When civil strife broke out in the Dominican Republic in April 1965,the United States decided to dispatch troops to protect American livesand to prevent a possible Castro-type takeover by Communist elements. Marineswere landed on 28 April from ships offshore and two battalions of the 82dAirborne Division and their supporting forces were ordered to move withminimum essential equipment from Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, toRamey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico, on the 29th of April.

POWER PACK I, as the 3d Brigade, 82d Airborne Division, was designatedfor the move, contained 2,253 men. Approximately 67 hours after it wasalerted, lead elements of POWER PACK I became airborne. Employing 111 heavydrop aircraft and 33 personnel carrying aircraft, the 3d Brigade headedfor Puerto Rico. While enroute, however, Washington political and militaryleaders changed the destination of the force to San Isidro Airfield, DominicanRepublic and ordered the 3d Brigade to airland instead of airdrop. Thischange caused some immediate problems since ground materiel handling equipmentwas not available at San Isidro to unload heavy drop loads and the equipmenthad to be unloaded manually. In addition San Isidro soon became saturatedand only the 33 personnel carrying and 46 of the heavy drop aircraft wereable to land on the 29th. This development separated the troops from muchof their equipment at a critical moment. Fortunately no opposition to thelandings arose and the missing equipment which had been landed at PuertoRico was flow in to San Isidro the following day.

POWER PACK II, the 2d Brigade (-) of the 82d Airborne Division, wasalerted on 28 April and ordered to move to the Dominican Republic on1 May. The force contained two airborne battalions and supporting elementswith a total of 2,276 men. Using the same planes as the 3d Brigade on ashuttle basis as they became available, the POWER PACK II force also arrivedin the Dominican Republic approximately 72 hours after it was alerted.

The third echelon of the 82d Airborne Division, POWER PACK III, containedthe remainder of the 2d Brigade, consisting of two airborne battalionsand support forces, and elements of the 5th Logistical Command to providelogistical backup; it totalled 3,302 men and officers. POWER PACK III wasshuttled in between the afternoon of 2 May and the morning of 3 May.

With the bulk of six airborne battalions concentrated in the vicinityof San Isidro Airfield located east of the capital city of Santo Domingo,the Army units moved west to link up with the Marine forces that had alreadyestablished a safety zone in the city itself. A junction between the Armyand Marine forces took place on the morning of 3 May and a perimeter wasset up.

POWER PACK IV, the fourth echelon of the 82d, consisted of the 1st Brigadewith three airborne battalions and support forces with a total of 3,000men an officers. It began to deploy from the United States on the shuttlingaircraft on 3 May and completed its move to the Dominican Republic thefollowing morning.

Thus, in the five day period between 29 April and 4 May, over 10,500men of the 82d Division and supporting elements were airlifted into theDominican Republic. Additional Army units with a strength of about3,000 men including the remainder of the 82d Airborne Division, SpecialForces troops, psychological warfare units, signal and transportation elements,arrived in the Dominican Republic prior to 9 May. Together with over 4,000Marines and over 1,000 Air Force personnel, the U.S. Forces in the DominicanRepublic established firm control of the corridor between the San IsidroAirfield and of the safety zone in Santo Domingo.