77th Sustainment Brigade

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77th Sustainment Brigade
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst
Nickname(s)"Statue of Liberty" (special designation)[1]
EngagementsWorld War I

World War II

Commanders
Current
commander
Andrew D. Bruce
Julius Ochs Adler

The 77th Sustainment Brigade is a unit of the

Fort Totten in Bayside, Queens, New York. Soldiers from the 77th have served in most major conflict and contingency operations since World War II.[not verified in body
]

The division is nicknamed the "Statue of Liberty Division"; the shoulder patch bears the Statue of Liberty in gold on a blue isosceles-trapezoid shape. U.S. Marines on Guam nicknamed them the "77th Marine Division".[not verified in body]

The

Clearview Expressway in Queens
, New York, is named the "U.S. Army 77th Infantry Division Expressway", honoring the division and its successor commands.

World War I

See also: Lost Battalion (World War I)
  • Activated: 18 August 1917 Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York.
  • Operations: Meuse-Argonne, Oise-Aisne.
Major-General Arthur Solly-Flood
(42nd Division) on a road near Famechon, France, 7 June 1918.

The 77th Infantry Division consisted initially of draftees, mostly from

Suffolk County, Long Island; the camp is now Brookhaven National Laboratory
.

Square Division example: 1940 US Infantry Division. On the far left can be seen two brigades of two regiments each.

It was the first American division composed of draftees to arrive in France in World War I, landing in April 1918; overall, it was the seventh of 42 divisions to reach the Western Front. The division fought in the Battle of Château-Thierry on 18 July 1918 and later in the Meuse–Argonne offensive, the largest battle in the history of the United States Army, from late September until the Armistice with Germany on November 11, 1918. During its service in France, the 77th Division sustained 10,194 casualties: of these 1,486 men were killed and another 8,708 were wounded.

The division, after serving on occupation duties for the next few months, returned to the United States in April 1919 and was deactivated at Camp Upton later that month.

Men of Company I, 308th Infantry, resting after capturing German second line trenches 1½ miles north of Le Four de Paris; Lieutenant Stewart in charge: Foret d'Argonne (Forest of Argonne), September 1918.

The 153rd Infantry Brigade consisted of the 305th Infantry Regiment, 306th Infantry Regiment, and 305th Machine Gun Battalion.[2] The brigade was initially commanded by Brigadier General Edmund Wittenmyer.[2]

Doughboys of the 302nd Field Signal Battalion, 77th Division, unrolling and rewinding telephone wire into smaller rolls for convenience in field work, near Vesle, France, September 6, 1918.

The 154th Infantry Brigade was composed of the

307th and 308th Infantry Regiments and the 306th Machine Gun Battalion.[3] The brigade's inaugural commander was Brigadier General Evan M. Johnson.[2]

While the division had been recruited as a National Army unit from the New York City area, attrition and replacements had complicated the complexion of the unit. For example, the 40th Division had been converted into a "depot division" in August 1918 to equip, train, and forward replacements to other units, and in the process, Company L of the 160th Infantry, part of the California National Guard, had supplied many of its original men to Company K of the 307th Infantry as replacements.

The "Lost Battalion" of World War I fame was composed of six companies of the 308th Infantry Regiment and one from the 307th Infantry Regiment.

Order of battle

  • Headquarters, 77th Division
  • 153rd Infantry Brigade
    • 305th Infantry Regiment
    • 306th Infantry Regiment
    • 305th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 154th Infantry Brigade
    • 307th Infantry Regiment
    • 308th Infantry Regiment
    • 306th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 152nd Field Artillery Brigade
    • 304th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
    • 305th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
    • 306th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm)
    • 302nd Trench Mortar Battery
  • 307th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 302nd Engineer Regiment
  • 302nd Field Signal Battalion
  • Headquarters Troop, 77th Division
  • 302nd Train Headquarters and Military Police
    • 302nd Ammunition Train
    • 302nd Supply Train
    • 302nd Engineer Train
    • 302nd Sanitary Train
      • 305th, 306th, 307th, and 308th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals

Interwar period

The 77th Division was reconstituted in the

Corps Area, and assigned to the XII Corps. The division was further allotted to the southeastern portion of the state of New York, primarily the metropolitan area of New York City and Long Island, as its home area. The division headquarters was organized on 1 July 1921 at the Army Building, 39 Whitehall Street in Manhattan, relocated in 1933 to the Federal Office Building at 641 Washington Street, and remained there until activated for World War II. The initial formation of the division began with a rush, and by July 1923, the “Statue of Liberty” Division was up to full strength in its complement of officers as required by its peacetime tables of organization and was the first Reserve division to do so. Many of its officers were Great War veterans of the division, and so there was a direct tie to the World War I organization, which established an esprit de corps equaled by few other Organized Reserve divisions during the period between the world wars. Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Whittlesey, the commander of the famous “Lost Battalion” during World War I, was instrumental in the initial recruiting efforts to get the division up to strength in the early 1920s. The division established a clubhouse at 27 West 25th Street in Manhattan which added to the camaraderie. Over a number of years, most units of the division had bronze plaques cast and inscribed with the names of their war dead mounted in the sitting areas of the club. Some 300 officers and men of the division participated annually in the Army Day parade and over 550 participated in the homecoming parade for Charles Lindbergh
on 13 June 1927. All of these served to increase the esprit and camaraderie of the Statue of Liberty Division.

The designated mobilization and training station for the division was

Plattsburg Barracks each year. The field artillery regiments conducted field artillery CMTC training at Madison Barracks
, New York.

Although corps area commanders were nominally in command of the three Organized Reserve divisions in their corps area, with division chiefs of staff handling day-to-day operations, they sometimes designated junior Regular Army or Reserve general officers in their corps areas to serve as Organized Reserve division commanders in addition to their other duties. As of 1937, the 77th Division was commanded by Brigadier General Perry L. Miles, who was concurrently the commander of the 1st Division's 2nd Infantry Brigade.[4] Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the Second Corps Area, the 77th Division did not participate in the Second Corps Area maneuvers and the First Army maneuvers of 1935, 1939, and 1940, as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment. Instead, the officers and a number of the enlisted reservists were assigned to Regular and Guard units to fill vacant slots and bring the units up to war strength for the exercises. Additionally, some were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel. Due to the mobilization of many Organized Reserve officers beginning in 1939 for assignment to other units, all officers less those in the infantry and field artillery were relieved from their divisional assignments in July 1941 and assigned to branch pools instead.[5]

World War II

1st Battalion Landing Team, 306th Infantry, in the Kerama Islands on 27 March 1945
Men of the 77th Infantry division listen to radio reports of Germany's surrender on 8 May 1945.
Triangular Division example: 1942 U.S. infantry division. The brigades of the Square division have been removed, and there are three regiments directly under divisional control.

Order of battle

  • Headquarters, 77th Infantry Division
  • 305th Infantry Regiment
  • 306th Infantry Regiment
  • 307th Infantry Regiment
  • Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 77th Infantry Division Artillery
    • 304th Field Artillery Battalion
    • 305th Field Artillery Battalion
    • 306th Field Artillery Battalion
    • 902nd Field Artillery Battalion
  • 302nd Engineer Combat Battalion
  • 233rd Engineer Combat Battalion
  • 302nd Medical Battalion
  • 77th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)
  • Headquarters, Special Troops, 77th Infantry Division
    • Headquarters Company, 77th Infantry Division
    • 777th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
    • 77th Quartermaster Company
    • 77th Signal Company
    • Military Police Platoon
    • Band
  • 77th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered to active duty, they were reorganized on paper as triangular divisions. The 77th Infantry Division was ordered into active military service on 25 March 1942 around a cadre of officers and men from the

Ormoc
on 10 December. Attacking north, astride Highway No. 2, the division secured Valencia and the Libungao-Palompon road junction. Mopping up operations continued through January 1945 until 5 February 1945.

The next combat assignment was

occupation duty
, and was inactivated a few months later on 15 March 1946.

Casualties

  • Total battle casualties: 7,461[6]
  • Killed in action: 1,449[6]
  • Wounded in action: 5,935[6]
  • Missing in action: 76
  • Prisoner of war: 27[6]

21st century

Five soldiers from the 77th lost their lives at the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks, while serving in their civilian duties.[7]

The lineage of the 77th Infantry Division is perpetuated today by the 77th Sustainment Brigade, a unit of the Army Reserve, with its headquarters at Fort Dix, N.J. In 2011, the brigade deployed to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn. The brigade headquarters was stationed in Balad, Iraq and held logistical responsibility for the re-posturing of forces in northern Iraq. The unit's motto is "Liberty Warriors".[citation needed]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ a b "Special Unit Designations". United States Army Center of Military History. 21 April 2010. Archived from the original on 9 July 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  2. ^ a b c Center of Military History, United States Army (1988). Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. Vol. 2. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. pp. 296–297 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ McGrath, The Brigade, 37
  4. ^ Cullum, George W. (1940). Farman, E. E. (ed.). Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Chicago, IL, Crawfordsville, IN: R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, The Lakeside Press. p. 99 – via West Point Digital Library.
  5. ^ Clay, Steven E. (2010). U.S. Army Order of Battle, 1919-1941, Volume 1. The Arms: Major Commands and Infantry Organizations, 1919-41. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press. p. 244-245.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ^ a b c d Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
  7. ^ Capt. Jason Pyeatt (8 September 2012). "Fort Totten, Queens, New York 9/11/2001 Memorial Ceremony". 361st Public Affairs Operations Center. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
Bibliography

https://archive.org/stream/OursToHoldItHigh#page/n1/mode/2up

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 77th Division (United States).

Ours To Hold It High: the history of the 77th Infantry Division in World War II

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