TALLULAH, La. (VDN) — The 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with support by the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, North Carolina made a brief stop at the Tallulah-Vicksburg Airport this week as part of an expansive military training exercise.
According to Brigadier General Travis McIntosh, Deputy Commander(Support) 101st Airborne Division(Air Assault), the training campaign is a simulation of archipelago island-hopping culminating into a multi week combat exercise at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, where the 101st will engage with “enemy combatants” played by troops at Ft. Johnson.
As part of the training exercise, several locations along the 500 mile route including the Tallulah-Vicksburg Airport, operated as logistical and tactical staging locations for refueling, rearming, and resupplying for the 40 to 50 helicopters used for the mission.
“What is unique about this mission is we have elements of the 101st Airborne Division’s helicopter aviation brigade. We also are working with the 82nd Airborne Division and their aviation brigade and the Indiana Army National Guard with a handful of their Chinooks,” McIntosh said. “So we are really pulling together quite a team to support this while our aviation brigade is mostly deployed.”…