World War I On 23 July 1918, the
War Department directed the organization of the 101st Division in the
National Army at
Camp Shelby,
Mississippi, under the supervision of camp commander Brigadier General
Roy Hoffman. Plans called for the division to include a headquarters, headquarters troop, the 201st Infantry Brigade (401st and 402nd Infantry Regiments and 377th Machine Gun Battalion), 202nd Infantry Brigade (403rd and 404th Infantry Regiments and 378th Machine Gun Battalion), 376th Machine Gun Battalion, 176th Field Artillery Brigade (376th-378th Field Artillery Regiments and 27th Trench Mortar Battery), 326th Engineers, 626th Field Signal Battalion, and 326th Train Headquarters and Military Police (Ammunition, Engineer, Sanitary, and Supply Trains). It was intended that the 201st Infantry Brigade would be organized in France from the 58th and 59th Pioneer Infantry Regiments. The 27th Trench Mortar Battery was formed at
Camp Bowie,
Texas, in August 1918 and was assigned to the 176th Field Artillery Brigade, but never ended up joining. The organization of the division began in October and Colonel Patrick H. Mullay was named division chief of staff on 2 November, but organization never progressed beyond the formation of the division headquarters and preliminary preparations for the receipt of
Selective Service men. After the
Armistice of 11 November 1918, the 101st Division was ordered demobilized on 30 November 1918, being completed on 11 December.
Interwar period In 1921, pursuant to the
National Defense Act of 1920, the 101st Division was reconstituted in the
Organized Reserve, allotted to the Sixth
Corps Area, and assigned to the
XVI Corps, and further allotted to the state of
Wisconsin. The division headquarters was organized on 10 September 1921 in Room 412 of the
Federal Building in
Milwaukee, moving in July 1922 to the Pereles Building, where it remained until activated for World War II. The designated mobilization and training station for the division was
Camp Custer,
Michigan, where much of the division's annual training activities occurred in the interwar years. The headquarters and staff usually trained with the staff of the
12th Infantry Brigade either at Camp Custer or
Fort Sheridan, Illinois, while the infantry regiments trained primarily with the
2nd Infantry Regiment at Camp Custer. The special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster units trained at various posts in the Sixth and Seventh Corps Areas. In addition, division personnel also conducted the
Citizens' Military Training Camps in the division's home area as an alternate form of annual training. The division's primary "feeder" schools for newly commissioned Reserve lieutenants were the
University of Wisconsin,
Ripon College, and
St. Norbert College. Division personnel sometimes participated in the Sixth Corps Area and
Second Army command post exercises with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units, but the division did not participate as a unit in the various Sixth Corps Area maneuvers and the Second Army maneuvers of 1937, 1940, and 1941, because of a lack of enlisted personnel and equipment to use. Instead, the officers and a few enlisted reservists were assigned to Regular Army and National Guard units to fill vacant slots, and some officers were assigned duties as umpires or support personnel. It was at this time that the
"Screaming Eagle" mascot became associated with the division, as a successor to the traditions of the Wisconsin volunteer regiments of the
American Civil War.
World War II and Cold War era Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking with
1st Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel and men of Company E,
502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment on 5 June. The placard around Strobel's neck indicates he is the jumpmaster for chalk No. 23 of the 438th TCG. On 30 July 1942, the
Army Ground Forces ordered the activation of two airborne divisions by 15 August 1942. The 82nd Division, an Organized Reserve division ordered into active military service in March 1942, was ordered to provide cadre to the 101st Division, the other division that was selected for the project, for all elements except parachute infantry. As part of the reorganization of the 101st Division as an airborne division, the unit was disbanded in the Organized Reserve on 15 August 1942 and reconstituted and reactivated in the
Army of the United States. The 101st Airborne Division, which was activated on 16 August 1942, at
Camp Claiborne,
Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny. 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.
Operation Overlord in England, June 1944. The
pathfinders of the 101st Airborne Division led the way on
D-Day in the night drop before the invasion. They left from
RAF North Witham, having trained there with the
82nd Airborne Division. These night drops caused a lot of trouble for the gliders. Many crashed and equipment and personnel were lost. The 101st Airborne Division's objectives were to secure the four causeway exits behind
Utah Beach between
Saint-Martin-de-Varreville and
Pouppeville to ensure the exit route for the 4th Infantry Division from the beach later that morning. The other objectives included destroying a German coastal artillery battery at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, capturing buildings nearby at
Mézières believed used as barracks and a command post for the artillery battery, capturing the
Douve river lock at
La Barquette (opposite
Carentan), capturing two footbridges spanning the Douve at La Porte opposite
Brévands, destroying the highway bridges over the Douve at
Saint-Côme-du-Mont, and securing the Douve River valley. Their secondary mission was to protect the southern flank of
VII Corps. They destroyed two bridges along the Carentan highway and a railroad bridge just west of it. They gained control of La Barquette locks, and established a bridgehead over the Douve which was located north-east of Carentan. (the original division reserve) was dropped accurately on DZ C, landing two-thirds of its sticks and regimental commander Col.
Robert F. Sink on or within a mile of the drop zone. Most of the 2nd Battalion had jumped too far west, near Sainte-Mère-Église. They eventually assembled near Foucarville at the northern edge of the 101st Airborne's objective area. It fought its way to the hamlet of Le Grand Chemin near the Houdienville causeway by mid-afternoon, but found that the
4th Division had already seized the exit hours before. The 3rd Battalion of the
501st PIR, led by Lt. Col.
Julian J. Ewell (3/501), also assigned to jump onto DZ C, was more scattered, but took over the mission of securing the exits. An ad hoc
company-sized team that included division commander Maj. Gen.
Maxwell D. Taylor reached the Pouppeville exit at 06:00. After a six-hour house-clearing battle with elements of the German 1058th Grenadier Regiment, the group secured the exit shortly before 4th Division troops arrived to link up.
Drop Zone Dog The third wave also encountered severe
flak, losing six aircraft. The troop carriers still made an accurate drop, placing 94 of 132 sticks on or close to the drop zone, but part of the DZ was covered by pre-registered German machine gun and mortar fire that inflicted heavy casualties before many troops could get out of their chutes. Among the killed were two of the three battalion commanders and the executive officer of the 3/506th. The surviving battalion commander, Lt. Col. Robert A. Ballard, gathered 250 troopers and advanced toward Saint Côme-du-Mont to complete his mission of destroying the highway bridges over the Douve. Less than half a mile from his objective at les Droueries he was stopped by elements of battalion III/1058 Grenadier-Rgt. Another group of 50 men, assembled by the regimental S-3, Major Richard J. Allen, attacked the same area from the east at Basse-Addeville but was also pinned down. The commander of the 501st PIR, Col. Howard R. Johnson, collected 150 troops and captured the main objective, la Barquette lock, by 04:00. After establishing defensive positions, Col. Johnson went back to the DZ and assembled another 100 men, including Allen's group, to reinforce the bridgehead. Despite naval gunfire support from the cruiser , Ballard's battalion was unable to take Saint Côme-du-Mont or join Col. Johnson. The S-3 officer of the 3rd Battalion 506th PIR, Capt. Charles G. Shettle, put together a
platoon and achieved another objective by seizing two foot bridges near la Porte at 04:30 and crossed to the east bank. When their ammunition drew low after knocking out several machine gun emplacements, the small force withdrew to the west bank. It doubled in size overnight as stragglers came in and repulsed a German probe across the bridges.
Other actions Two other noteworthy actions took place near Sainte Marie-du-Mont by units of the 506th PIR, both of which involved the seizure and destruction of
batteries of
105 mm guns of the
German III Battalion-191st Artillery Regiment. During the morning, a small patrol of troopers from Company E 506th PIR under (then) 1st Lt.
Richard D. Winters overwhelmed a force 3–4 times its size and destroyed four guns at a farm called
Brécourt Manor, for which Winters was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the assault troops given Silver and Bronze Stars. vehicle air identification sign two days after landing at Normandy. Around noon, while reconnoitering the area by
jeep, Col. Sink received word that a second battery of four guns had been discovered at Holdy, a manor between his CP and Sainte Marie-du-Mont, and the defenders had a force of some 70 paratroopers pinned down. Capt. Lloyd E. Patch (Headquarters Company 1st/506th) and Capt. Knut H. Raudstein (Company C 506th PIR) led an additional 70 troops to Holdy and enveloped the position. The combined force then continued on to seize Sainte Marie-du-Mont. A platoon of the 502nd PIR, left to hold the battery, destroyed three of the four guns before Col. Sink could send four jeeps to save them for the 101st's use. At the end of D-Day, Gen. Taylor and division artillery commander Brig. Gen.
Anthony C. McAuliffe returned from their foray at Pouppeville. Taylor had control of approximately 2,500 of his 6,600 men, most of whom were in the vicinity of the 506th CP at Culoville, with the thin defense line west of Saint Germain-du-Varreville, or the division reserve at Blosville. Two
glider airlifts had brought in scant reinforcements and had resulted in the death of his assistant division commander (ADC), Brig. Gen.
Don F. Pratt, his neck broken on impact. The 327th Glider Infantry had come across Utah Beach but only its third battalion (1st Battalion 401st GIR) had reported in. The 101st Airborne Division had accomplished its most important mission of securing the beach exits, but had a tenuous hold on positions near the Douve River, over which the Germans could still move armored units. The three groups clustered there had tenuous contact with each other but none with the rest of the division. A shortage of radio equipment caused by losses during the drops exacerbated his control problems. Taylor made destroying the Douve bridges the division's top priority and delegated the task to Sink, who issued orders for the 1st Battalion 401st Glider Infantry to lead three battalions south the next morning.
Carentan On 10 June the division launched an assault to seize the town of Carentan, a major road and rail hub that served as a critical junction between Utah and Omaha beaches. As such Carentan was heavily defended by the 2nd Fallschirmjäger-Division, 91st Luftlande-Infanterie-Division and elements of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division. Deliberate flooding of the Douve River floodplain north of the town left the elevated causeway linking
Saint-Côme-du-Mont and Carentan, later named
Purple Heart Lane, as the most expedient route to Carentan. The 502nd PIR was assigned the task of assaulting down this highway while the 327th GIR crossed the Douve north of Carentan and attacked from the northeast. 3rd Battalion, 502nd PIR led the 502nds attack, with a reconnaissance patrol reaching the fourth and final bridge on the causeway into Carentan on the morning of 10 June. The rest of 3/502 attempted to reach the fourth bridge during the day, but damage to the preceding bridges on the causeway, as well as artillery, dive bomber, machine gun and sniper fire, stalled the battalion until the next day and inflicted heavy casualties. Early on 11 June, 3/502 resumes its attack and attempts to seize a farmhouse just beyond Bridge No.4, but is halted by heavy German fire. Using a smoke screen, the 3/502nd's battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel
Robert G. Cole, led a bayonet charge that secured the farmhouse, allowing the 506th PIR to pass the 502nds lines and seize Carentan. For his bravery and leadership, LTC Cole was awarded the first of two
Medals of Honor earned by Screaming Eagle soldiers in WWII. By D plus 8, 14 June, the mop up of scattered enemy resistance was in its final stages. The 327th GIR maintained a defensive posture along the railway from Carentan on the right to the crossing of the Vire River on the left. The 506th Parachute Infantry was ordered to prepare a strong reserve defensive position just west and southwest of Carentan. On the 15th, troops of the 30th Division passed through the 327th positions while the 29th linked up and consolidated one flank of the 101st positions. On the 16th the 327th took up defensive positions between the 502nd and the 501st. As the regular troops moved in from the beachheads including those of the 83rd Division, strengthening the paratrooper positions, the 101st was relieved and returned to England to rest and refit for the next airborne operation. The first elements of the division returned to Southampton, England on 12 July 1944 in the presence of Secretary of War
Henry L. Stimson according to the private papers of Lt. Gen.
John C. H. Lee, commanding general of the
Communications Zone, ETO who received the Secretary's visit. After the
American breakout from Normandy and subsequent liberation of France,
SHAEF planned several jumps for the 101st ahead of the advancing armies, but all were cancelled prior to launch due to the rapid advance of Allied ground troops.
Operation Market Garden On 17 September 1944, the 101st Airborne Division became part of
XVIII Airborne Corps, under
Major General Matthew Ridgway, part of the
First Allied Airborne Army, commanded by
Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton. The division took part in
Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944), an unsuccessful Allied military operation under
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Anglo-Canadian
21st Army Group, to capture Dutch bridges over the Rhine. It was fought in the Netherlands, and is the largest airborne operation of any war. The plan, as outlined by Montgomery, required the seizure by airborne forces of several bridges on the
Highway 69 across the Maas (
Meuse River) and two arms of the
Rhine (the
Waal and the
Lower Rhine), as well as several smaller
canals and
tributaries. Crossing these bridges would allow British armoured units to
outflank the
Siegfried Line, advance into northern Germany, and encircle the
Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland, thus ending the war. This meant the large-scale use of Allied
airborne forces, including both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, along with the
British 1st Airborne Division. The operation was initially successful. Several bridges between
Eindhoven and
Nijmegen were captured by the 82nd and 101st. The 101st met little resistance and captured most of their initial objectives by the end of 17 September. However, the demolition of the division's primary objective, a bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at
Son, delayed the capture of the main road bridge over the Maas until 20 September. Faced with the loss of the bridge at Son, the 101st unsuccessfully attempted to capture a similar bridge a few kilometers away at
Best but found the approach blocked. During the fighting near Best, Private First Class
Joe E. Mann of 3rd Battalion, 502nd PIR posthumously earned the division's second and last Medal of Honor during WWII for throwing his body unto a German grenade he was too badly wounded to throw back, saving several of his fellow soldiers. Other units continued moving to the south and eventually reached the northern end of Eindhoven. At 06:00 on 18 September, the
Irish Guards of the
British Guards Armoured Division resumed the advance while facing determined resistance from German infantry and tanks. Around noon the 101st Airborne were met by the lead reconnaissance units from
British XXX Corps. At 16:00 radio contact alerted the main force that the Son bridge had been destroyed and requested that a replacement
Bailey bridge be brought forward. By nightfall the Guards Armoured Division had established itself in the Eindhoven area however transport columns were jammed in the packed streets of the town and were subjected to German aerial bombardment during the night. XXX Corps engineers, supported by German prisoners of war, constructed a class 40 Bailey bridge within 10 hours across the Wilhelmina Canal. In order to reach Antwerp before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize all the major highways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven of the main roads in the Ardennes converged on the small town of
Bastogne, control of its crossroads was vital to the success or failure of the German attack. Despite several notable signs in the weeks preceding the attack, the Ardennes Offensive achieved virtually complete surprise. By the end of the second day of battle, it became apparent that the
28th Infantry Division was near collapse. Maj. Gen.
Troy H. Middleton, commander of
VIII Corps, ordered part of his armored reserve, Combat Command B of the
10th Armored Division to Bastogne. Meanwhile, Gen.
Eisenhower ordered forward the
SHAEF reserve, composed of the 82nd and 101st Airborne, which were stationed at
Reims. Both divisions were alerted on the evening of 17 December, and not having organic transport, began arranging trucks for movement forward, the weather conditions being unfit for a parachute drop. The 82nd, longer in reserve and thus better re-equipped, moved out first. The 101st left Camp Mourmelon on the afternoon of 18 December, with the order of march the division artillery, division trains, 501st PIR,
506th PIR, 502nd PIR, and
327th Glider Infantry. Much of the convoy was conducted at night in drizzle and sleet, using headlights despite threat of air attack to speed the movement, and at one point the combined column stretched from
Bouillon, Belgium, back to Reims. The 101st Airborne was routed to Bastogne, located away on a high
plateau, while the 82nd Airborne took up positions further north to block the critical advance of
Kampfgruppe Peiper toward Werbomont, Belgium. The
705th Tank Destroyer Battalion, in reserve sixty miles to the north, was ordered to Bastogne to provide anti-tank support to the armorless 101st Airborne on the 18th and arrived late the next evening. The first elements of the
501st PIR entered the division assembly area four miles west of Bastogne shortly after midnight of 19 December, and by 09:00 the entire division had arrived. By 21 December, the German forces had surrounded Bastogne, which was defended by both the 101st Airborne and
Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division. Conditions inside the perimeter were tough—most of the medical supplies and medical personnel had been captured on 19 December. CCB of the 10th Armored Division, severely weakened by losses in delaying the German advance, formed a mobile "fire brigade" of 40 light and medium tanks (including survivors of CCR of the
9th Armored Division, which had been destroyed while delaying the Germans, and eight replacement tanks found unassigned in Bastogne). Three artillery battalions, including the all-black
969th Field Artillery Battalion, were commandeered by the 101st and formed a temporary artillery group. Each had twelve 155 mm howitzers, providing the division with heavy firepower in all directions restricted only by its limited ammunition supply (by 22 December artillery ammunition was restricted to 10 rounds per gun per day). The weather cleared the next day, however, and supplies (primarily ammunition) were dropped over four of the next five days. on
Christmas Day to the 101st Airborne troops defending
Bastogne Despite several determined German attacks, the perimeter held. The German commander, Generalleutnant
Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz, requested Bastogne's surrender. When
General Anthony McAuliffe, now acting commander of the 101st, was told, he commented : "Nuts!" After turning to other pressing issues, his staff reminded him that there should be a reply to the German demand. One officer (Harry W. O. Kinnard, then a lieutenant colonel) recommended that McAuliffe's reply would be "tough to beat". Thus, McAuliffe wrote on the paper delivered to the Germans: "NUTS!" That reply had to be explained, both to the Germans and to non-American Allies. Both of the two panzer divisions of the XLVII Panzer Corps moved forward from Bastogne after 21 December, leaving only one panzergrenadier regiment of the
Panzer-Lehr-Division to assist the
26th Volksgrenadier Division in attempting to capture the crossroads. The 26th VG received additional armor and panzergrenadier reinforcements on Christmas Eve to prepare for its final assault, to take place on Christmas Day. Because it lacked sufficient armor and troops and the 26th VG Division was near exhaustion, the XLVII Panzer Corps concentrated the assault on several individual locations on the west side of perimeter in sequence rather than launching one simultaneous attack on all sides. The assault, despite initial success by German tanks in penetrating the American line, was defeated and virtually all of the German tanks involved were destroyed. The next day, 26 December, the spearhead of
General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army relief force, the
4th Armored Division, broke through the German lines and opened a corridor to Bastogne, ending the siege. The division got the nickname "The Battered Bastards of the Bastion of Bastogne". With the encirclement broken, the men of the 101st expected to be relieved, but were given orders to resume the offensive. The 506th attacked north and recaptured
Recogne on 9 January 1945, the Bois des Corbeaux (
Corbeaux Wood), to the right of Easy Company, on 10 January, and Foy on 13 January. The 327th attacked towards Bourcy, northeast of Bastogne, on 13 January and encountered stubborn resistance. The 101st Airborne Division faced the elite of the German military which included such units as
1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler,
Führerbegleitbrigade,
12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, and the
9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen. The 506th retook Noville on 15 January and Rachamps the next day. The 502nd reinforced the 327th, and the two regiments captured Bourcy on 17 January, pushing the Germans back to their point of advance on the day the division had arrived in Bastogne. The next day the 101st Airborne Division was relieved. of the
1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. The 101st Airborne Division fought this elite
Waffen SS division when the 101st attacked towards Bourcy, northeast of Bastogne, on 13 January 1945.
Liberation of Kaufering In April 1945, the 101st moved into the Rhineland and eventually reached the Bavarian Alps. As the 101st drove into Southern Germany they liberated Kaufering IV, one of the camps in the
Kaufering complex. Kaufering IV had been designated as the sick camp where prisoners who could no longer work were sent. During the typhus epidemic of 1945 in Germany, Kaufering prisoners with typhus were sent there to die. Kaufering IV was located near the town of Hurlach, which the
12th Armored Division occupied on 27 April, with the 101st arriving the next day. The soldiers found over 500 dead inmates and the Army ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead.
Composition . The division was composed of the following units: • 327th Glider Infantry Regiment • 401st Glider Infantry Regiment (disbanded 1 March 1945, 1st Battalion became the 3rd Battalion, 327th GIR, while the 2nd Battalion became the 3rd Battalion,
325th GIR,
82nd Airborne Division) • 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment • 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (attached 15 September 1943 to 1 March 1945, thereafter assigned) • 81st Airborne Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion • 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion • 101st Parachute Maintenance Company (assigned 1 March 45) •
326th Airborne Medical Company • 101st Airborne Division Artillery •
321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion (75 mm) •
377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (75 mm) • 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (75 mm) (assigned 1 March 1945) • 907th Glider Field Artillery Battalion (75 mm) • Special Troops (Headquarters activated 1 Mar 45) • Headquarters Company, 101st Airborne Division • 101st Airborne Signal Company • 426th Airborne Quartermaster Company • 801st Airborne Ordnance Company • Reconnaissance Platoon (assigned 1 March 45) • Military Police Platoon • Band (assigned 1 March 45) Attached paratrooper units: • 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (attached January 1944 – past 9 May 1945)
Casualties •
Total battle casualties: 9,328 •
Killed in action: 1,766 •
Distinguished Unit Citations: 13 •
Medal of Honor: 2 • Lieutenant Colonel
Robert G. Cole(
KIA) • Private First Class
Joe E. Mann(
KIA) •
Distinguished Service Cross: 56 •
Distinguished Service Medal: 2 •
Silver Star: 456 •
Legion of Merit: 20 •
Soldier's Medal: 4 •
Bronze Star Medal: 9,488 •
Air Medal: 48
Post-World War II By
V-E Day the 101st was exhausted. When Taylor asked "We've licked the best that Hitler had in France and Holland and Germany. Now where do we want to go?" his men shouted "Home", part of the demand among soldiers and civilians for rapid
demobilization of United States Armed Forces after World War II. On 1 August 1945, the 501st PIR was moved to France, while the rest of the division was based around
Zell am See and
Kaprun in the Austrian Alps. Some units within the division began training for redeployment to the
Pacific Theatre of War, but the war ended before they were needed. The division was inactivated 30 November 1945. For their efforts during World War II, the 101st Airborne Division was awarded four campaign streamers and two Presidential Unit Citations.
Helmet insignia The 101st was distinguished partly by its tactical helmet insignia.
Card suits (diamonds, spades, hearts, and clubs) on each side of the helmet denoted the regiment to which a soldier belonged. The only exception was the 187th which was added to the division later. Divisional headquarters and support units were denoted by use of a square and divisional artillery by a circle. Tick marks at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock indicated to which battalion the individual belonged, while the tick mark at 12 o'clock indicated a headquarters or headquarters company assignment. • These insignia were first seen in World War II, and can still be seen on 101st Division soldiers today. • 327th: Clubs (♣) (Currently worn by the 1st Brigade Combat Team; depicted in the 1949 film
Battleground) • 501st: Diamonds (♦) (Currently 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment is part of the 2nd Brigade, 11th Airborne Division in Alaska.) (The diamond is currently used by both 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment and the 101st
Combat Aviation Brigade) • 502nd: Hearts (♥) (Currently worn by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team) • 506th: Spades (♠) (Formerly worn by 4th Brigade Combat Team before their inactivation in 2014; depicted in the mini-series
Band of Brothers; currently worn by 1st and 2nd Battalion of the 506th Infantry Regiment) •
187th:
Torii () (Currently worn by the 3rd Brigade Combat Team; not during World War II, when the 187th Infantry Regiment was part of the
11th Airborne Division.)
Postwar training and pentomic reactivation The 101st Airborne was allotted to the Regular Army in June 1948 the 101st was reactivated as the first "
pentomic" division with five
battle groups in place of its World War II structure that included regiments and battalions. The reorganization was in place by late April 1957 and the division's battle groups were: • 2nd Airborne Battle Group, 187th Infantry • 1st Airborne Battle Group, 327th Infantry • 1st Airborne Battle Group, 501st Infantry • 1st Airborne Battle Group, 502nd Infantry • 1st Airborne Battle Group, 506th Infantry Division artillery consisted of the following units: • Battery D, 319th Artillery • Battery E, 319th Artillery • Battery A, 321st Artillery • Battery B, 321st Artillery • Battery C, 321st Artillery • Battery A, 377th Artillery Other supporting units were also assigned.
Civil rights The "
Little Rock Nine" were a group of African-American students who were enrolled in
Little Rock Central High School in September 1957, as a result of the
U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the historic
Brown v. Board of Education case. Elements of the division's 1st Airborne Battle Group, 327th Infantry were ordered to
Little Rock by President Eisenhower to escort the students into the formerly segregated school during the crisis. The division was under the command of Major General
Edwin Walker, who was committed to protecting the black students. The troops were deployed from September until Thanksgiving 1957, when
Task Force 153rd Infantry, (federalized
Arkansas Army National Guard) which had also been on duty at the school since 24 September, assumed the responsibility.
STRAC In 1958 the US Army formed the
Strategic Army Corps consisting of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and the 1st and 4th Infantry Divisions with a mission of rapid deployment on short notice.
Vietnam War On 29 July 1965, the 1st Brigade deployed to
II Corps,
South Vietnam with the following units: • 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry • 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry • 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry •
2nd Battalion, 320th Artillery •
Troop A, 2nd Squadron 17th Cavalry • 101st Support Battalion (Provisional) • Company A, 326th Engineer Battalion • Company D,
326th Medical Battalion • Company B, 501st Signal Battalion • 20th Chemical Detachment • 181st Military Intelligence Detachment • 406th Army Security Agency Detachment From 1965 to 1967, the 1st Brigade operated independently as sort of a fire brigade and earned the reputation as being called the "Nomads of Vietnam." They fought in every area of South Vietnam from the
Demilitarized Zone up north all the way down the
Central Highlands. In May 1967 the 1st Brigade operated as part of
Task Force Oregon.
Tiger Force Tiger Force was the nickname of a
long-range reconnaissance patrol unit of the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade (Separate), 101st Airborne Division, which fought in the
Vietnam War. The platoon-sized unit, approximately 45
paratroopers, was founded by Colonel
David Hackworth in November 1965 to "outguerrilla the guerrillas". Tiger Force (Recon) 1/327th was a highly decorated small unit in Vietnam, and paid for its reputation with heavy casualties. In October 1968, Tiger Force's parent battalion was awarded the
Presidential Unit Citation by President
Lyndon B. Johnson, which included a mention of Tiger Force's service at
Đắk Tô in June 1966. The unit was accused of committing multiple war crimes. Investigators concluded that many of the war crimes indeed took place. Despite this, the Army decided not to pursue any prosecutions. By the end of the war, Tiger Force had killed approximately 1,000 enemy soldiers.
Lam Son 719 In 1971, elements of the division supported
Operation Lam Son 719, the South Vietnamese invasion of southern Laos, but only aviation units actually entered Laos. The division began withdrawing from South Vietnam on 15 May 1971 with the departure of the 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry. Most major units of the Division had redeployed by January 1972. The division, during this time, participated in 12 separate campaigns and 17 of the division's Medal of Honor recipients are from this period of time – all this giving the 101st Airborne Division a combat record unmatched by any other division. The division also was authorized to wear a full color (white eagle) shoulder patch insignia instead of the subdued green eagle shoulder patch that was worn as a combat patch by soldiers who fought with the 101st in Vietnam. While serving with the 101st, it was also acceptable to wear a non-subdued patch as a combat patch, a distinction shared with the 1st and 5th Infantry divisions. , participates in a field exercise in 1972.
M16A1 rifle in background with each soldier wearing an
M1 helmet. In the late 1970s, the division maintained one battalion on a rotating basis as the division ready force (DRF). The force was in place to respond to alerts for action anywhere in the world. After alert notification, troopers of the "hot" platoon/company, would be airborne, "wheels-up" within 30 minutes as the first responding unit. All other companies of the battalion would follow within one hour. Within 24 hours there would be one brigade deployed to the affected area, with the remainder of the division deploying as needed. In September 1980, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 2nd Brigade, took part in
Operation Bright Star '80, an exercise deployment to Egypt. In 1984, the command group formed a full-time team, the "Screaming Eagles", Command Parachute Demonstration Team. However the team traces its history to the late 1950s, during the infancy of precision free fall. On 12 December 1985, a civilian aircraft,
Arrow Air Flight 1285, chartered to transport some of the division from peacekeeping duty with the
Multinational Force and Observers on the
Sinai Peninsula to Kentucky, crashed just a short distance from
Gander International Airport,
Gander,
Newfoundland. All eight air crew members and 248 US servicemen died, most were from the 3d Battalion, 502d Infantry.
Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board investigators were unable to determine the exact sequence of events which led to the accident, but determined that the probable cause of the crash was the aircraft's unexpectedly high drag and reduced lift condition, most likely due to
ice contamination on the wings' leading edges and upper surfaces, as well as underestimated onboard weight. A
minority report stated that the accident could have been caused by an onboard explosion of unknown origin prior to impact. At the time it was
17th most disastrous aviation accident in terms of fatalities. President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy traveled to Fort Campbell to comfort grieving family members. On 8 March 1988, two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters assigned to the 101st Aviation Brigade collided while on a night training mission at Fort Campbell. All 17 soldiers aboard were killed. The dead included four helicopter crewmen and 13 members of the 502d Infantry Regiment. The Army's accident investigation attributed the crash to pilot error, aircraft design, and the limited field of view afforded pilots using night vision goggles (NVGs). Numerous improvements have been made in NVG technology since the accident occurred.
Air assault operations In 1974, the 101st Airborne was reorganized as an
air assault division. The foundation of modern-day air assault operations was laid by the German Army's development of air mobility during World War II. Specifically, the
Fallschirmjäger,
Brandenburgers, and the
22nd Air Landing Division played key roles in refining these tactics. In 1941 the U.S. Army quickly adopted this concept of offensive operations initially utilizing wooden gliders before the development of helicopters. Air Assault operations consist of highly mobile teams covering extensive distances and engaging enemy forces behind enemy lines and often by surprise, as they are usually masked by darkness. The 101st Airborne had earned a place in the U.S. Army's
AirLand Battle doctrine. • Headquarters & Headquarters Company •
1st Brigade • Headquarters & Headquarters Company • 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry • 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry • 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry •
2nd Brigade • Headquarters & Headquarters Company • 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry • 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry • 3rd Battalion, 502nd Infantry •
3rd Brigade • Headquarters & Headquarters Company • 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry • 2nd Battalion, 187th Infantry • 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry •
Aviation Brigade • Headquarters & Headquarters Company • 2d Squadron,
17th Cavalry (Reconnaissance) • 1st Battalion,
101st Aviation (Attack) • 2d Battalion, 101st Aviation (Inactive between 16 November 1988 and 16 August 1991) • 3d Battalion, 101st Aviation (Attack) • 4th Battalion, 101st Aviation (Assault) • 5th Battalion, 101st Aviation (Assault) • 6th Battalion, 101st Aviation (General Support) • 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation (Medium Lift) • 9th Battalion, 101st Aviation (Assault - constituted 16 December 1989) •
Division Artillery • Headquarters & Headquarters Battery • 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery (18 ×
M102 105 mm towed howitzer) • 2d Battalion, 320th Field Artillery (18 × M102 105mm towed howitzer) • 2nd Battalion,
44th Air Defense Artillery •
326th Engineer Battalion • 501st Signal Battalion • 311th Military Intelligence Battalion • 101st Military Police Company • 63rd Chemical Company • 101st Airborne Division Band
Gulf War , with the 101st Airborne Division positioned at the left flank On 17 January 1991, the 101st Aviation Regiment fired the first shots of the war when eight
AH-64 helicopters successfully destroyed two Iraqi early warning radar sites. Approximately 400 helicopters transported 2,000 soldiers into Iraq, where they destroyed Iraqi columns trying to flee westward and prevented the escape of Iraqi forces. The Screaming Eagles would travel an additional into Iraq. By nightfall, the 101st had cut off Highway 8, which was a vital supply line running between Basra and the Iraqi forces. The 101st lost 16 soldiers in action during the 100-hour war and captured thousands of the enemy. ==Post-Cold War to present==