A look at U.S. and British ground units, their commanders and the role they are playing in Gulf War II






101st Airborne Division

173rd Airborne Brigade

1st Marine Expeditionary

3rd Infantry Division

82nd Airborne Division

Combined British Forces


BENJAMIN LOWY/CORBIS FOR TIME; (inset) JEAN-MARC BOUJU/AP
101ST   A I R B O R N E   D I V I S I O N

ITS MISSION:
The 17,000 troops of the storied "Screaming Eagles" are scheduled to use their massive Apache helicopter firepower to help destroy the Republican Guard units protecting Baghdad. They're helping to protect the 3rd Infantry Division as both units move across the southern Iraqi desert bound for the capital. Units from the division may get orders to seize biological- or chemical-weapons stockpiles.

THE COMMANDER: Major General David H. Petraeus, 50, a 1974 West Point grad who holds a doctorate in international relations from Princeton, has led the 101st since July. The son of a World War II Liberty-Ship captain, he has also led troops in Bosnia and Haiti. The great unknown in this war, he says, is the Iraqi will to fight.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Defense; U.S. Army
From the March 31, 2003 issue of TIME Magazine; Posted Sunday, MARCH 23, 2003

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