‘Operation Delawar’: When An Entire U.S. Army Airborne Brigade, Two F-100 Squadrons Deployed To Iran

David Cenciotti
2 Min Read
Two F-100s take off during Op. Delawar.

In 1964, the U.S. and Iranian military “learned how to work together as a combined joint team involved in a common enterprise”.

“Operation Delawar” is an episode of The Big Picture, a series of films produced by the U.S. Army and ran on the ABC-TV from 1951 to 1964. The television program featured exercises, battles, weaponry and famous soldiers’ biographies.

Filmed in April 1964, “Operation Delawar” (from a Persian word meaning “courageous”) recounts of a 3-day exercise during which an entire U.S. Army airborne brigate was airlifted to Iran with all its heavy equipment to train with the local Imperial Armed Forces.

Along with 2,300 troops and 550 tons of material of the 101st Airborne Division from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, even two F-100 squadrons from Cannon AFB, were deployed to Iran with the support of KC-135 tankers and C-130 cargos.

The exercise featured a combined air drop, an amphibious attack on Kharg Island involving also a U.S. dock landing ship, two destroyers and eight helicopters, and Close Air Support by the F-100s operating from Vahdati AFB with air cover provided by the Imperial Iranian Air Force F-86s.

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You can watch the entire episode here.

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