Editing 82nd Airborne Division (section)

===Post-Vietnam Operations===

From 1969 into the 1970s, the 82nd deployed paratroopers to [[South Korea]] and [[Vietnam]] on more than 180DBT (Days Bad Time) for exercises in potential future battlegrounds. The division received three alerts. One was for Black September 1970. Paratroopers were on their way to [[Amman, Jordan]] when the mission was aborted. In May 1971 they were used to help national guard and [[Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|Washington DC police]] to round up and arrest protestors.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/0/1971_may_day_protests.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120718010513/http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/0/1971_may_day_protests.htm |archive-date=18 July 2012 |title=1971 May Day Protests at AllExperts |publisher=Associatepublisher.com |date=3 May 1971 |access-date=13 June 2012}}</ref> Nine years later in August 1980, the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 505th Infantry was alerted and deployed to conduct civil disturbance duty at [[Fort Indiantown Gap]], [[Pennsylvania]], during the Cuban refugee internment. War in the Middle East in the fall of 1973 brought the 82nd to full alert. President [[Gerald Ford]] put the unit on high alert in case the administration decided to intervene in the [[Boston desegregation busing crisis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wilentz|first=Sean|title=The age of Reagan: a history, 1974-2008|publisher=[[Harper (publisher)|Harper]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0-06-074480-9|edition=1st|location=New York, NY|oclc=182779124}}</ref> In May 1978, the division was alerted to a possible drop into [[Zaire]]. In November 1979, the division was alerted for a possible operation to rescue the [[Iran hostage crisis|American hostages]] in [[Iran]]. The division formed the nucleus of the newly created [[United States Rapid Deployment Forces|Rapid Deployment Forces]] (RDF), a mobile force at a permanently high state of readiness.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}