“DC-3s were license-built all over the world, even in the Soviet Union (as the Lisunov LI-2) and Imperial Japan (as the L2D Tabby)” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “In fact, the large Army Air Force/Royal Air Force fleet of C-47s was one of the major factors that made the invasion of Europe possible. By being able to move large numbers of personnel, equipment, and supplies efficiently and safely by air, the Allied forces in 1944 had a level of operational mobility and agility that remains a model even today. All because of a simple, basic transport aircraft with two good engines, a highly stable flying design, and a structure that was practically indestructible.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “What made aircraft like the 247D and DC-3 so revolutionary in their day was the integration of a number of new and emerging technologies. Technologically they had more in common with today’s jumbo jets than they do with the wood-and-canvas contraptions that had come before them. Their technical innovations included flush riveting, monocoque construction, turbo-supercharged radial engines, pressurized cabins, radios, and the first generation of modern aerial navigation instruments. These aircraft represented a technical Rubicon which, once crossed, could make commercial air transportation as viable and profitable a business as any railroad or trucking company.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “When the first of the new-generation transport aircraft finally arrived in the late 1940s, they were known as “Flying Boxcars.” The primary builder of these unique aircraft was Fairchild Republic, which designed them to be modular haulers of almost any kind of cargo or load. The Flying Boxcars were composed of a cockpit section with a high wing and two engines in tandem booms, with rudders and elevators running between them. Between the booms the cargo was carried in large pods equipped with powered rear doors and ramps. This meant that the cargo section could have a large rear door to load, unload, and drop cargo, vehicles, artillery pieces, and paratroops. Several variants of the Flying Boxcar were produced, the ultimate version being the Fairchild C-119.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Flying Boxcars were the backbone of the aerial transport fleets of the U.S. and its allies for over a decade. They dropped French paratroops into Dien Bien Phu and Algeria, acted as flying gunships, and even snagged early reconnaissance satellite film containers from midair. Still, the Flying Boxcars suffered from the inherent weaknesses of all piston-engined aircraft: limited speed and lifting power, as well as relatively high fuel consumption. This meant that for airdrop operations, they could only work within a relatively small theater of operations, albeit a larger one than the C-47. The dreams of U.S. Army leaders for projecting combat power directly across the oceans from American soil would have to wait for a major development of some sort. They did not have long to wait.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Down at Lockheed in Marietta, Georgia, there was a dedicated group of engineers who saw the early potential of jet-powered transport aircraft. Developers of the classic Super Constellation-series airliners, they were now dabbling with an interesting hybrid powerplant: the turboprop. Turboprop engines coupled the new jet turbines with the well-proven technology of high-efficiency propellers. The result was an aircraft powerplant with great power and superb fuel efficiency. When combined with the new generation of airframes coming off the Marietta line, the result was the classic medium transport aircraft of our generation: the C-130 Hercules. While this is a tall claim, it is sufficient to say that over four decades after it first entered production, new C-130 variants are being brought into service.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “It took another ten years before a true heavy transport with high subsonic speed and intercontinental range would become a reality. By the mid- 1960s, though, the wishes of everyone in the U.S. armed forces were finally fulfilled in the form of the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter. The Lockheed Marietta engineers took an ambitious requirement for large payload, long range, and high cruising speed, and then combined those features with the ability to be able to slow down to speeds (around 130 kn/241 kph) that would allow paratroops to be safely deployed over a drop zone. The Starlifter did all of this, and still continues to do so today, with seven-league boots and a cargo capacity that can accommodate much of the basic equipment of the U.S. Army’s various units.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Despite the excellent proposal submitted by Douglas and the best of government intentions, the C-X became a star-crossed aircraft. Delayed by funding problems and the decision to procure additional C-5s first, this new bird seemed at times as if it would never fly. In spite of all this, by the mid- 1980s there was a firm design (now known as the C-17 Globemaster III) on the books, and the first prototype was under construction. The new airlifter was designed to take advantage of a number of new technologies to make it more capable than either the C-141 or C-5. These features included a fly-by-wire flight control system, an advanced “glass” cockpit which replaced gauges and strip indicators with large multi-function displays. The Globemaster also made use of more efficient turbofan engines, advanced composite structures, and a cockpit/crew station design that only requires three crew members (two pilots and a crew chief). The key to the C-17’s performance, though, was the use of specially “blown” flaps to achieve the short-field takeoff-and-landing performance of the C-130. By directing the engine exhaust across a special set[…]” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Along with the building of the C-17 force, the Air Force is updating the inter-theater transport force built around early versions of the C-130, especially the older C-130E and -F models. Naturally, the answer is another version of the Hercules! The new C-130J is more than a minor improvement over the previous models of this classic aircraft, though. By marrying up the same kind of advanced avionics found on the C-17 with improved engines and the proven Hercules airframe, Lockheed has come up with the premier inter-theater transport for the early 21st century. Already, the Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) have signed up to buy the new Hercules, with more buyers already in the wings. This means that there will easily be versions coming off the line in 2004, when the C-130 celebrates its fiftieth year of continuous production! ” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Air-to-air refueling came into its own over Vietnam, where it became a cornerstone of daily operations for aircraft bombing the North.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Later on, in the 1970s, in-flight refueling of C-5s and C-141s became common. This was especially true during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when a number of European countries would not allow U.S. cargo aircraft to land and refuel. This meant that tankers based along the way had to refuel the big cargo jets so that they would be able to make their deliveries of cargo into Ben-Gurion Airport nonstop.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Today, the surviving fifty-nine KC-10s are the crown jewels of the Air Mobility Command’s tanker fleet. Closely held and lovingly maintained, they may be the key to successfully deploying our forces into remote overseas locations in the future.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “By this time you may well be asking about the worth of building a huge fleet of transport aircraft in an era of trillion-dollar federal deficits and our own pressing domestic needs. More than a few Americans wonder about the need for the United States to have forces capable of intervention overseas. While valid questions, they fail to take into account the reality of America’s place in the world. Whether we like it or not, the U.S. has responsibilities; airpower, including the AMC fleet of tanker and transport aircraft, frequently makes up our first response to the events in that world. Several years ago, when Colonel John Warden was interviewed for Fighter Wing, he said that “every bomb is a political bomb with political effects and consequences.” You could easily say the same thing about sorties by transport aircraft. While one mission may have you dropping paratroopers on a local warlord, another may see relief supplies being flown to refugees or disaster victims. Thus, like bombers and fighters, transport aircraft are just as much instruments of airpower as the more obvious combat types. In fact, because they can provide service in both combat and peacetime mission, they are[…]” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “ Thus, the many potential benefits of synthetic fibers to airborne warfare were to be denied until after World War II. Virtually every parachute used by airmen and paratroopers in that war was made from that most comfortable of fabrics: silk. Silk has many desirable qualities when used in parachutes. These include light weight, an extremely dense thread count (the number of fibers per inch when woven), a favorable porosity to air, and great tensile strength when woven into fabric and lines.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Given a careful cycle of packing and cleaning, the World War II-era parachute could be used several dozen times with confidence.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “The basic design of most non-steerable parachutes has changed little over the last six decades. A circular canopy chute will, once inflated, essentially fall in a straight and vertical line. Notwithstanding the effects of cross-winds, this means that if a stick (or line) of paratroops is dropped at regular intervals behind an aircraft, they will be spaced fairly evenly as they descend. Using circular parachutes also minimizes the chances of a midair collision between two or more paratroopers trying to maneuver. This is the reason why today, in an era when sport parachutists (“sky divers”) almost always use square parafoil parachutes which are steerable, the older-design circular models are always used in mass airdrops.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “These large cargo chutes made unmanned delivery of cargo and equipment both possible, and much more reliable than gliders of World War II. The key to the new cargo parachute designs was the use of synthetic fibers as the load-bearing material. The larger cargo parachutes changed the face of airborne warfare. Rather than the vulnerable gliders having to follow the paratroopers into a “hot” DZ, the heavy cargo could now be dropped just minutes ahead of the troopers. This improved the chances of achieving tactical surprise in a drop operation as well as insuring that more of the airborne’s vital equipment and supplies arrived intact. As an added bonus, the new materials, synthetics like nylon and rayon, were also used in the new generation of personnel parachutes, making them much more reliable with a much longer service life. Up to a hundred jumps can be made on a single modern synthetic T-10 parachute, which makes it quite a bargain by current defense standards.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “When the green (“jump”) light comes on, the jumpmaster begins to order the paratroopers out the door with a loud “Go!” once every second from each door. This means that even a C-141 can unload over a hundred paratroopers in less than a minute, and transit less than a mile down the DZ. First out the door is always the senior officer, even if it is the division or airborne corps commander.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Even if the drop has gone poorly and the task force is scattered, it is expected that LGOPs will form up, protect the DZ, and drive to the objective no matter what the cost. As soon as the objectives are taken, the airborne battle transitions to the “hold until relieved” phase. Though airborne commanders would tell you that they intend to keep attacking whenever possible, they are realists. Once the objectives have been taken, it only makes good sense to insure that you keep what you have paid in blood to take. In any case, the job of doing the heavy work in the crisis must necessarily pass to units with better logistical capabilities and more “teeth” than what can be dropped out of airplanes. The relieving units can come from many places. They may be Marines, coming ashore from an amphibious unit, or flying in to meet up with equipment in a port from one of the MPSRONs. Alternatively, the follow-on forces might be one of the light infantry divisions, flown on AMC transports. It might even be the 82nd’s sister division in the XVIII Airborne Corps, the legendary “Screaming Eagles” of the 101st Air Assault Division[…]” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “82nd Airborne Division (the “All Americans”). They represent a completely unique capability as the only parachute division in the U.S. Army. It is a strategic response force in the sense that from the time that they receive an alert order, within eighteen hours they can begin movement to virtually any place in the world. That is a formidable capability, and it is clearly an instrument that the NCAs have at their fingertips to use. I do believe that it is also a deterrence force as well, because its capabilities are well known. Any country is very rapidly approachable by the 82nd, and they know that we have the aircraft and resources to get our soldiers and their equipment there very quickly. The 82nd, probably more than any other division in our Army, sends a message when it is deployed. When we commit the 82nd, it’s an expression of the political will of the nation. It’s also a statement to anybody who is involved or observing that the United States is really serious. They have just put their best on their airplanes, and they are coming! ” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “101st Air Assault Division (the “Screaming Eagles”). Another unique organization, one of the two specialized divisions in the XVIII Airborne Corps and our Army. Like the 82nd, it was born out of the history of the airborne and its rich tradition. It still has the same esprit and spirit that it has always had. Its special capability is that it can take, within a theater of operations (like the Persian Gulf or the Balkans), brigade-sized task forces and move them out to distances of up to 93 mi/150 km ahead of the forward lines, and do it within hours. It’s the only organization of this kind in the world that can do something like that. During Desert Storm, they moved 155 mi/250 km deep into Iraq in just twenty-four hours, a maneuver that today is still being studied by military academicians. It was an incredible performance. How they were able to move so far, so fast, into the northwest part of the Area of Operations [AOR] is still a marvel to most folks. Then General Schwarzkopf ordered them within a day or so to move to Basra, over on the eastern side of the AOR[…]” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “I am an Airborne trooper! A PARATROOPER! I jump by parachute from any plane in flight. I volunteered to do it, knowing well the hazards of my choice. I serve in a mighty Airborne Force—famed for deeds in war—renowned for readiness in peace. It is my pledge in all that I am—in all that I do. I am an elite trooper—a sky trooper—a shock trooper—a spearhead trooper. I blaze the way to far-flung goals—behind, before, above the foe’s front line. I know that I may have to fight without support for days on end. Therefore, I keep in mind and body always fit to do my part in any Airborne task. I am self-reliant and unafraid. I shoot true, and march fast and far. I fight hard and excel in art and article of war. I never fail a fellow trooper. I cherish as a sacred trust the lives of the men with whom I serve. Leaders have my fullest loyalty, and those I lead never find me lacking.   I have pride in the Airborne! I never let it down!   In peace, I do not shirk the dullest of duty[…]” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “In peace, I do not shirk the dullest of duty, not protest the toughest training. My weapons and equipment are always combat ready. I am neat of dress—military in courtesy—proper in conduct and behavior. In battle, I fear no foe’s ability, nor underestimate his prowess, power, and guile. I fight him with all my might and skill—ever alert to evade capture or escape a trap. I never surrender, though I be the last. My goal in peace or war is to succeed in any mission of the day—or die, if need be, in the try. I belong to a proud and glorious team, the Airborne, the Army, my country. I am its chosen, with pride to fight where others may not go—to serve them well until the final victory. I am a trooper of the Sky! I am my Nation’s best! In peace or war I never fail. Anywhere, anytime, in anything—I AM AIRBORNE!   The Airborne Creed” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Unlike the indestructible bolt-action rifles of World War II that the veteran sergeants had handled all their lives, a gas-operated automatic like the M16 is a precision machine that requires meticulous and thorough cleaning after firing to ensure continued reliable operation.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “For over two decades, the basic M16 (as well as the improved M16A1) served in the armed forces of the U.S. and many of our allies. However, by the 1980s, a new version was needed, and this became the second-generation M16A2. Manufactured by Colt in Hartford, Connecticut, the M16A2 is an air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle firing a 5.56mm (.223-caliber) bullet to a maximum effective range of about 600 yards/550 meters. The weapon weighs 8.9 lb/4.05 kg loaded with a thirty-round magazine. A selector switch toggles between safe, single shots, or three-round bursts. The full-automatic (“rock and roll”) mode of earlier M16 models, which could empty an entire clip in a few seconds of wild inaccurate spraying, has been eliminated. Airborne troopers are trained to extend their ammunition even further by limiting themselves whenever possible to single, aimed shots. Another key improvement to the M16A2 was the muzzle compensator, an ingenious gas deflector that counteracts the muzzle’s natural tendency to climb during a burst. The weapon can also be quickly adapted for left-handed shooters (about 15 percent of troops) by switching the side to which spent cartridge cases[…]” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “The soldier’s rucksack will also contain a shaving kit, foot powder, and a couple of clean towels (also colored olive-drab!). There may also be two small plastic vials, issued with the approval of the unit’s medical officer. These are “go” and “stop” pills. This is a controversial subject, but a familiar one to combat veterans. “Go” pills are based on amphetamine, a drug discovered in the 1880s and widely used by the German Army in World War II to keep troops awake and alert for extended periods. “Stop” pills are a fast-acting barbiturate designed to induce rapid sleep. The rationale for using such drugs is obvious. In combat, since airborne troops may have to stay awake and alert for up to seventy-two hours, “go” pills can provide a vital edge. This is because after three days without sleep, even superbly conditioned troops will begin to drop out, hallucinate, or just generally become combat-ineffective. On the flip side, it may also be impossible for troops under combat stress (not to mention jet lag from traveling halfway around the world) to establish normal sleep patterns. Thus the need for the “stop” pills. Such chemicals can help, and[…]” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “As important as the usefulness of the HMMWV vehicle is, it is never going to be an airborne favorite unless it is light and easily transportable. Thus it is a matter of great pride to AM General that with a weight of around 10,000 lb/4,535 kg, the HMMWV can be carried by a single UH- 60L Blackhawk helicopter. Additionally, an Army CH-47 Chinook can carry two of them, and a C-5 Galaxy heavy transport can carry up to fifteen, fully loaded for battle! As an interesting side note which also happens to be of great importance to the 82nd Airborne Division, nearly all models of the Hummer can be deployed by conventional cargo parachutes in order to give the 82nd some help in those “not so friendly” landing zones.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Other projects are quite simple, but no less vital. Laser Eye Protection is just one example. Eye injuries make up a large percentage of casualties on the modern battlefield, since the head is often the only part of the body exposed to direct fire. But with the increasing use of laser range finders and target designators, operating at high energy and wavelengths that are not eye-safe, the risk of blindness from enemy or friendly lasing is increasing. There has even been some concern about “eye-popper” laser weapons designed specifically to blind enemy soldiers, though this is quite illegal under international law. However, many of our potential enemies have little regard for such niceties, and there are indications that the British may have used some U.S.-built laser “dazzlers” against Argentine pilots during the 1982 Falklands War. Optical devices, such as binoculars and telescopic sights, which concentrate light, must be protected by special coatings and filters, but the infantryman’s fragile Mark I eyeball will also need protection. ” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “With the coming of the “New World Order,” national and USAF leaders have found a secure little niche in the USAF force structure for the Warthog community. Prior to Desert Storm, it had been planned that the A-10 would be replaced by a modified version of the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Equipped with an automated target-hand-off system and a pod-mounted version of the GAU-8, they were set to drive the “Hog” out of service in just a few years. Then came the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The USAF deployed a squadron of the CAS-equipped F-16s to Saudi Arabia, where they promptly fell flat on their collective faces.37 Reportedly because of software problems with their mission computers, the CAS F-16s had trouble delivering their weapons accurately on target. In particular, the pod-mounted 30mm guns could not hit their targets with any sort of accuracy. Meanwhile, the “low-tech” A-10s were killing targets by the score. As might be imagined, the F-16 CAS idea died a quick and righteous death, and the USAF decided to keep the Warthogs. Forever! Today, if you look at the planning charts of the[…]” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “The C-130 used an elegantly simple loading arrangement. The cargo deck was the same height as a truck bed. The lower surface of the upswept tail section was split, with the lightweight aft section retracting upward, and the strongly built forward section hinged downward to provide a cargo ramp. By lowering the ramp completely, a pair of 5-ton trucks could be driven right into the cargo compartment. So perfect was the concept behind the C-130’s rear ramp that it has become the standard method of designing aircraft cargo-loading ramps all over the world. These are some of the many things that Lockheed did to make the Hercules a “field” airplane, rather than one that needs a big base to keep going.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “From the start, the Hercules had an unusual career within the U.S. military. The first operational employment of the C-130 came in 1957, when President Eisenhower dispatched troops of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas. This federal effort to enforce court-ordered school desegregation against the opposition of a defiant state governor started the tradition of the C-130 being used in non-combatant/civil/relief efforts.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “On April 24th, 1980, the U.S. tried to rescue fifty-nine hostages taken when the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, was overrun in 1979. The plan relied on the Herk’s ability to land on short, unprepared runways. Flying low to evade Iranian radar, a force of C-130 tankers joined up with a small force of helicopters at “Desert One,” an isolated landing zone in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, technical problems with the helicopters caused the mission to be scrubbed before the assault on the embassy compound could be mounted. Then, while refueling on the ground during the extraction, an MH-53D helicopter collided with one of the C-130 tankers, igniting an uncontrollable fire. Eight Americans died and five more were injured, and the humiliation destroyed the Administration of President Carter.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “This scheme of tying everything together on a single digital data bus also has other advantages. The hundreds of analog control signals, each of which used to require an individual pair of copper wires on the C-130H, have been replaced by a couple of strands of data bus cable running the length of the aircraft. This eliminates miles of wiring, saves tons of weight, and greatly reduces the amount of hand labor needed to assemble the aircraft. Lockheed Martin estimates that the prototype J-model aircraft took something between 20 and 25 percent fewer man-hours to produce than the fully mature C-130H. This factor alone guarantees that the new Hercules will cost no more than the older H-model. It also has a humorous (and practical) side as well. The removal of all that wiring resulted in a lightening of over 600 lb/272 kg in the -J’s cockpit area alone, and this created a problem. There was no way to balance the new aircraft in flight without it carrying some kind of ballast in the nose, so the previously optional cockpit ballistic armor has now become standard, even on the commercial models!” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “During Desert Shield/Desert Storm, 46 KC-10s deployed to the Gulf along with 256 KC-135s.42 The CENTAF flyers used every drop of fuel that they carried. During the air war the tankers loitered at an economical cruising speed in “racetrack” orbits just inside Saudi airspace, at an altitude of about 25,000 feet/7,620 meters to refuel inbound and outbound strike packages. The 46 KC-10’s flew 15,434 sorties, for a total of almost 60,000 flight hours, delivering a total of 110 million gallons/416 million liters of jet fuel! The large number of good airfields in the theater, and the almost limitless supply of jet fuel provided by the gracious Saudi hosts, made the Gulf War an ideal environment for tanker operations.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Lastly, this is a tale of the finest, most capable airlift aircraft ever built. This is the story of the McDonnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster III. The C-17 embodies everything the U.S. Air Force and the aerospace industry has learned about airlift in the past fifty years. The cost of the Globemaster is fearsome. You could build a good regional hospital or a small university for the current (1996) $175 million-dollar unit price of just one C-17A.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Desert Storm had used up over half of the C-141 fleet’s remaining fatigue life in less than six months of operations, and airframes were already being flown to the boneyard in Arizona.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “ The wing is “wet,” with most of the aircraft’s 27, 108 gallons/102,614 liters stowed in self-sealing fuel tanks built into the thick wing structure. There are extensive fire detection and suppression provisions in the wing, including an onboard inert gas-generating system, which extracts nitrogen from engine bleed air and uses it to pressurize the empty space in the fuel tanks as fuel is consumed, to prevent the formation of potentially explosive vapors.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “What kind of unit has such power to deter the intentions of dictator or strongman? This is the question that we will attempt to answer as we get to know the 82nd Airborne Division and its supporting units in this chapter. In doing so, I hope that you will come to understand, as I do, why America needs at least one unit like the 82nd. To go, when necessary, where diplomacy and reason have failed and only a show of force will do. But perhaps even more importantly, to make those who oppose the will of the U.S. and our allies think twice before they act. Because in its own way, the 82nd Airborne Division is as much a deterrent force as a thermonuclear warhead on a ballistic missile or an H-bomb dropped from a stealth bomber.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “In 1996, 1st Brigade was commanded by Colonel Dave Petraeus, U.S.A. Known as “Devil-6” by his friends and on the communications nets, he actually is Dr. David Petraeus, Ph.D. This is because he also carries a doctorate in international relations (from Princeton) in addition to his other intellectual and military achievements.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “Handing us off to Sergeant Major Myers, Colonel Petraeus headed off to take advantage of an intelligence windfall that had arrived while we were eating. Petraeus is a big believer in patrolling and winning the counterintelligence battle against an opponent, and his efforts had just paid off. One of his patrols had overrun the command post of an OPFOR unit, capturing the entire command element with all of its valuable planning documents. So now Petraeus had the plans for the next twenty-four hours of operations by the Red force, and he was moving to take advantage of the opportunity.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks. “By now you may be wondering what the other two brigades of the 82nd are doing while this one brigade is on alert status (called DRB-1 by the 82nd leadership). Well, they are usually either recovering from having just been the DRB (called DRB-3 status), or getting ready to be the DRB (called DRB-2). This means that the entire 82nd Airborne Division is on a continuous eighteen-week cycle. A cycle that has been continuously run since the end of the Vietnam War, with the exception of the period the entire division spent deployed to Southwest Asia for Desert Shield and Desert Storm.” Excerpt From: Tom Clancy. “Airborne.” iBooks.