101st Airborne Division

The 20,000 Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division were once again deploying to the Middle East in 2007, with part of the division headed to Iraq and part to Afghanistan. But fighting for freedom is nothing new for the 101st, the only air assault division in the Army. The unit has proven since World War II that it is one of the Army's most powerful divisions.

The division has undergone an Armywide change that added a fourth brigade and about 2,000 more soldiers. The structure of the brigades, although smaller, makes the division more self-sufficient because everything needed to complete a mission is in the "Unit of Action." So, for example, instead of the infantry having to call upon military intelligence and mechanics, the specially trained troops are already there for support of the mission. The two aviation brigades, the 101st and 159th, will still be called upon as needed for air assault operations. There's also the 101st Sustainment Brigade to provide support to the modular units.

About the 101st

When President Bush called for buildups in the Middle East to oust Saddam Hussein from Iraq, the 101st was ready. On March 20, 2003, the war in Iraq officially started, and the division's soldiers did everything from house-to-house search and seizures to supporting logistics and crucial medical services. The division went back to Iraq in 2005, and three brigades of the 101st are leaving again late this summer for another mission.

In addition to wartime efforts, 101st soldiers have been on the front lines of peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia and Haiti.

But the only way the division troops can accomplish these complicated missions is through training. If the soldiers aren't playing war games in the post's back yard, you can find them at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., or the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The leadership motto is "fight as you train and train as you fight."

The division developed the concept of air mobility by using helicopters to move troops and equipment around the battlefield. The 101st is the only air assault division in the world and has a fully equipped international airport for quick deployments. Troops are ready for deployment anywhere in the world within 36 hours.

The division flies the CH-47D Chinook and the new CH-47F, the UH-60L Black Hawk, the AH-64 Apache as well as its Longbow sister, and the OH-58D Kiowa.

The Black Hawk replaced the Vietnam-era UH-1 Huey and is the workhorse of the division, which has about 75 of these helicopters. A squadron of Black Hawks can move an entire brigade (more than 2,000 soldiers) 150 miles in one day.