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3,000 101st Airborne Division Paratroopers Jump into Iran –

April 1964
November 13, 2023
Previously Published on Scribd in 2012

After a 12,000 mile flight from Fort Campbell, 3,000 paratroopers from the 1 st Brigade
(Separate)(Airborne), 101st Airborne Division, principally the 1st and 2nd Battalions 327th
Infantry , 2nd Battalion 502nd Infantry, and 2nd Battalion 320th Field Artillery Battalion with
other assigned and attached units parachuted from forty C-130 aircraft onto Dohuk Drop
Zone in northwest Iran nine miles north of Dezful city in Khuzestan Province. The 481st
Tactical Fighter Squadron provided air cover. The flight, with refueling stops, took 17
hours.

Could the US Army do this today? You read you decide. In 1964 the US Army had
three Airborne Divisions and four Separate Parachute Brigades when the Cuban missile
Crisis erupted in 1962. About 90,000 paratroopers and 20,000 Marines were marshalled
to invade Cuba and remove the Soviet missiles. The US Navy interdicted Soviet ships
enroute with more missiles. The Soviets turned around. The Soviets agreed to remove
the missiles. The operation described below was one of many routine exercises; this
one within a few miles of the Soviet border with Iran. Iran, then a Kingdom, allied with
the United States.

Paratroopers followed the preceding heavy drop and aircraft extraction of heavy
equipment including artillery, trucks, water purification idolators, ammunition, rations,
engineering equipment such as D6 dozers, Davy Crocket nuclear weapon delivery
vehicles (no nuclear ammunition), anti-tank vehicles with 106mm recoilless rifles, and
helicopters delivered by heavy drop parachute, aircraft extraction platform, or rough
terrain landing using C-130 aircraft. A second parachute drop of two companies of 101 st
Airborne Division infantry and two companies of the Iranian Royal Guards followed
elsewhere two days later. Delawar lasted 21 days.

An additional 500 airmen and 36 fighter aircraft from the 481st Tactical Fighter Squadron
and naval and Marine Corps units supported the 101st Airborne Division operation.

Operation Delawar (sometimes Delaware or Delawor) from the Persian Farsi word for
brave or courageous and pronounced “delavair” in Persian-Farsi was a demonstration
of American military capability intended to convince the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
that America was an ally capable of protecting Iran and its oil fields. The Shah most
likely also considered the combined British-Soviet invasion of Iran during WW II to
protect (and use) oil fields and prevent collaboration with Germany. Or as that event
was justified.

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The 327th and 502nd Infantry moved from the drop zone to blocking positions in the
Zargos Mountains bordering Azerbaijan (then a constituent republic of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics) to block the historical Soviet route of advance into Iran
(Persia). It was April, 1964, US-Soviet tensions were high. The Soviets were pissed.
Options available to the Shah were limited.

The reception by local people living in an area reminiscent of the 15th century was
welcoming. That was reassuring considering that the Soviets radio broadcast non stop
that paratroopers were “thugs, criminals, child killers, and rapists from Chicago.” Some
of us were from Chicago – that part was correct.

Another objective was to test the February 1964 Army transition of the 101 st Airborne
Division from the post WW II style pentomic division (five battle groups, each with four
infantry companies and a mortar battery; a battle group commanded by a colonel) to a
divisional organization called ROAD (Reorganization Objective Army Divisions) based
on three brigades, nine infantry battalions, three artillery battalions, a cavalry squadron,
and various support units. Importantly any battalion of any type could now be assigned
or attached to any brigade in any division as needed. A brigade is usually commanded
by a colonel.

Many 101st veterans writing now of their remembrance of Delawar explain that they
were assigned to the 327th Airborne Battle Group when parachuted into Iran. They are
not correct. The 327th transitioned to separate battalions assigned to the 1st Brigade
(Separate)(Airborne) in February 1964 several months before Delawar. It was the first
ROAD transition in the 101st Airborne Division. In their defense, many paratroopers,
most of whom remained in their former companies and platoons in a 327th something or
other during the transition, gave not one wit about ROAD brigades v. pentomic battle
groups. They daily focused on their platoon. This was the third reorganization in as
many years. Delawar followed deployment to marshaling airfields in Florida preparatory
for a parachute jump into Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962. Less
than a year after Delawar the brigade deployed to Vietnam.

The 327th went on alert on April 4th 1964 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, loaded aircraft at
the Army Airfield on April 7th (C-124. C-130, C-133 and Civil Air Reserve Fleet (CARF)
commercial airliners). KC-135 tankers provided inflight refueling when required. The
brigade flew to Goose Bay, Canada, for refueling, then onto Torjeon Air Force Base
near Madrid Spain to refuel again, with troops remaining aboard, and then to Incerlick
Air Base near Adana Turkey on April 10th to marshal and trans load troops and
equipment to C-130 paratrooper transport aircraft rigged for parachute assault.

The first jump at morning twilight on April 13th into a raging sand storm occurred after a
five hour rigged-to-jump flight from Turkey. Intelligence reported the drop zone recently
plowed. Intelligence was not intelligent; it was filled with rocks and hard as concrete.
The drop zone was cleared of paratroopers in less than two hours. The second joint (US
and Iran) battalion jump on the 15th was delayed one day when the sand storm
worsened. There were less than twenty injuries requiring medical attention. The only

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death recalled was of an Iranian soldier who along
with three 101st paratroopers sat beneath the only tree
visible for miles. A green asp (aspis venomous snake
of uncertain specific kind) dropped from the tree onto
his neck, bit him, and he died within minutes.

The brigade’s combat force included three Battalion

Mortar (4.2 inch) and Davy Crockett platoons
(BMDCP) with each of the three infantry battalions.
The Davy Crockett (see photo) is a tactical nuclear
recoilless M28/M29 gun, weighing 50 pounds,
mounted on an M38 ¼-ton truck. Each gun with a
three man crew. Each platoon had three M28/M29
guns. The gun fired a M388 tactical nuclear projectile
to a range of 1 to 2.5 miles. The M388 round was a
sub kiloton fission device, a W34 warhead, with a
yield of 10 to 20 tons TNT. The only user adjustment
was burst height. The chief purpose of the weapon in this operation was to saturate an
area, such as a mountain pass like those separating Iran from the USSR with massive
and impassable radiation. Generally, the brightest 2nd lieutenants in the brigade
(determined by intelligence testing) were assigned as BMDCP platoon leaders which
begs to define an oxymoron. This may have been the origin of the US Army equivalent
of a multiperson suicide vehicle. Reportedly one Davy Crockett could provide the
equivalent of 40 salvos of division artillery with one round.

Thanks to former 327th paratrooper Les Montgomery for posting a copy of a news
clipping.
http://oldsite.327infantry.org/first/stories_poems/iran_jump_article.htm

A US Army motion picture, part of “The Big Picture” television series (27 minutes),
describing Operation Delawor [sic] may be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=l2q6WxJEjFg
There are several factual inaccuracies in the film and it is classified as domestic
propaganda but remains interesting.

This is a little known military operation buried between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the
Vietnam War. See photos from Life magazine.
http://www.film.queensu.ca/cj3b/Military/OperationDelaware.html

An operation of this magnitude in the same time frame would be a significant

accomplishment even today.

(Watchdog served in the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry (Airborne) 1962 to 1964.)(Later in
the 5th and 10th Special Forces Groups, 173rd Airborne Brigade, and 82nd Airborne
Division. END

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