Operation Varsity a veteran division; it had taken part in Operation Overlord, the assault on Normandy in June the previous year. However, the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, under Major General William Miley, had been activated only in April 1943 and had arrived in Britain in August 1944, too late to participate in Operation Overlord. The division did not participate in Operation Market Garden. It did, however, participate in the Ardennes campaign but had yet to take part in a combat drop. The U.S. 13th Airborne Division, under Major General Eldridge Chapman, had been activated in August 1943 and was transferred to France
Operation Airborne Dragon Operation Airborne Dragon Operation Airborne Dragon was a part of Operation Northern Delay in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. On 7 April 2003, Task Force 1-63 landed 5 M1A1 tanks, 5 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and a battalion command post with satellite communications at Bashur Airfield in northern Iraq. Much of the Iraqi military capitulated 3 days later. The US forces were mostly made up of the 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, a subordinate unit of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. On 26 March 2003 the US Airforce flew from Aviano AB, Italy to Bashur Airbase in Northern