82nd Airborne

WILLOW GROVE, Pa. -- The C-141s came in from the north with the weight of history and the lightness of air.Pvt. Mike Junio of nearby Philadelphia was fifth in line, in the first plane, on the first pass over Willow Grove Naval Air Station.At that moment, 800 feet above the ground in a windowless airplane, the 20-year-old paratrooper wasn't thinking about the 50 years the Army's 82nd Airborne Division has been doing operations like this; wasn't thinking about the World War II campaigns in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Normandy, or the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, or Grenada, or Panama, or, most recently, the Desert Storm operation in Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon awaited orders yesterday to dispatch ground forces along with additional fighter planes, bombers and combat helicopters to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as indications mounted that at least a limited military deployment could come as early as this week.At the White House, an interagency group met through the afternoon to evaluate a range of options to be relayed to President Bush in New York as possible administration recommendations to the United Nations Security Council.

Saying the Army faces some troubling days ahead, the new commander of the 1st U.S. Army based at Fort Meade told troops yesterday he is committed to maintaining a top-notch fighting force."

WASHINGTON -- Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of allied forces in the Persian Gulf, is working on plans for a quick return of victorious U.S. forces, Pentagon officials acknowledged yesterday.The acknowledgment came amid reports that President Bush would welcome home more than 4,000 troops of the 82nd Airborne Division tomorrow in a ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, just outside the nation's capital.The White House and the Pentagon denied yesterday that such plans had been made.

WASHINGTON -- Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of allied forces in the Persian Gulf, is working on plans for a quick return of victorious U.S. forces, Pentagon officials acknowledged yesterday.The acknowledgment came amid reports that President Bush would welcome home more than 4,000 troops of the 82nd Airborne Division tomorrow in a ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, just outside the nation's capital.The White House and the Pentagon denied yesterday that such plans had been made.

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- Iraq's highly touted military defenses withered so quickly once the allied ground offensive began that U.S. tanks charged into Iraq 10 hours ahead of schedule while thousands of astonished American soldiers never had to fire a shot.During the first day of the assault, a U.S. Army howitzer team rolling into Iraq ahead of the 82nd Airborne Division and French forces encountered a barrage of artillery fire that landed 100 yards ahead in its path.After firing back for half an hour, the artillerymen learned that what appeared to be Iraqi shelling was merely covering fire from U.S. guns stationed to the rear.

Eileen Bolgiano of the Towson area has given up cocktails until her son, David, comes home from the Persian Gulf, but at the news of a successful start to the ground war she decided to mix herself just one drink.The invasion suggested to her that "it's almost over," Bolgiano said yesterday, but she intends to go back to abstaining for the rest of the war because she knows it has longer to run."I feel relief. I've been on such a yo-yo," said Bolgiano, whose son is a captain in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Outside the Smoke Bomb Hill Chapel on this deserted army post yesterday, military wives hugged one another and cheered themselves with this verse from "A GI Family's Prayer:""On land and sand and sea and air, I back my soldier with this prayer. No matter how far he's forced to roam, just bring, I pray, my GI home."Across the nation, it was a day of prayer and patriotism -- the first full day of the allied forces' ground assault.Everywhere, the talk was of the land war."

Like members of many families with relatives in the gulf war, Louise Lerario of Damascus, Md., has yet to hear directly from her son at the front. But she has watched him on television.An Army company commander, Capt. Mike Lerario was explaining in a broadcast interview how he did his job leading an 82nd Airborne Division scouting party along a border lined with Iraqi positions. "Our mission is to see and be seen," he told the interviewer. "We're like the old cavalry of the Western frontier.

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- 1om U.S. combat units positioned near the Kuwaiti border may be several weeks away from receiving all their equipment and completing final rehearsals for a massive land assault against Iraq, according to military personnel.The 3rd Armored Division, the last major unit to be deployed to Saudi Arabia, has barely one-third of its heavy armor and attack helicopters ready for action.Another German-based Army unit, the 1st Armored Division, was not expected to receive its Bradley fighting vehicles and other combat equipment until this weekend at the earliest.