Changes to bring aviation element into 82nd Airborne Division

<p>Aviation units that have supported soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps will become part of combat divisions, including the Fort Bragg-based 82nd Airborne Division, say Army commanders.</p><p>The change means the 18th Aviation Regiment will be disbanded and the Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters and personnel in the regiment assigned as a fourth brigades to three divisions in the 18th Airborne Corps. The fourth division, the 101st Airborne Division, already has helicopters assigned to it.</p><p>For the 82nd Airborne, the change means an additional 2,000 soldiers _ pushing the division strength to about 17,000 _ by 2006.</p><p>The changes were outlined in an interview with Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, published Thursday by The Fayetteville Observer. The 82nd and the other two combat divisions in the 18th Airborne Corps will be known as a "unit of execution" under the change.</p><p>A division "will have a lot more mobility once it's on the ground," Schoomaker said.</p><p>Schoomaker said the change is part of the Army's overall transformation plan calling for growth from 33 combat brigades _ "units of action" under the new terminology _ to 45 or 48. The change will provide more fighting forces to rotate overseas and decrease reliance on reserves for combat units.</p><p>Col. Karl Horst, the 18th Airborne Corps chief of staff, said the change means the 229th Aviation Regiment, known as the Flying Tigers, and the 18th Aviation Brigade will go out of business.</p><p>Parts of the aviation unit will go this fall to Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart, Ga., and return to the Georgia post after Iraq and other parts of the unit will be assigned to the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y.</p><p>The 18th Airborne Corps, which has its headquarters at Fort Bragg, is at the center of the Army's initial transformation efforts. At the same time, the 18th is sending divisions and brigades to Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the combat divisions, the corps includes several support brigades.</p><p>"Every combat formation in the 18th Airborne Corps has been gone once or twice," Horst said. "Those that have been gone once are going again."</p><p>In addition to the aviation brigade changes, a signal brigade based at Bragg will parceled among the combat divisions.</p><p>"That is unprecedented on how we have done business in the Army," Horst said. "We have long been big, slow, lethargic, bureaucratic ... Now we are doing it on the fly."</p>

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