1st Cavalry Division
"First Team"
Upon its return to the United States, the 1st
Cavalry Division became the largest division in the Army, with the reactivation
of its 3rd "Greywolf" Battle Team May 21 1991. Included in this battle team was
the 3rd Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment; 1st and 3rd Battalions, 67th Armor,
1st Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment; and the 502nd (redesignated 215th)
Forward Support Battalion.
October of 1992 saw the activation of the Engineer Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. Through the Army's "Engineer Restructuring Initiative," the nucleus of the brigade was formed around the division's historic 8th Engineer Battalion. The 20th Engineer Battalion was brought from Fort Campbell, Kentucky to join the brigade and the 91st Engineer Battalion was activated to complete it. In November 1992, the unit designations for the battalions remaining from the former "Tiger" Brigade of the 2nd Armored Division were returned to them prior to their reactivation at Fort Hood on December 2, 1992. This action was done to realign the historical designations of units to their parent divisions.
On November 29, the Cav in turn regained the titles of its historical units: 3-41 Infantry was redesignated 1-9 Cavalry, 1-67 Armor became 3-8 Cavalry, and 1-3 Field Artillery took the title 2-82 Field Artillery. On December 16, 1992, other 1st Cavalry Division units redesignated to accomplish the realignments for historical purposes. These changes included: 1-32 Armor redesignating as 2-12 Cavalry, 3-32 Armor to 1-12 Cavalry, and Battery A, 333 Field Artillery to Battery B, 26th Field Artillery. In August of 1993, the reflagging actions were completed when the 2nd Armored Division's 4th Battalion, 6th Infantry was reflagged the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, which was assigned to the First Team's 3rd Greywolf Brigade.
Following its reorganization, the division
became the Army's largest division and only armored contingency force, ready to
deploy anywhere in the world on a moment's notice. Since then, elements of the
First Team have returned to Kuwait no less than three times -- as part of a
ten-year training agreement between the U.S. and Kuwait and also in a crisis
situation when Iraq infringed on Kuwaiti border rules.
Meanwhile, the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California remains a mainstay of training for the division which deploys brigades there three times a year. Here they have 1,000 square miles for maneuver training against the best trained opposing force in the world.
Division teaming began in 1998 as a pilot program, pairing the 49th with the 1st Cavalry Division headquartered at Fort Hood, Texas, and California's 40th Mechanized Division with the Army's 4th Mechanized Division, also headquartered at Fort Hood. This original division teaming was announced at the 1998 National Guard Association conference by then Army Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis J. Reimer. It was part of a program to integrate the active and reserve components, or AC/RC integration. Under division teaming, one division would have the lead in certain areas, and the divisions would share resources. When one division deployed, the other would mobilize to provide replacement operations, Reimer said during his conference speech. The Army's 1st Cavalry Division required additional personnel in order to mobilize to Bosnia in 1998. Had the Army already begun a pilot program matching active-duty divisions to Guard divisions, additional personnel could have come from the Guard.
The 1st Cavalry Division was selected to assume the mission of "Task Force Eagle," conducting peace support operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina. On 16 April 1998, the decision to send the First Team on this unique and challenging mission was announced. Following 4 months of highly successful and intensive planning, training, and maintaining, "Americas’ First Team" assumed the mission of ensuring peace and stability throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina. On October 7, 1998, The First Cavalry Division, under the command of Maj. Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, assumed authority of the MultiNational Division (North) area of operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina from the 1st Armored Division. The division was the first CONUS based division to assume this mission. The 1st Cav's mission was to conduct operations to enforce the military provisions set forth by the Dayton Accords. The 1st Cav soldiers served as our nation's ambassadors. Their day-to-day presence and commitment to the citizens of this ravaged nation helped prove that a lasting and self-sustaining peace is possible. In order to conduct successful peace missions while in theater, soldiers were extensively trained on mine awareness, country and cultural customs nad checkpoint and convoy operations. Training was conducted on all levels including individual readiness training, leader/staff training, Operation Joint Forge Training and the Mission Rehearsal Exercise. 1st Cav soldiers were placed in position of responsibilities never before experienced. These responsibilities ranged form monitoring former warring factions to assisting in the return of displaced persons and refugees. The preparation for the deployment included preparing family members for the long separation. The 1st Cav's family and soldiers' readiness program set a new Army standard. The First Team set the conditions to build self-sufficiency in our families.
The division expertly executed the SFOR 4 and 5 missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and set new standards for follow on units. The SFOR 4 was comprised of soldiers from 2-5 Cav, 1-8 Cav, 2-8 Cav, 1-82 FA, 20 ENG Bde, A Battery 4-5 ADA, 1-545th MPs, 4th Bde HQs & 2-227th AVN Bn, the ENG Bde HQs, 13th Sig Bn, 312th MI Bn, III Corps units to include elements from 13th COSCOM, 410 MP Co, 205 MI Bn, 15 PSB and 15th Finance Bn. In six months, they conducted more than 11, 000 day inspections and conducted combined missions with the Russians.
SFOR 5 comprised of soldiers from HHC 2nd Brigade, 1-5 Cav, 1-12 Cav, 2-12 Cav, 3-82 FA, 91st ENG BN, C 4-5 ADA, 2/545th MPs, 15th FSB, and 1-7th Cav. They conducted daily mounted presence patrols in their HMMWVs and occasionally, in armored vehicles, among the Bosniac, Serb and Croat populace. During the six months, squads and platoons conducted over 9,000 combat patrols and escorted over 1000 convoy movements over some of the most rugged terrain and austere conditions. The soldiers conducted hundreds of weapons storage site inspections, established vehicle checkpoints designed to monitor and control movement and often conducted searches for and seizures of illegal contraband and weapons. The pilots, crew chiefs and mechanics set a new Army benchmark for safety and the number of hours flown--over 17,000 flying hours. The Engineers monitored the demining of more than 80,000 square meters of contested land and supervised the construction of 41 million dollars worth of base camp improvements.
As of late 2002 the 1st Cavalry Division was transitioning to a "digitialized" equipped force. Unclassified sources list one maneuver brigade per year are transitioning, beginning in FY01. Therefore, only two of the three ground maneuver brigades were transitioned as of late 2002, and probably only one brigade was retrained to use the new equipment.
The First Cavalry Division received deployment orders on March 2, 2003 to reposition forces as required to support the President Bush's global war against terrorism. The III Corp's release did not specify where the division was being sent though a release from the Division itself states that it would be sent to the CENTCOM AOR.
