101st Airborne Division
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Shoulder sleeve patch of the United States Army 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles. |
The
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) —nicknamed the
Screaming Eagles— is an
airborne division of the
United States Army mainly trained for
air assault operations. The division is headquartered at
Fort Campbell,
Kentucky and is currently serving in the
Iraq War.
The division was activated on
August 15,
1942 at
Camp Claiborne,
Louisiana. On
August 19,
1942 its first commander, Major General
William C. Lee, promised his new recruits that the 101
st had a "rendezvous with destiny."
General Order Number Six, which gave birth to the division, reads:
The 101st Airborne Division, activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny. Like the early American pioneers whose invincible courage was the foundation stone of this nation, we have broken with the past and its traditions in order to establish our claim to the future.Due to the nature of our armament, and the tactics in which we shall perfect ourselves, we shall be called upon to carry out operations of far-reaching military importance and we shall habitually go into action when the need is immediate and extreme.Let me call your attention to the fact that our badge is the great American eagle. This is a fitting emblem for a division that will crush its enemies by falling upon them like a thunderbolt from the skies.The history we shall make, the record of high achievement we hope to write in the annals of the American Army and the American people, depends wholly and completely on the men of this division. Each individual, each officer and each enlisted man, must therefore regard himself as a necessary part of a complex and powerful instrument for the overcoming of the enemies of the nation. Each, in his own job, must realize that he is not only a means, but an indispensable means for obtaining the goal of victory. It is, therefore, not too much to say that the future itself, in whose molding we expect to have our share, is in the hands of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division.During
World War II, the
Pathfinders of the 101
st Airborne Division led the way on
D-Day in the night drop prior to the invasion. They left from
RAF North Witham having trained there with those of
82nd Airborne Division.
On
August 2 1944 the division became part of the
First Allied Airborne Army. As part of this formation it took part in
Operation Market Garden.
During the
Battle of the Bulge the 101
st, as one of the few forces available to contain the German advance was rushed forward to defend the vital road junction of
Bastogne. Famously, Brigadier General
Anthony McAuliffe answered the German demand for surrender with the reply "To the German Commander: Nuts! -The American Commander" and the division fought on until the siege was lifted and the German advance halted.
For their efforts during World War II, the 101
st Airborne Division was awarded four campaign streamers and two Presidential Unit Citations.
The exploits of
Easy Company of the
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (part of the 101
st) during these times have been turned into a
HBO television mini-series called
Band of Brothers by
Steven Spielberg and
Tom Hanks.
The 101
st Airborne Division was reactivated as a training unit at
Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, in
1948 and again in
1950. It was reactivated again in
1954 at
Fort Jackson,
South Carolina, and in March
1956, the 101
st was transferred, less personnel and equipment, to
Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to be reorganized as a combat division.
From September through November of
1957 elements of the division were deployed to
Little Rock, Arkansas, by President
Dwight D. Eisenhower to enforce Federal court orders during the
Little Rock Crisis.
In the mid-
1960s, the 1
st Brigade and support troops were deployed to the
Republic of Vietnam, followed by the rest of the division in late
1967. In almost seven years of combat in Vietnam, elements of the 101
st participated in 15 campaigns.
In
1968, the 101
st took on the structure and equipment of an airmobile division. Today, the 101
st stands as the Army's and world's only air assault division with unequaled strategic and tactical mobility. In
1974, the training of the 101
st was recognized with the creation of the
Air Assault Badge, now a service wide decoration of the United States Army.
Tragedy struck the division on
December 12,
1985. A civilian aircraft,
Arrow Air Flight 1285, chartered to transport some of the division from the
Sinai to Kentucky, crashed near
Gander, Newfoundland. There were no survivors. 241 US servicemen died, most were from the 3d Battalion, 502d Infantry.
In January
1991, the 101
st once again had its "Rendezvous with Destiny" in
Iraq during the combat air assault into enemy territory. The 101
st sustained no soldiers killed in action during the 100-hour war and captured thousands of enemy prisoners of war.
The division has supported humanitarian relief efforts in
Rwanda and
Somalia, then later supplied peacekeepers to
Haiti and
Bosnia.
It also deployed again to Iraq in
2003 as part of
Operation Iraqi Freedom. The division was in
V Corps, providing support to the
3rd Infantry Division by clearing Iraqi strongpoints which that division has bypassed. The Division then went on to a tour of duty as part of the occupation forces of Iraq, using the city of
Mosul as their primary base of operations, before being withdrawn in early
2004 for rest and refit. As part of the Army's modular transformation, the existing infantry brigades, artillery brigade, and avaition briagdes were transformed, with the addition of the brand-new 4th Brigade Combat Team and it's subordinate units, to form a 6-7 major units division, one of the largest currently in the U.S. Army, in preparation to redeploy in fall 2005 to Iraq.
* Commanding General:
Major General Thomas R. Turner II* Deputy Assistant Division Commander (Operations):
Brigadier General Michael L. Oates* Deputy Assistant Division Commander (Support):
Brigadier General Daniel P. Bolger* Chief of Staff:
Colonel David Martino* Division Command Sergeant Major:
Command Sergeant Major Frank A. GrippeSubordinate Units
*1st Brigade Combat Team ("Bastogne")
**HHC, 1st BCT ("Warriors")
**1-327th Infantry Battalion ("Above the Rest")
**2-327nd Infantry Battalion ("No Slack")
**3-327th Reconnaissance Squadron (RSTA) ("Battle Force")
**2-320th Field Artilery Battalion ("Balls of the Eagles")
**326th Brigade Troops Battalion
**426th Brigade Support Battalion ("Taskmasters")
*2nd Brigade Combat Team ("Strike")
**HHC, 2nd BCT
**1-502nd Infantry Battalion ("First Strike")
**2-502nd Infantry Battalion ("Strike Force")
**3-502nd Reconnaissance Squadron (RSTA) ("Widowmakers")
**1-320th Field Artillery Battalion ("Top Guns")
**311th Brigade Troops Battalion ("Team")
**526th Brigade Support Battalion ("Best By Performance")
*3rd Brigade Combat Team ("Rakkasans")
**HHC, 3rd BCT
**1-187th Infantry Battalion ("Leader Rakkasans")
**2-187th Infantry Battalion ("Raider Rakkasans")
**3-187th Reconnaissance Squadron (RSTA) ("Iron Rakkasans")
**3-320th Field Artillery Battalion ("Red Knight")
**381st Brigade Troops Battalion
**626th Brigade Support Battalion ("Assurgam")
*4th Brigade Combat Team ("Currahee")
**HHC, 4th BCT
**1-506th Infantry Battalion
**2-506th Infantry Battalion
**3rd Reconnaissance Squadron (RSTA)AKA 1st of the 51st Cavalry
**4-320th Field Artillery Battalion
**4th Brigade Troops Battalion
**801st Brigade Support Battalion
*101st Aviation Brigade ("Wings of Destiny")
**HHC, 101st Aviation Brigade
**2-17 Air Cavalry Squadron ("Out Front")
**1-101st Aviation Battalion ("Expect No Mercy")
**2-101st Aviation Battalion ("Eagle Warrior")
**5-101st Aviation Battalion ("Eagle Assault")
**6-101st Aviation Battalion ("Pathfinder")
**8-101st Aviation Battalion ("Troubleshooters")
*159th Aviation Brigade ("Eagle Thunder")
**HHC, 159th Aviation Brigade
**1-17th Air Cavalry Squadron
**3-101st Aviation Battalion ("Eagle Attack")
**4-101st Aviation Battalion ("Wings of the Eagles")
**7-101st General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB) ("Eagle Lift")
**9-101st Aviation Battalion ("Eagle Strike")
*101st Sustainment Brigade ("Life Liners")
**DMMC
**63rd Chemical Company
**106th Transportation Battalion
**372nd TC Company
**594th TC Company
**613th MCT
**632nd MCT
**129th Combat Support Battalion
**494th TC Company
**561st Combat Support Battalion
**95th Maint
**102nd Quartermaster Company
**196th Quartermaster Detachment
**227th GS Company
**541st TC Company
**584th Maintenance Company
**717th EOD Detachment
**101st Sustainment Brigade Troops Battalion
**101st SSB
*2-44th Air Defense Artillery Battalion ("Strike Fear")
*887th Engineer Company (LE) ("Empire")
*86th CSH
The 101st is made famous partly by their helmet decorations. The soldiers used card symbols (the spade, heart, and club) to indicate the regiment to which they belonged.
**502nd Airborne: Heart
**327th Glider: Club
**506th Infantry: Spade
*
101st Airborne Division Home Page - official site.
*
Fort Campbell Home Page*
GlobalSecurity.org information page about the 101st Airborne Division*
101st Airborne Division Association*
The Story of the 101st Airborne Division (WWII unit history booklet, 1945)
