1:16 Scale Alpine Miniatures "Screaming Eagles" resin kit full build and painting
Established in 1918, the 101st Division was first constituted as an airborne unit in 1942.[9] During World War II, it gained renown for its role in Operation Overlord (the D-Day landings and airborne landings on 6 June 1944, in Normandy, France); Operation Market Garden; the liberation of the Netherlands; and its action during the Battle of the Bulge around the city of Bastogne, Belgium. During the Vietnam War, the 101st Airborne Division fought in several major campaigns and battles, including the Battle of Hamburger Hill in May 1969. In mid-1968, the division was reorganized and redesignated as an airmobile division; in 1974, as an air assault division. The titles reflect the division's shift from airplanes to helicopters as the primary method of delivering troops into combat.
At the height of the War on Terror, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) had over 200 aircraft.[citation needed] This shrank to just over 100 aircraft with the inactivation of the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade in 2015,[3] making it no different in configuration from the Army's other light infantry divisions. In 2019, media reports suggested the Army was working to restore the 101st's aviation capabilities so it can return to lifting an entire brigade in one air assault operation.[3]
The 101st's headquarters is at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Many current members of the 101st are graduates of the U.S. Army Air Assault School, which is co-located with the division. The school is known as one of the Army's most difficult courses; only about half of those who begin it graduate.[10]
The Screaming Eagles was referred to as "the tip of the spear" by former U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates,[11] and the most potent and tactically mobile of the U.S. Army's divisions by General Edward C. Meyer, then Chief of Staff of the Army.[12]