“Operation Delawor” 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 Delawor” (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.

Min. 23.00 has some interesting air-to-air and activity with Forward Air Controller footage.

In 1964, the U.S. and Iranian military “learned how to work together as a combined joint team involved in a common enterprise”. About 50 years (and a captured stealth drone) later, they could be called to fight each other any time.

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