Reptar Disbands, 511th Stands Up
You know the old 40th Tank Battalion of WWII from this amazing period Kodachrome, showing the outfit’s M-4 Shermans lined up in a snow-covered field, near St. Vith, Belgium, just after the Battle of the Bulge.
M4 Shermans in temporary position near St. Vith, Belgium, fire on enemy positions beyond the city. 40th Tank Battalion. 7th Armored Division.” Date: 24 January 1945. Salis, U.S. Army Signal Corps photo 111-SC-199467
Constituted 13 January 1941 in the peacetime Regular Army, the 40th Armored Regiment soon became the 40th Tank Bn. It was attached to the 7th Armored Division for the duration of the European War, earning campaign streamers for Normandy, Northern France, the Rhineland, the Ardennes (Alsace), and Central Europe.
In the process of refitting with water-kit-equipped Shermans (as the 40th Amphibian Tractor Battalion) for the Olympic Landings in Japan, VJ Day caught up to the unit, and they were disbanded in February 1946.
Cold War reactivation saw the unit attached to the 4th Infantry Division (1948 to 1957), one of the only armored units in Alaska, as part of the 171st Infantry Brigade (1957 to 1969), then part of the Fort Polk-based 5th Infantry Division from 1987 to 1997, when it cased its colors once again.
Stood back up in 2005 as the 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment (Airborne) at Fort Richardson, Alaska; it has been part of the 25th Infantry Division and then the 11th Airborne Division in the past 21 years, with breaks to earn four campaign streamers in Afghanistan and two in Iraq over that period.
U.S. Army Soldiers walk through a stream during a patrol near Sar Howza, Paktika province, Afghanistan, Sept. 2, 2009. The Soldiers are deployed with Bulldog Troop, 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment. Photo by Staff Sgt. Andrew Smith
Since 2005, 1-40 CAV’s unit insignia, a t-rex holding a charged sword, earned it the nickname “Reptar.”
The troopers of the 40th earned their unique silver spurs, which included airborne wings and the 25th ID’s “electric acorn” patch, during the multi-day Denali Spur Ride rite of passage.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Alejandro Peña)
During this most recent stage of 1-40’s life, it became the last ground (not Air) cavalry squadron in the Regular Army and the final cavalry unit to be airborne-certified.
I say this because, last Friday, 1-40 CAV conducted its final airborne operation into Malemute Drop Zone, taking that “leap of faith” from C-17As of the 535th Airlift Squadron.
The same day, 1-40 CAV reflagged as the 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, “restoring one of the Army’s most distinguished airborne lineages to active service as part of the Army’s ongoing transformation efforts.”
The old 511th, formed in 1943, was one of the 11th’s regiments during WWII and is best known for its combat jump onto Tagaytay Ridge and its role in the Raid at Los Baños, where paratroopers helped liberate more than 2,100 civilian internees from a Japanese prison camp. The unit had such a reputation for being on hopeless “behind the 8-ball” missions that they even added it to their patch
General Kruger Discussing Plans For A Paratroop Drop With Officers Of The 11Th Airborne Division, 511Th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 4:30 a.m., 23 June 1945, at Lipa Airstrip, Luzon, In The Philippine Islands. (U.S. Air Force Number A60741AC)
During the war, the regiment earned two Medals of Honor, nine Distinguished Service Crosses, 326 Silver Stars, 1,126 Bronze Stars and 884 Purple Hearts before serving in the occupation of Japan. The regiment was inactivated in 1957.
So, out with one storied lineage in for another.
Welcome back 511th!
