May 3, 1997
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The US 82nd Airborne Division (reinforced with the British 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment) and two battalions of the 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger) are airdropped into the Bandar-e Khomeyni-Khorramshahr area. The initial waves of pathfinders include an American journalist, Fanya Ayn Wilkerson, who takes shameless advantage of her uncle Marvin Wilkerson's good reputation among the "All Americans" of the 82nd Airborne Division to secure a seat. US Navy and Iranian surface units and gunships of the 6th Air Cavalry Combat Brigade provide fire support. Wilkerson loses two fingers on her left hand while earning a Pulitzer Prize and the undying love and respect of the 504th ("Devils in Baggy Pants") Airborne Regiment while delivering the first video footage and eyewitness accounts of the 82nd Airborne's parachute assault upon Bandar-e-Khomeyni.
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The 101st Air Assault Division makes an airmobile landing in the Bushehr area, supported by units of the Iranian Navy and two battalions of Iranian Marines. At Bushehr and Ganaveh, as assault waves of UH-60's and AH-64's make their pre-dawn landing the Soviets are in a state of total confusion. By 1600 hours the 105th Guards Air Assault Division has been destroyed, seeding small bands of escaping desantniki fleeing to the mountains.
Unofficially,
The Canadian Navy recommissions the destroyer Margaree, which had been paid off in 1992.
Reporters discover that the Army has appointed the nephew of a prominent member of the House Armed Services Committee as commander of the guard company of the Bedford, Pennsylvania POW camp. The appointment prevents the young officer from deploying to Poland with his battalion. (One of his peers from ROTC, recovering from wounds received in Norway, says "He's a chickenshit. Always has been, always will be." when asked about the young captain).
The 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards escorts another "treasure caravan", containing priceless artifacts from the British Museum (including its Gutenberg Bible), in a secret nighttime effort to protect them from destruction if London should be struck. The items are stored in an underground quarry in a remote corner of Wales.
The newly arrived radiotechnical warfare officer at Western TVD deploys his new broad spectrum jammers. It is a colossal failure, as the jammers disrupt communications and radars on both sides of the front lines. The Warsaw Pact air defense early warning network collapses and Red Army and Polish commanders are forced to rely on couriers to send and receive messages. British troops take advantage of the confusion on the other side of the lines to break out of a bridgehead at Kostrzyn; small unit commanders are confident of the mission enough to advance when they realize that their opponents are unable to call in artillery to fend off their attacks.
The beleaguered Convoy 136 crosses into the North Sea.
Turkish forces in Bulgaria launch an offensive against the Bulgarian 2nd Army. Under cover of American and Turkish aircraft, the Turks open their attack with a furious artillery barrage against the dug in Bulgarians. The front lines are held by second-rate troops, many ethnic Turks, who initially hold their positions.
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A major naval battle erupts in the Mediterranean as Task Force 60 faces off against the Soviet 5th Squadron. The American carrier task force is located by Soviet and Greek aircraft operating overland, while American and (ostensibly neutral) Israeli E-2 AEW aircraft watch the Soviet squadron leave Syrian ports. Missiles almost immediately fly from the Soviet flagship, the missile cruiser Slava, timed to arrive simultaneously with missiles launched by Tu-22M and Tu-16 bombers over the Greek-Bulgarian border. The Aegis cruiser USS Gettysburg, coordinating the American air defense, is struck by a torpedo fired by the Kilo-class diesel sub B-459, temporarily disrupting the anti-missile effort until the USS Richmond K. Turner assumes control. The disruption allows some of the missiles to slip through the multiple layers of defenses (F-14 interceptors, anti-aircraft missiles and short-range last-ditch defense guns), with the destroyer Stethem struck by a SS-N-12 and the America's flight deck peppered with shrapnel from a AS-4 that exploded 100m over the flight deck. Fortunately for the Americans, the air wing had just completed launching its aircraft for the anti-surface strike against the Soviet group, resulting in only a handful of aircraft being lost and only a (relatively) small fire from a pair of SH-60 helicopters on deck. The combined airstrike of the two carriers' A-6 and F/A-18 squadrons and subsequent cleanup by the S-3 squadrons left none of the Soviet ships afloat. The Soviet bombers escaped unscathed. ASW helicopters locate the Soviet submarine, and an ASROC missile from the destroyer USS Briscoe sends it to the bottom.
The headquarters and subordinate brigades of the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) begin moving to ports under control of the Charleston Port of Embarkation (Wilmington and Morehead City, North Carolina and Charleston) to begin loading for Europe. The division's 32nd Infantry Brigade (Wisconsin National Guard) will follow when it completes its training; a logistics team from the Wisconsin National Guard command begins loading vehicles the 32nd left at its mobilization station of Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin onto railcars for transit to east coast ports.
Simultaneously, the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) is released from the Strategic Reserve for service in Europe and begins moving to Mid-Atlantic ports.
Caspian Flotilla spetsnaz team launches another raid in the Red Sea from the dhow that is, following the loss of Ethiopian bases, its mobile base of operations. The team attacks the Jizam airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia, overpowering the Saudi National Guard platoon that was watching over the mostly inactive facility. They destroy the airfield's navigation aids and control tower and blast a 15m wide hole in the runway before returning to sea. The attack's direct consequences are slight, but it alarms the Saudi government, forcing it to divert troops from the northern border and causing distress about the departure of American troops to Iran.