On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

January 28, 1998

The 82nd Airborne Division, worn out after months behind enemy lines during Operation Pegasus II and several weeks of internal security duties along the north coast of the Persian Gulf, is withdrawn to Saudi Arabia for R&R.

The student body of the US Air Force Academy, outside Colorado Springs Colorado, is converted to a troop unit, designated the Cadet Brigade. The brigade takes over the remaining weapons and equipment left at Fort Carson by the 4th Infantry Division when the 4th was airlifted to Europe in October of 1996.

Unofficially,

Thge 4th Virginia State Guard Regiment deploys a surplus Second World War-era M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, rearmed with unit machineguns and used by the regiment alongside three converted bank armored cars as a (completely unauthorized by command) so-called armored platoon.

A US Army resupply convoy in northwestern East Germany stops at a MP roadside checkpoint en route from its latest supply run, (relatively) laden with food, ammunition and fuel. Once stopped the MPs order the troops out of their vehicles, and soon they find themselves surrounded by more US troops in uniforms that can best be described as, at best, disorderly and unauthorized. They are ordered to drop their weapons as it becomes apparent that the roadblock is not, in fact, MPs but deserters, in this case a band of the US Army criminal band that calls itself 5th Squad. The minority members of the surrounded troops are offered admission to the group, which several accept, and the rest are stripped of their equipment and weapons, bound and gagged and driven several miles away, where they are dropped off in a remote patch of forest to fend for themselves. The haul secured by 5th Squad is enough to keep the gang fed and supplied throughout the rest of the winter.

Belgian troops (esppecially Dutch-speaking ones) are assigned primary responsibility for coordinating the evacuation of US and British assets from the Franco-Belgian occupied zone, taking over from French Army units which, in several cases, have strained relations with the NATO commanders involved. The Belgian troops are considered generous by the isolated American units, which appreciate the provision of ample fine Belgian ales.

The layup effort in the fjords outside Stavanger concludes with the stripping of perishable supplies, ammunition, fuel and lubricants from the last ship (the American freighter Cape Catoche). The crews and most of the supplies return to the Baltic aboard the Danish corvette Beskytteren and a trio of oilfield supply ships while the US Navy oiler Platte takes the salvaged fuel north along the Norwegian coast.