HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 30 Offered January 9, 2008 Prefiled December 17, 2007 Commending the 82nd Airborne Division on the occasion of its 90th anniversary. ---------- Patron-- Ware, R.L. ----------

WHEREAS, the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army, whose members wear an AA shoulder patch for the nickname "All-Americans" because they hail from all 50 states, is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2008; and

WHEREAS, the 82nd Airborne Division, an elite airborne infantry division, was constituted in the National Army as the 82nd Division on March 5, 1917, and was organized on March 25, 1917, based at Camp Gordon, Georgia; and

WHEREAS, the 82nd Airborne Division suffered more than 7,000 casualties in three months in 1918 during World War I; and

WHEREAS, the revered 82nd Airborne Division was celebrated in the famous 1940 movie Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper, which depicted the valiant feats of  Sergeant Alvin York, who won one of the few Medals of Honor awarded to enlisted men at the time and became the most famous soldier of World War I; and

WHEREAS, in World War II, the 82nd Airborne Division conducted four combat jump missions and glider assaults, fought in the Battle of the Bulge all the way into Germany, accepting the surrender of the German Army, and was declared "America's Guard of Honor" by General George Patton when the division was assigned to Berlin after the war; and

WHEREAS, the 82nd Airborne Division has served honorably at home and abroad, during the Cold War with Russia, serving as the nation's rapid reaction force; during the Korean War, supplying most of the paratroopers for the 187th Regimental Combat Team; in 1965, quelling civil war in the Dominican Republic; during the Vietnam conflict, supplying 3,500 paratroopers to assist in the Tet Offensive; and during Operation Desert Storm, defining President George H. W. Bush's "line in the sand" in defense of Kuwait; and

WHEREAS, the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division have served in the Congo, Grenada, Haiti, Panama, the Sinai, the Balkans, and in the United States after devastating hurricanes in Florida and New Orleans; and

WHEREAS, the heroes of the 82nd Airborne Division have long served the United States and its citizens with great honor and courage; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly commend and congratulate the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army on the occasion of its 90th anniversary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Major General David Rodriguez, the division commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, as an expression of the General Assembly’s gratitude for its longtime service to the country and the citizens of the Commonwealth.