SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division are expected to deploy in the coming days to the Middle East. There's no detail on where they are headed or what their role will be in the Iran war. In past conflicts, though, these airborne soldiers were tasked with seizing airfields or terrain to prepare for follow-on forces. So there is strong speculation they could be used to seize a key island off Iran or take Iranian territory on the mainland. To talk more about all of this, we are joined by NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Hi, Tom.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: All right, so we know that they're headed to the Middle East. I just laid out what they're usually doing. What are you hearing?
BOWMAN: Well, it looks like elements of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, known as the Devil Brigade, will likely head out in the coming days. And I'm hearing they'll first go to Kuwait. And then the big question is, OK, where do they go from there? And again, everyone's talking about this Kharg Island. That's Iran's main oil facility. It's some 15 or so miles off the mainland. It has an airport, so the 82nd troops could grab that airfield and maybe wait for other troops to come. Of course, a Marine unit with some 2,200 Marines, including 800 infantry, will soon arrive in the area. And there's talk, they, too, could be headed for Kharg Island. There are also some locations along the Iranian mainland, including the port of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, and a couple of other sites. The Marines have been studying how to take all these locations for - get this, Scott - the past 40 years.
DETROW: And now we have thousands of soldiers on their way, and we're talking about either the 82nd or the Marines or both maybe taking Kharg Island or some of these ports. What happens after that?
BOWMAN: That's key question. Will more follow-on forces come in? The idea seems to be if you take, let's say, Kharg Island, it would shut off the Iranian oil, further cripple its economy and put more pressure on the regime to negotiate. You could also take even more territory from Iran on the mainland, setting up the option of providing naval escorts for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Of course, now the Iranians have closed the strait to almost all shipping. That effort for the U.S. to take control of the strait would require a massive effort of aircraft, minesweepers and also destroyers to do that job. One retired admiral I spoke with, Scott, Rear Admiral Jamie Foggo (ph), said just setting up that effort would take about a month or so.
DETROW: Is there any world where all of these troop movements are just a way of putting more pressure on Iran to negotiate?
BOWMAN: Well, that could be a sense of this, but, you know, obviously, there's more pressure with bombing - now some 15,000 targets in Iran. You're (ph) also killed its leader, and the regime is still in place. And it was not Iran, but Trump, who suggested a negotiation. The administration has put forward a 15-point plan to end the war. And according to The Washington Post, it includes a call for Iran to turn over its enriched uranium, end its enrichment program, limit its ballistic missile development and cease its support for proxy forces in the region. All of that, the U.S. would provide sanctions relief if that came to pass. A lot of these points have been brought up in the past. The Iranians, at first, seemed to reject it. And now Iran is weighing the proposal and will provide an answer to Pakistan, which is serving as an intermediary.
DETROW: Real quick - when's the last time the 82nd Airborne made a combat jump?
BOWMAN: Oh, it's been a long time. A small number, about 70 of them, jumped into Nimruz Province in Afghanistan back in 2003, providing security for an operation by follow-on troops there, the Army Rangers.
DETROW: That's NPR's Tom Bowman. Thank you.
BOWMAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
