Soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division scan a nearby ridgeline for movement by Taliban and al Qaeda fighters during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan in March 2002.
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101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
Soldiers: 20,000
Home fort: Fort Campbell, Kentucky
Deployed to: The area covered by U.S. Central Command, which includes the Persian Gulf.
Units: The division includes three brigades plus two aviation brigades, an artillery unit and several supporting units, totaling 20,000 soldiers.
Duties: The 101st Airborne, known as the "Screaming Eagles," bills itself as the "only air assault division in the world" and has the ability to conduct air assault operations and long-range helicopter assaults. The division is armed with 270 helicopters, including three battalions of Apache attack helicopters.
In Afghanistan, the 101st Airborne soldiers fought in Operation Anaconda, the March 2002 battle in the Shah-e-Kot valley. Apache helicopters from the 101st Airborne fired the first shots in the Persian Gulf war, destroying Iraqi early-warning radar sites 22 minutes before the air war began on January 17, 1991. The 101st Airborne also penetrated deep into Kuwait to cut off Iraqi forces fleeing toward the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border.
Official Web site 
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