Well, You Know What We Mean... Here is the latest this-is-really-the-final-answer-this-time-we-really-mean-it update for the down-sizing of the US Army. This is theoretically the final breakdown of the army's new 10 Division force, but seeing as how the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) thing is still in the air, don't say we didn't warn you if this changes again. Division Breakdown 1st Infantry Division: 3 Brigades: one at Fort Riley, KS, two in Germany 1st Armored Division: 3 Brigades: one at Fort Riley, KS, two in Germany 1st Cavalry Division: 3 Brigades: all at Fort Hood, TX 2nd Infantry Division: 3 Brigades: two in Korea, one at Ft. Lewis, WA 3rd Infantry Division: 3 Brigades: two at Ft Stewart, GA, one at Ft Benning, GA 4th Infantry Division: 3 Bridges: two at Ft Hood, one at Ft. Carson, CO 10th Mountain Division: 3 Brigades: two at Fort Drum, NY, one in Alaska 25th Infantry Division: 3 Brigades: two in Hawaii, one at Fort Lewis, WA 82d Airborne Division: 3 Brigades: all at Fort Bragg, NC 101st Airborne Divison: 3 Brigades: all at Fort Campbell, KY In addition, the 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) will remain at Fort Polk, Louisiana, the 3d ACR will move to Fort Carson, and the 11th ACR reared its Blackhorsey head in 1994 as the re-flagged former 177th Armored Brigade. a.k.a. the OPFOR at Fort Irwin, CA. This list does not include field artillery, aviation, engineer brigades, etc. Note that on the list above we can discern from the wreckage who the losers were. Since 1AD and 3ID had been two-brigade divisions in V Corps, we can see that the 3ID flag was brought home and 1AD picked up a new brigade (formerly 1st ID's) in CONUS, while the 1st ID flag was sent to Germany, from its former center of gravity at Fort Riley, keeping one of its old brigades and taking over 3D. This deployment of two divisions each with two of their brigades forward in Europe and one stateside is a new wrinkle as well. 1st Cav and 2d ID remain pretty much the same, but 4th ID has moved its flag and center of gravity from Fort Carson down to Fort Hood, meaning that its other brigade which had been at Carson simply died there. 10th Mountain and 25th ID are also largely (i.e., two-thirds) the same, while the 82d and 101st Airbomes are entirely unchanged. One important change to note is that all 10 divisions have three active component brigades, a significant change from Desert Storm-era arrangements where many divisions had only two AC brigades plus one "roundout" reserve component brigade (or more recently three AC plus 1 RC "roundup"). So what's missing? Well, first of all, the 24th ID was devoured whole and reflagged as the 3d ID (note that its 3d Brigade, at Fort Benning, was reflagged from the 197th Brigade following the Gulf War). Also, the two-thirds of the new 4ID in Texas used to be the 2d Armored Division, but fair is fair, as 2AD beat out 3AD for reincarnation a few years back only on the basis of all the 2AD signage cluttering up Fort Hood. One might well ask how many signs will now have to be even more drastically repainted to show the Ivy Division. The 7th ID (Light) also gave up the ghost, providing scraps at Fort Lewis for the 2d and 25th IDs. More on this mess as it clarifies itself. Back to Table of Contents -- Command Post Quarterly # 9 To Command Post Quarterly List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Greg Novak. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com