Air Transportation: April 16, 2003

Archives

On March 26th, 2003, northern Iraq was seen as a backwater in the war, with nothing but a few hundred Special Forces and CIA people to support the Kurd militias. But then a thousand paratroopers and air force commandos were dropped on an airfields in Kurdish territory. Within a few days, C-17s delivered 400 vehicles (including tanks and M-2 Bradleys), 2,000 troops and 3,000 tons of equipment. Normally, the air force doesn't like to use their transports for this sort of movement. But the CNETCOM commander has the authority to order it. Whatever objections the air force commanders may have had were swept away by the authority of the chain of command. This ground force provided the heft that allowed the lightly armed Kurds to move forward. Within two weeks, most of northern Iraq was overrun.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close