wider US military intervention to stop civil war
-Rwanda April 1994- very unlikely, but 82nd parachutes into Kigali to halt genocide
-North Korea anytime between 1994 and 1999- 501st Airborne Inf dispatched to 8th Army from Alaska with Rangers from 75th Regt, undertakes combat jump to capture and secure NK nuclear reactor until facility and all progress in NK NBC program totally destroyed
-Zaire Oct-Dec 1996- XVIII ABC elements parachute into southern Zaire as part of process of securing safety zone to facilitate safe delivery and distribution of humanitarian relief aid to thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees
-Kosovo April-May 1999- XVIII ABC and other attached airborne units to EUCOM (such as 525th Para Inf (?), based in Vicenza- now 503rd/173rd) spearhead NATO ground ops against JNA
-East Timor Sept/Oct 1999- 501st parachute into Oecussi enclave alongside Australian paras of 3RAR during Op LAVARACK to secure territory against continued militia incursions
How about with the following possible scenarios ?
-Baghdad Jan/Feb 1991- 82nd Airborne drop on Baghdad
-Mogadishu Dec 1992- XVIII Airborne Corps lead Op RESTORE HOPE instead of 1st Marine Div, with mass parachute landings on vital installations
-Monrovia anytime between 1990 and 1992- US airborne landings as part of wider US military intervention to stop civil war
-Rwanda April 1994- very unlikely, but 82nd parachutes into Kigali to halt genocide
-North Korea anytime between 1994 and 1999- 501st Airborne Inf dispatched to 8th Army from Alaska with Rangers from 75th Regt, undertakes combat jump to capture and secure NK nuclear reactor until facility and all progress in NK NBC program totally destroyed
-Zaire Oct-Dec 1996- XVIII ABC elements parachute into southern Zaire as part of process of securing safety zone to facilitate safe delivery and distribution of humanitarian relief aid to thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees
-Kosovo April-May 1999- XVIII ABC and other attached airborne units to EUCOM (such as 525th Para Inf (?), based in Vicenza- now 503rd/173rd) spearhead NATO ground ops against JNA
-East Timor Sept/Oct 1999- 501st parachute into Oecussi enclave alongside Australian paras of 3RAR during Op LAVARACK to secure territory against continued militia incursions