The first contingent of 450 American soldiers for the multinational peace-keeping force in the Sinai arrived there this morning. A second group is due later today.
The 806-man American contingent is being flown by El Al jumbo jet aircraft direct from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Ophira in southern Sinai. The El Al Israel national airline won the U.S. contract to fly in the Americans who are part of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army which forms the backbone of the American Rapid Deployment Force.
The American commander, Lieut. Col. William Garrison, said that although his men were part of the Rapid Deployment Force they now came under the international peacekeeping force and would not be called on to fulfill any purely American tactical task.
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