> Certainly, there were major logistical challenges to moving materials on an island a thousand miles away from the U.S. mainland. Yet such obstacles did not pr

> Certainly, there were major logistical challenges to moving materials on an island a thousand miles away from the U.S. mainland. Yet such obstacles did not prevent the deployment of the 82nd Airborne Division across the 7,000 miles from Fort Bragg, South Carolina to Saudi Arabia in August 1990... Ok, first off, Fort Bragg is in North Carolina. Secondly, the 82nd Airborne Division's job was/is to be ready to deploy halfway around the world on a moments (OK, two hours) notice and I can say that we weren't ready to do much of anything once we landed in Saudi Arabia other than be "speed bumps in the sand". Also, as was seen in Haiti (I believe), it isn't such a good idea to send combat troops off on missions like this since they are war makers and not peace keepers -- bad things happen because up to that point you are trained to fight the enemy and not much else. So, yeah, they could've had the 82nd on the ground pretty quickly but doing so wouldn't have been a very good idea unless the Cubans were invading or something.