Category Archives: US Army

First Team at Work on the Edge of the Storm

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This week is the 105th anniversary of the establishment of the 1st U.S. Cavalry Division.

To celebrate, how about this great photo essay of American horse cavalry in the field, Fort Bliss, Texas, summer of 1939? The twilight of such an organization. Note the M1903s and M1917A1 “Kelly” helmets. All caught in time.

(Photographer in all cases: J.J. Gregor, Ft. Bliss, Texas. From prints furnished by Mr. Sullivan, Remount Branch, Quartermaster Corps. 7/18/39. Signal Corps Collection via NARA)

Machine gun detachment. Note the M1917 Bolo knives on their gun belts, used for clearing brush from fields of fire. 111-SC-113986

Hell for leather, baby! Could you imagine what that Kelly tin helmet with almost no padding felt like rattling on your head while galloping across that ground? 111-SC-113995

Another shot of the MG detachment. You can see the tripod mounts for their M1917 Brownings. 111-SC-113989

Another of the MG detachments with Bolos. 111-SC-113992

111-SC-113991

Machine gun detachment. Note their M1917 Bolos. 111-SC-113985

Of gas masks and 1911s. My favorite, and also perhaps the scariest. 111-SC-113987

Field artillery on parade. At the time, the division had the 82nd Field Artillery Battalion and the 99th Field Artillery Battalion, both with 75mm pack howitzers, later towed by jeeps. 111-SC-113998

On parade with dress uniforms, including pennants

At the time, Fort Bliss was one of the final holdouts for horse cavalry in the U.S. Army. It was home to the active duty 1st Cavalry Division (activated there on 13 September 1921) with four regiments (5th, 7th, 8th, and 12th U.S. Cavalry). The base would also soon be home to the Army National Guard’s 56th Cavalry Brigade’s 112th (Texas) Cavalry Regiment, which had been called to federal service on 10 November 1940 by President Roosevelt and mustered at Bliss.

Tasked with guarding the Mexican border, that mission largely evaporated after Mexico formally entered WWII on the side of the Allies in June 1942.

After giving up their steeds on 28 February 1943, largely transferring them to the 2nd Cavalry Division, the 1st Cav deployed to Australia and later fought the Japanese on foot, seeing combat for the first time on 29 February 1944 on Los Negros Island in the Admiralty chain— which was ironically a horseshoe-shaped island.

It was in the Philippines when the unit inherited about 25 captured Japanese Army horses, found still harnessed to 75mm guns, then duly recycled into U.S. service by men of the 8th Cavalry Regiment.

On 3 February 1945, the 1st Cav became the first U.S. unit to re-enter Manila, racing 100 miles as part of the legendary “Flying Column” of jeeps and trucks to liberate more than 3,500 internees at Santo Tomas University and secure key objectives across the city, coining the name “First Team.”

By the end of the war, they had suffered 4,055 battle casualties in 521 days of combat.

Entering Tokyo with the occupation forces, they put on a rodeo for Armistice Day, 1945, at the Meiji Shrine Stadium, complete with horses liberated from a racetrack and purportedly late of the Imperial Guard.

Siempre Presente

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Dig those M1903s with long M1905 bayonets, M1917 Brodie helmets, Great War style leggings, and M2 gas masks, seen some 85 years ago this month on the eve of the U.S. entrance to WWII.

NARA Local Identifier 126-PG-5G-7

Official period caption:

Members of the Puerto Rican National Guard During Maneuvers. September 1941. San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Gas masks and bayonets are the order of the day in Puerto Rico as Europe is plunged into a new war, and plans for the completion of this U.S. Territory as a “Gibraltar” are rushed. Above, members of the Puerto Rican National Guard are pictured during recent maneuvers in the island. More than $30,000,000 is being spent here for the establishment of air bases and other defenses. Because of its strategic position with respect to Europe and the Panama Canal, Puerto Rico today is considered the No. 1 defensive outpost for the U.S. on the Atlantic side. The island is the nearest to Europe of any spot under the American flag. Steve Hannagan. Puerto Rican News Bureau. San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Well before the U.S. entered the war, in October 1940, the PRNG was mobilized, called into federal service, and prepared for conflict, eventually activating its 295th and 296th Infantry Regiments, totaling over 2,700 personnel. While those units did not go any further overseas than the Canal Zone, the Commonwealth did stand up the 65th U.S. Infantry Regiment (“The Borinqueneers”), which saw extensive action in North Africa and the European theater (Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno), and the PRNG certainly fed into the 65th.

By the end of the war, some 65,034 Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. military, with over 2,500 becoming casualties.

Army buys a *lot* of force-on-force practice rounds

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The British firm of UTM just got a mega contract award from the Army for marker rounds to be used in what it calls Close Combat Mission Capability Kits, which convert standard M4s and M249s, etc., to cycle them, a conversion that is easily reversible and doesn’t (overly) damage said small arms.

These things…

The company sells Man-Marker Rounds (MMR/RVR) in red, blue, yellow, or green; Non-Marking & Target Bullet Rounds (NMR/TBR) plastic-backer training rounds, and very loud Battlefield Blanks (LBBR)s without a projectile, all of which cost around 75 cents a pop on large Mil/LE contracts, and this one is a big contract, so that price is likely lower.

The Contract, emphasis mine:

UTM Ltd., Bury St. Edmunds, United Kingdom, was awarded a $257,402,691 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the procurement of 5.56mm M1042 loose and M1071 linked marking ammunition cartridges for use in the Close Combat Mission Capability Kit. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 24, 2031. Army Contracting Command, Newark, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (W15QKN-26-D-A102).

Of note, the ATF recently backpedaled on a rule that banned the import of UTM rounds for consumer use, which was proffered by the Biden administration. It is possible the size of the contract could be a bit of a salve to make the company whole on those lost sales.

Two if by Sea, Cam Ranh Edition

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Some 55 years ago, Southeast Asia.

Loading a 6th Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment M107 175mm self-propelled howitzers onto USNS LST-546. Photos by David D. Lozano, B Battery 6/32ed Artillery. Cam Ranh Bay for a move to the DMZ 1971. Hattip Big Guns of the Vietnam War group on FB.

The gator, a 328-foot 1,600-ton LST-542-class tank landing ship, was a war baby, built at the Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Company, Evansville, Indiana, and commissioned on 27 March 1944, serving in the Pacific with LST Flotilla Thirty-Seven.

In mothballs from 1946 to 1952, she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service (today’s Military Sealift Command), where she served in a non-commissioned status as USNS LST-546 until 15 July 1972. With the Vietnam drawdown, she was transferred to the Philippines as BRP Surigao del Sur, first leased then sold, and served until 1988 when she was sold, presumably for breaking.

As for the 6/32ed, known as the “Proud Americans,” they constituted in July 1918 as part of the 11th Infantry Division but didn’t make it “over there” in the Great War. By 1940, as part of the 1st Infantry Division, they were back in the fray and were credited with the first artillery round fired by U.S. Artillery against an enemy in the European-African, Middle Eastern Theater in World War II: a 105mm round kicked off in Algeria at 1020 on 8 November 1942. Fighting through the rest of the war, including El Guettar and Omaha Beach, they picked up two Croix de Guerre and two Presidential Unit Citations.

The 6/32nd Artillery was deployed to Vietnam in July 1967 and provided heavy fire support throughout the conflict with its 175s and 8-inchers, earning the Meritorious Unit Citation in Vietnam while supporting 85 operations.

After returning from Vietnam in 1971, the 6th Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery was deactivated at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and remained dormant for 15 years until reactivated in 1987 when the unit converted from tubes to rocketry, equipped with the MGM-52 Lance.

In 1991, the 6-32 FA (MLRS) “Proud Americans” were the first active ATACMS-capable MLRS Battalion on the Army’s books before casing their colors in December 1993.

How Copy?

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Happy National Radio Day!

And, as the grandson of a Vietnam-era Fort Gordon Regular Army Signals Corps instructor (MOS 31Z5H, 31W50) with two tours in Vietnam and the two Bronze Stars and 7-starred-VSM on his DD-214 to show for it, big salute to those unsung RTOs with the PRC-25s and PRC-77s on their back, up to their chins in the rice paddies and river marsh, who were still able to smile about it.

Radio…check

ADA, the CIWS Way

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Official caption: Army field artillerymen conduct reload training in the Middle East on a counter-air defense Land-based Phalanx Weapon System, which can eliminate threats with its rapid-fire 20 mm Gatling gun, Aug. 12, 2026.

U.S. Army photo 260812-D-A0839-9196

The patch is of the Marion helmets of the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team “Gator Brigade” of the Florida National Guard, whose ADA units are drawn from the 164th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.

While some 1,000 Mk 16 CIWS mounts have been produced for use afloat around the world in 24 fleets, it is believed that the Army only has between 30 to 45 trailer-mounted LPWS/Centurion C-RAMs in its possession, a number which may be significantly lower with guns given to Ukraine.

Of note, they use specialized self-destructing rounds (M940 MPT-SD or M246) designed to detonate in the air to prevent collateral damage on the ground, and have successfully zapped incoming mortar rounds and rockets in Iraq and Afghanistan going back to May 2005.

Iranian UAVs and cruise missiles are new to the menu.

A Couple of Batteries of Waterlogged Artillery return ‘home’ to Savannah

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What began as a dredging effort to deepen Savannah Harbor near old Fort Jackson became one of the most significant underwater archaeological discoveries in the city’s history.

The artifacts have now been unveiled at their new home, the Savannah History Museum. In early 2021, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews working on the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project unexpectedly pulled a cannon from the riverbed. Another scoop brought up two more, prompting crews to halt dredging and call in archaeologists and divers.

The resulting recovery effort uncovered 21 cannon and additional artifacts, including anchor fragments and pieces of a ship’s bell, from the bottom of the Savannah River, where they had been hidden for nearly 250 years.

Some cannon were recovered in pieces, and two fragmented examples displayed at the Savannah History Museum served as placeholders while also showing the effects of corrosion without proper conservation.

In February 2023, 17 cannon and several other artifacts were sent to the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University. Over more than three years, experts removed corrosion, stabilized the iron, extracted wood plugs, paper wads, cannonballs, and intact gunpowder wads from 14 of the cannon, and conducted scientific analysis.

The 17 fully conserved cannon and related artifacts returned to Savannah on June 3, 2026. On July 2, after an official unveiling ceremony, they went on public display at the Savannah History Museum in the exhibit “Loyalists and Liberty: Savannah in the American Revolution.”

Lifting Battle Weary Eyes to the Heavens

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Some 60 years ago this week. A well-traveled paratrooper with good reason to wonder why.

Official caption: “14 August 1966. SP4 Ruediger Richter (Columbus, Georgia), 4th Bn., 503 Inf., 173 Abn Bde (Separate), lifts his battle-weary eyes to the heavens, as if to ask why? SGT. Daniel E. Spencer (Bend, Oregon) stares down at their fallen comrade. The day’s battle ended, they silently await the helicopter which will evacuate their comrade from the jungle-covered hills in Long Khanh Province.”

By Pfc. L. Paul Epley, 1966 National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (111-SC-635974)

Richter, 25 years old at the time, had a long and winding history before the above image was captured. One that had included surviving Allied bombers in WWII as a youth, running away to the sea at age 14, then accepting a “join or go to prison” stint in the French Foreign Legion under a new name, before heading to America.

From a 2014 article, by which time he was a 73-year-old grandpa in Georgia, finally in a quiet time.

Born in Berlin in February 1941, when Hitler’s Nazi troops already had been marauding across Europe for years, Richter’s earliest memories are of bodies outside bombed-out bunkers and bright flares dropped by Allied bombers.

“We called them Christmas trees. They were beautiful,” he said. “You could hear the sirens going off all over Berlin.”

Richter said when the war ended in 1945 and the Allies sliced the city into sectors, he was fortunate enough to live in the American district, where GIs were a soft touch for a young German boy begging for food. With few options in Berlin, Richter said, he joined the German merchant marine at age 14. That three-year stint ended when his ship docked in Calais, France, where he and other sailors were arrested after a bar fight.

“They put us in a dungeon with water dropping down, just like in a movie. There was just a little window with bars,” he said.

After three days in lockup, a judge gave the penniless Richter a choice: Stay in prison or join the French Foreign Legion, which was battling rebels in French-controlled North Africa. He was too young to join legally at age 17, Richter said, so he was given a new name — Horst Timm — and allowed to enlist.

Richter does not know how many men he killed with the Legion, or how many night-long marches he made through Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. But after five years, he left the Legion and regained his true name. An aunt and uncle living in Columbus suggested he come to America to restart his life, so he did in 1964.

Richter grew bored with his job constructing helicopter landing pads, so he enlisted in the Army in 1965.

EOTECH, B.E. Meyers seen in more NGSW Spaces

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While the Vortex M1157 Fire Control System is the electro-optic of record for the Army’s 250,000 Next Generation Squad Weapons in rifle (M7), carbine (XM8), and LMG (M250) variants to the tune of a fantastical $2.7 billion, Big Green is also looking at other, more modular, options under what is being termed the “M7 Surrogate Fire Control Program.”

The Vortex NGSW-FC has a direct view 1-8×30 magnification and combines a laser rangefinder and ballistic computer in an overlaid display for increased first-round hit probability. Even if the high-tech add-ons take a dirt nap, the backup etched reticle should still allow the sight to work as akin to an LPVO. (Graphic: PEO Soldier)

EOTECH just picked up an award for 14,000 sets of OGL (On-Gun Laser) systems, HWS (Holographic Weapon Sights), and compatible magnifiers.

The EOTECH OGL (On-Gun Laser) aiming and illumination system mounted on a rifle rail, as part of recent U.S. Army modernization and surrogate optics evaluations

The moto video on the OGL:

Plus, and this may or may not be folded into the contract, EOTECH just introduced a CUAS (Counter Unmanned Aircraft Sight) reticle to its existing EXPS3 and XPS3 HWS models, which you could see being deployed downrange very rapidly.

Similarly, B.E. Meyers has also been awarded a contract for 8,936 DAGIR‑V1 systems. The DAGIR is an infrared and visible aiming and illumination laser system designed for multi-platform applications.

Sure, they look more 2026 than 2036, but it seems like they may have a shorter road to realization.

Army Jungleers making a GOYA comeback

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The Army is getting a newfound interest in jungle warfare.

COL Keith W. Benedict and CPT Christian M. Hert have a great article in Line of Departure (How Panama’s Crucible is Yet Again Testing Soldiers’ Mettle) detailing how legendary jungle training has returned to former Fort Sherman, Panama– now a Panamanian aeronaval base, Cristóbal Colón– after more than two decades of hiatus.

Before the doors closed in 1999 and the course moved to Hawaii, the Fort Sherman-based “Green Hell” Jungle Operations Training Center (JOTC) was training up to 9,000 personnel annually and awarding the Jungle Expert patch to successful units. JOTC also offered a 10-day air crew survival course and a four-week engineers’ course.

Today the course is back as an 18-day event, using lots of old-school sweat, blood, and mud, blended with new technology.

U.S. service members and Panamanian partners, all candidates of Jungle Operations Training Course – Panama, make it to the finish line of the green mile at Aeronaval Base Cristóbal Colón, Panamá, July 2, 2026. The event tested participants’ endurance, teamwork, and ability to move equipment through physically demanding jungle terrain under stressful conditions. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Carolyn Dodge)

Moreover, the Army has announced it is making the Jungle Tab, retroactively to 1990, a permanent tab.

The GOYAs Return

The U.S. Army is reactivating the historic 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion as a full regiment, with sequenced ceremonies at Fort Benning and in Panama, set for 14 August.

The new unit will comprise four battalions to support joint training under the United States Army Western Hemisphere Command– which in itself was stood up last December, uniting U.S. Army Forces Command, U.S. Army North, and U.S. Army South into a single, four-star operational headquarters.

The 551st was one of the independent PIBs established by the Army in 1942-43, formed at Fort Kobbe, Panama Canal Zone, on 26 November 1942. After a stint in Panama, they were sent for more training at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, and then moved up to recently liberated airfields in Italy in 1944 to join the 1st Airborne Task Force. By that time, they had earned the nickname GOYAs, which, depending on who you talked to, meant “Great Outstanding Young Americans” or “Get off Your Ass(es).”

On 15 August 1944 at 1804hrs local time, the 46 officers and 796 NCOs and enlisted “GOYAs” of the 551st PIB conducted their only combat parachute assault during WWII into Drop Zone “A” at Valbourges near Le Muy in Southern France during Operation Dragoon.

Marching 5km through the night, they liberated the French town of Draguignan the next morning, fighting on foot all the way into the Alps.

By the Battle of the Bulge, they had been attached to the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 96 remaining men from the 551st PIB, not dead or in hospital, were folded into the 82nd in March 1945, erasing the hard-fighting “Lost Battalion.”

Forgotten by history, they only recived their hard-earned Presidential Unit Citation in 2001.

It will be nice to see the old 551st returned to service– this time with Jungle Tabs.

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