FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A color casing ceremony Tuesday at Fort Campbell Army post officially marked the historic 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault’s) deployment to Europe. The color casing ceremony is a traditional Army ceremony that marks the deployment of a unit to a new theater of operation. Wednesday evening, hundreds more soldiers with the 101st Airborne will leave Fort Campbell and deploy to where the 101st Airborne left its mark on U.S. military history—Europe.
During Tuesday’s ceremony, Staff Sgt. Joel Reyes, voice of the Eagle, said, “The colors under which a unit fights represent the history, honor, and esprit de corps of the soldiers of that unit.”
The casing of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) colors symbolize their departure from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
“Their colors will remain cased until the re-deployment [from] the European Command Theater of Operations,” Reyes said.
Nicknamed the “Screaming Eagles,” the first wave of soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) deployed to Europe in late June.
After hundreds more deploy from the Army post near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, more 101st Airborne soldiers will follow. Approximately 4,700 soldiers from the 101st Airborne will deploy to various locations across Europe, according to a Fort Campbell press release.
The 101st Airborne has been deployed to Europe “to assure NATO allies and deter Russian aggression in the region,” the press release also stated.
The 101st Airborne is the only air assault division of the U.S. Army, and it’s the first time the division has deployed to Europe in nearly 80 years, since WWII.
The “Screaming Eagles” are renowned for being the first allied soldiers to set foot on occupied France, and one of the units that spearheaded the allied assault on D-Day.
During the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, they parachuted into Normandy prior to the amphibious landing.
Now, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) is back in Europe on a different mission, but they are still making history.