Screaming Eagles

After the 101st was established in the 1940s, its national headquarters moved several times before settling at Fort Campbell in 1956. Now every Army unit displaying the trademark 101st Screaming Eagle patch is stationed there.

Maj. Gen. William C. Lee met with new recruits of the Army’s just-formed 101st Airborne Division on Aug. 19, 1942, and pointed toward the future. "This division has no history," he said, "But it has a rendezvous with destiny."

Sixty-three years later, the world’s only air assault division now has a rich history, indeed. Its first mission was the D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944, and the triumphant battle with the Germans in the Belgian city of Bastogne a few months later. In its six years of combat in Vietnam, members of the 101st fought in 15 military campaigns. They fired the first shot in Operation Desert Shield in 1991, and the division’s 3rd Brigade and aviation elements were among the first units to be sent to Afghanistan in 2001.

It’s this sense of deep-rooted tradition and pride that today’s 101st soldiers took with them as they prepared to deploy to Iraq for the second time.

"One of the things we always try to do is impress upon soldiers in the division today that you are part of something that goes way back into history," says Louisville, Ky., native Capt. Jim Page, 35, the 101st’s historian. "You are a part of something much bigger and older than yourself. You become a part of the next generation of the division’s history."

They also are part of the community in Fort Campbell, Ky.—a major part of the community. When these "Screaming Eagles" come home to roost, they always come back to Fort Campbell, a base straddling the state line between Kentucky and Tennessee with the third largest military population in the entire U.S. Army.

Self-contained city

About 28,000 soldiers are assigned to the Fort Campbell post, which sprawls over 105,000 acres between Clarksville, Tenn., and Hopkinsville, Ky. (pop. 30,089). About 9,500 soldiers live there in barracks, with some 4,000 others in post housing. Another 14,500 live off-post. Additionally, about 4,000 civilian employees work at Fort Campbell, and surrounding communities are home to about 50,000 retired military personnel and their 75,000 family members.

After the 101st was established in the 1940s, its national headquarters moved several times before settling at Fort Campbell in 1956. Now every Army unit displaying the trademark 101st "Screaming Eagle" patch is stationed there.

About 20,000 of the soldiers at Fort Campbell are assigned to the 101st. The other 8,000 at the post are part of various other military units, including Special Operations forces.

A self-contained city unto itself, Fort Campbell has seven schools, several churches, its own water-treatment facility, banks, hospital, museum, swimming pools, movie theater, post office and a Burger King. It’s not surprising that many of the soldiers there say it feels like a hometown.

"Virtually everything you could need or want is on the post," says Pfc. Kevin Stinson, 33, a radio and satellite specialist from Decherd, Tenn. (pop. 2,246). "I feel more at home here than when I go home to Decherd. Everyone that lives in the area has either been in the service, has a spouse in the service or is retired, so they know where you are coming from."

Returning to battle

On an unusually warm fall afternoon, the post appears calm. The middle school soccer field, which offers a breathtaking view of a white water tower and lush trees, is quiet and still. But the quiet belies the frenzy of activity going on elsewhere within the post’s heavily guarded gates. Many of the Screaming Eagles are leaving for Iraq within hours or days, so they’re making last-minute professional and personal preparations.

"Frankly, you don’t have a lot of time to think about what will happen when you get over there because there’s a lot of work to do," Page says. "Soldiers have got gear they’ve got to get packed. They’ve got to get shots and glasses made and make sure they know how to accurately shoot their rifle. They have got to fit their chemical masks."

They’ve also got to decide who’ll look after their children in their absence, make arrangements for paying their bills and sew up various other loose ends. "You can reflect once you get over there," Page says. "They are just trying to get there."

Most of the 101st’s famed helicopters, the Screaming Eagles’ primary means of transportation for combat missions, already have been sent to the Middle East; most of their other equipment has gone over as well.

In 2003, the entire division was deployed to Iraq as one unit, and sent back home together a year later. This time the division’s deployment will be staggered in groups over a few months, with a similarly staggered re-deployment to follow once the assignment is completed. The deployment began last August, and by the time it’s completed at year’s end, 20,000 101st soldiers will be in Iraq.

For many soldiers, returning to battle is all in a day’s work, even as a grim statistic hovers overhead—that more than six dozen of their fellow 101st members have lost their lives in Iraq (the total was 73 as of Nov. 1).

"You train, you prepare and then you leave," says Staff Sgt. David Stadmire, 32, a cook from Mobile, Ala. "We are plugged in and ready to go."

Veteran soldiers who have returned from service in Iraq counsel younger soldiers on what to expect during their first time. "We try to ease their minds and tell them it’s not as bad as it was before, when we were there the first time," says Sgt. Phaetra Finley, 24, from Baton Rouge, La.

Community support

For many, Fort Campbell is the favorite place they’ve ever been stationed, which is why so many of them plan to retire there, such as Staff Sgt. Thomasine Williams, 36, a native of Ivanhoe, N.C. (pop. 311). Her husband also is in the 101st and the couple has a 2-year-old son, Marcus. "There’s a lot of unity," Williams says. "Sometimes when you are stateside, you don’t have a lot of it. But here, I can say that you do. You usually tend to have it more overseas; you have to, because you are the only Americans. But we have that here, and it’s a good change."

That bonding doesn’t stop at the post’s gates. "Hopkinsville and Clarksville support the fort," says Mike DeMayo, who retired from the Pentagon six years ago after serving at Fort Campbell and now lives in Burke, Va. (pop. 57,737). "It’s a very folksy, warm relationship that has always existed between this division, the soldiers and the local communities."

Soldiers say they appreciate the discounts many area retailers offer them, but perhaps more important is the encouragement they hear from strangers on a daily basis.

"Every time I go to a store off-post and I have my uniform on, they acknowledge me, ‘Thank you for being in the service,’" Finley says. "It makes me feel good and makes me want to do what I do even more. It makes me think that what I’m doing makes a difference to these people."

Many businesses, such as Clarksville’s Briar & Bean smoke shop, send care packages overseas. This year’s shipment will include coffee and other inventory items. "If I can do anything for them, I will," store manager Henry Bailey says.

It’s this support, at Fort Campbell and in the surrounding communities, that the soldiers take with them as they leave their families behind and put their lives at risk because their country has called them to do so.

"Every unit has its own little part of history that we came into," Stadmire says. "Yes, the history is there, but we’re making our own history each and every day that we get up and put on a uniform.

"We are making our own legacy now for 20 to 30 years from now, when we can say to soldiers that aren’t even born yet, ‘I was a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.’"

Visit www.campbell.army.mil for more information on Fort Campbell and the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

Beverly Keel is a contributing editor for American Profile.

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