FORT BRAGG, N.C. — For seven years, including four tours in Iraq, Maj. Andy Ulrich has served with the Army's storied 82nd Airborne Division, trained to parachute into battle at a moment's notice and fight for days without reinforcements.

But Ulrich has never carried out such a mission when it counted.

During both Persian Gulf wars, peacekeeping operations in Kosovo, and in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the 82nd joined the fight like any other regular Army grunts — walking off a transport plane.

The 82nd hasn't parachuted into combat since 1989, when it landed in Panama to help oust dictator Manuel Noriega. The last time Ulrich and his battalion jumped out of an airplane, it was over North Carolina after they returned from four months on duty in Iraq.

"We're trying to get everybody in the battalion jumped before we go on leave," Ulrich, 36, of Broomfield, Colo., said as he and other members of the 82nd prepared for a recent refresher jump. "Just because there are wars going on in two countries doesn't mean a problem won't pop up somewhere else."

In World War II, the 82nd Airborne, nicknamed the "All-Americans," jumped into Italy, flew on gliders into Normandy and parachuted into Holland. Today it serves as the nation's ready-reaction force, with one brigade of paratroopers always available to jump into a fight.

Although there has been little call for paratrooping operations in recent years, the Army is boosting its capabilities in that area. It's in the process of adding a fourth "brigade combat team" to the Fort Bragg-based 82nd, raising the division's strength to more than 18,000 soldiers.

Also planned is a new airborne brigade to be based in Alaska, joining a brigade of paratroopers in Italy — which jumped into Kurdish-controlled Iraq in 2003 — that is separate from the 82nd.

During the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which 52 soldiers from the 82nd have died, at least one of the division's combat brigades — made up of about 3,500 paratroopers — has remained on alert at Fort Bragg, ready for a rapid deployment.

"The reason we train so arduously is you never know," said Lt. Col. Chris Gibson, a battalion commander in the 82nd's 2nd Brigade. "When the president decides he's going to use military force, he doesn't turn to the 82nd and say, 'Are you ready?' He expects us to be ready."

At the start of the current war in Iraq, the 82nd was scheduled to jump into Baghdad International Airport, but the plan was shelved and the paratroopers were put to work guarding supply lines.

Once back from tours overseas, the 82nd's paratroopers are required to undergo a round of refresher jumps.

Last month, 3,500 paratroopers leapt from aircraft flying 800 feet above Fort Bragg to practice parachuting onto an enemy airfield and securing it so more U.S. forces could land in airplanes. In a typical noncombat year, each of the division's soldiers is required to jump at least four times.

"I think there still is a real need today for a forcible entry capability," said Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, the 82nd's commander, who makes it a habit to jump as often as possible.

"You can do forcible entry ship to shore, over the horizon, with a lot of helicopters — if ships are in the right place," Caldwell said. "We can insert a force of several thousand very quickly on the ground."

Paratroopers would be an important resource if the Army needs soldiers in a nation that lacks good ports or airstrips, said Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute.

"I think the Army's goal for the future is not to be a particular type of force, but to be many types of forces — and parachuting is part of the mix," Thompson said.

Plus, there's the added benefit of shock and awe that only a paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne can deliver, said Sgt. Brett McElfresh, 21, of Canton, Ohio.

"If you were sitting there and you weren't doing anything except for holding your guard position and the next minute you had a sky full of paratroopers, I don't know about you, but I would reconsider what I was up to."