82nd Airborne Division Middle East Deployment
January 5, 2020, Pope Army Airfield, NC, USA: Army paratroopers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, continue their deployment from Pope Army Airfield, North Carolina. The ‘All American Division’ Immediate Response Force (IRF), based at Fort Bragg, N.C., mobilized for deployment to the U.S. Central Command area of operations in response to increased threat levels against U.S. personnel and facilities in the area. Today’s deployment follows the Jan. 1 deployment of a division infantry battalion; the Jan. 2 U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq that killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, and elements of the division that deployed Jan. 4.
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press