94th Infantry Division (United States)
94th Infantry Division | |
---|---|
Active | 1918 1921–1946 1956–present |
Country | United States |
Branch | United States Army |
Type | Infantry |
Size | Division |
Garrison/HQ | Fort Gregg-Adams |
Nickname(s) | "Pilgrim Division" "Neuf Quatres" "Patton's Golden Nugget" |
Engagements | World War II
Brigadier General Stephen Iacovelli |
Insignia | |
Distinctive unit insignia |
The 94th Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I, and of the Organized Reserve Corps in 1921 until 1942.
The 94th Infantry Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War II, and of the United States Army Reserve from 1956 until 1963. It continued in the Army Reserve as the 94th Command Headquarters (Divisional) from 1963 until the Army's realignment of reserve component combat arms into the Army National Guard in 1967.
The 94th Army Reserve Command (later redesignated 94th Regional Support Command and 94th Regional Readiness Command) was a regional command and control headquarters over most United States Army Reserve units throughout the six New England states of Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. For forty years, beginning in the late 1960s, the United States Army Reserve was divided up into a varying number of regional, branch-immaterial commands. Originally designated "army reserve commands" ("ARCOMs"), several were disbanded in and around 1995, while the remainder were redesignated "regional support commands" ("RSCs") at that time and re-dubbed "regional readiness commands" ("RRCs") in 2001. In addition to the RRCs, several mission-oriented commands were established, including such as training divisions and engineer commands. Like most RRCs, the 94th Regional Readiness Command was scheduled to be deactivated in fiscal year 2009 as part of the Army Reserve's reorganization into a functionally based command structure reporting to respective major Army commands ("MACOMs"); plans were altered, the 94th became a training division headquartered at Fort Lee, now Fort Gregg-Adams.
The 94th ARCOM/RSC/RRC wore the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 94th Infantry Division but did not, according to the United States Army Center of Military History, perpetuate the lineage of the old division and was thus not entitled to the division's battle honors, as it is against Army policy for TDA organizations, such as ARCOMs, RSCs and RRCs, to perpetuate the lineage of TO&E units, such as infantry divisions.[citation needed] Army Regulation 840-10 dictates that the distinguishing flag of an RRC features a white-bordered, 38.1 cm (15 in.) tall rendering of the shoulder sleeve insignia on a plain blue background, rather than on the horizontally divided bi-colour background of red over blue as carried by an infantry division.
Although the 94th RRC did not carry the lineage of the 94th Infantry Division, today's 94th Military Police Company (formerly under the 94th RRC) carries the lineage of the World War II Military Police Platoon, 94th Infantry Division.[1] The 94th Military Police Company also served in Desert Storm, Bosnia, and most recently Iraq. In 2003-04 the 94th MPs added a battle streamer to their guidon when they were awarded the Valorous Unit Award for their actions in al-Anbar, hunting Iraqi Ba'ath members after the collapse of government and conducting Counter-Insurgency Operations against the increasing militant uprisings in Al-Qaim, Rutbah, Haditha, Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah. The 94th MPs were also awarded The "Order of the Spur" by Colonel Teeples of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment (3CR), as a nod to the combat action of the 94th Military Police Company during their mission with the 3d Cavalry Regiment. The history and spirit of the Military Police Platoon, 94th Infantry Division of World War II lives on with them.
The 94th Division (Force Sustainment) is a unit of the United States Army Reserve, charged with providing sustainment training throughout the United States. The division is based at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia and is subordinate to the 80th Training Command. The division has subordinate brigades that perform military occupational specialty (MOS) reclassification training. The division has brigades in the Continental United States and a multi-functional brigade in Puerto Rico. The 94th Infantry Division's standard (flag) and lineage bestowed upon the 94th Division (Force Sustainment) at its activation in 2009.
World War I
The 94th Division originated in 1918 and was intended to be formed with Spanish-speaking troops enlisted from Puerto Rico. The Army found that it lacked enough Spanish-speaking instructors to train men for the support and service units of the division, so it was agreed to create it as a "paper" division comprised only of four infantry regiments, like the 93rd Division. The infantry regiments were assigned numbers 373–376, which would have been associated with the National Army's 94th Division. The 373rd and 374th Infantry Regiments were organized with Hispanic Puerto Ricans, while the 375th Infantry was organized with Afro–Puerto Ricans. The 376th Infantry was never organized. With the close of World War I, the units were disbanded at Camp Las Casas, Puerto Rico.[2]
One of the division's nicknames, the "Neuf-Cats," most likely comes from this era, as most World War I combat involving Americans occurred in French-speaking areas and the number "94" was pronounced in French as "Neuf-Quatre", literally, "Nine-Four". As the pronunciation of the numeral four in French is similar to the English word "cat," the division decided to adopt this as a nickname and pluralized it.
Inter-war years
The 94th Division was constituted in the Organized Reserve (present-day
The 94th Division headquarters was organized in November 1921 at the
The 94th Division was originally nicknamed the "Pilgrim Division" in reference to the cultural history of Massachusetts. A shoulder sleeve insignia featuring a Native American with bow and arrow was authorized on 21 July 1922. This design was superseded 6 September 1923 by one depicting the black silhouette of a
For the few years when the division headquarters was called to duty for annual training as a unit, it often trained with the staff of the 18th Infantry Brigade,
In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments rotated responsibility to conduct the
World War II
Re-formed
The 94th Division, like the other divisions of the Organized Reserve was not mobilized as a complete unit. In August 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was given permission by Congress to order all members and units of the National Guard and all members of the Organized Reserve to active duty for one year. The officers and men of the 94th Division were subsequently individually assigned to existing Regular Army and National Guard units as needed, leaving the division virtually unmanned. The majority of mid-level officers (captains through lieutenant colonels) in the U.S. Army during the Second World War were Reserve officers.[4] As such, the 94th provided leaders to every theater in the war.
With virtually all of the division's personnel having gone off to war without it, the 94th Division existed only on paper when its shoulder sleeve insignia was changed on 5 September 1942 to a half-black, half-gray circle with the
On 10 July 1944, the 376th Infantry Regiment was honored by Army and civilian dignitaries as the first "Expert Infantry Regiment" in U.S. Army history, meaning at least sixty-five percent of its soldiers had earned the Expert Infantryman Badge. The other two regiments of the 94th Infantry Division, the 301st and 302nd, qualified three days after the 376th as Expert Infantry Regiments, although they did not match the record of the latter regiment, which also had every company qualify for the "Expert Infantry Company" streamer.[5]
Order of battle
- Headquarters, 94th Infantry Division
- 301st Infantry Regiment
- 302nd Infantry Regiment
- 376th Infantry Regiment
- Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 94th Infantry Division Artillery
- 301st Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
- 356th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
- 390th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm)
- 919th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
- 319th Engineer Combat Battalion
- 319th Medical Battalion
- 94th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)
- Headquarters, Special Troops, 94th Infantry Division
- Headquarters Company, 94th Infantry Division
- 794th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
- 94th Quartermaster Company
- 94th Signal Company
- Military Police Platoon
- Band
- 94th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment
Statistics
- Called into federal service: 15 September 1942, Fort Custer, Michigan
- Overseas: 6 August 1944.
- Campaigns: Northern France, Central Europe
- Days of combat: 209
- Awards:
- Unit
- Individual
- Commanders:
- Major General Harry J. Malony(1 July 1942 through 30 June 1945)
- Brigadier General Louis J. Fortier(30 June 1945 through 31 July 1945)
- Major General Allison J. Barnett(1 August 1945 through 9 February 1946)
- Returned to U.S.: 6 February 1946
- Inactivated: 7 February 1946 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey
Combat chronicle
Following a brief stay in England, the 94th landed on Utah Beach, France on D-Day + 94, 8 September 1944, and moved into Brittany to relieve the 6th Armored Division and assume responsibility for containing some 60,000 German troops besieged in their garrisons at the Channel ports of Lorient and Saint-Nazaire. The 94th inflicted over 2,700 casualties on the enemy and took 566 prisoners before being relieved by the 66th Infantry Division on New Year's Day 1945.
As part of
Moving forward, the 94th Infantry Division and the
Despite Lt. Col. McNulty's own preparatory reconnaissance in absence of other adequate intelligence and undertaken at considerable personal risk, many men and materiel were lost during the very ill-prepared Saar crossing. Two of the three crossings sites were eventually abandoned due to heavy and pinpoint German artillery and machinegun fire.
The division then moved by rail and motor to the vicinity of
By mid-April, the division relieved the 101st Airborne Division and assumed military government duties, first in the Krefeld vicinity and later around Düsseldorf. It was in that status when hostilities were declared at an end on 7 May 1945. From mid-June until the end of November, the division served the military government in Czechoslovakia.
The 94th Infantry Division was inactivated at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on 9 February 1946.
Casualties
- Total battle casualties: 6,533[8]
- Killed in action: 1,009[9]
- Wounded in action: 4,789[10]
- Missing in action: 116[11]
- Prisoner of war: 619[12]
Assignments in ETO
- 27 July 1944: Ninth Army.
- 28 August 1944: 12th Army Group.
- 23 September 1944: 12th Army Group.
- 9 October 1944: 12th Army Group.
- 5 January 1945: 12th Army Group, but attached to OiseSection, Communication Zone, for supply.
- 6 January 1945: 12th Army Group.
- 29 March 1945: 12th Army Group.
Cold War
94th Infantry Division
The division was reactivated in the United States Army Reserve in 1956. On 14 May of that year, the "9/4" shoulder sleeve insignia was rescinded, and the former Puritan shoulder sleeve insignia (with a minor change in the design) was reinstated.
94th Command Headquarters (Divisional)
The division was redesignated the 94th Command Headquarters (Divisional) on 16 October 1963, and was deactivated in 1967 as part of the compromise between
94th Army Reserve Command
Under the aforementioned compromise plan agreed to by the Congress and the Defense Department, the fourteen area corps were deactivated; in their place, eighteen army reserve commands ("ARCOMs") were established. Commanded by a reserve major general, each ARCOM served as a regional non-tactical peacetime headquarters for unrelated support units. Each ARCOM was, in turn, assigned to one of five
Two company-level units within the 94th ARCOM served in the Vietnam War: Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 513th Maintenance Battalion (Direct Support); and the 241st Military Intelligence Detachment.
94th ARCOM units participated annually in
In 1980, the peacetime Army Reserve
Many of the 94th's units and individual soldiers rotated through Honduras in the 1980s. Operation Fuertes Caminos ("strong roads") provided villagers with roads on which to move their crops to market, while providing invaluable real-world training and experience to reserve engineers, medical personnel, logisticians and others.
Operation Nordic Shield was held in the summer of 1987. Units of the 94th ARCOM; principally the
Units under the 94th Army Reserve Command participated in a series of mobilization exercises in the 1980s, including the Selected Reserve Call-Up (23–25 October 1987), Golden Thrust '88 (November 1988), and Proud Eagle 90 (12 October through 2 November 1989). Each of these was designed to evaluate not only the units' ability to prepare to mobilize, but to examine the mobilization processes, systems, and logistical coordination so as to find and correct the unanticipated flaws.
In 1990–1991, over 1,000 soldiers from the 94th ARCOM served overseas in support of
Post Cold War
94th Regional Support Command
The ARCOM's Puritan shoulder sleeve insignia reverted again to the "9/4" design on 27 November 1991.
Operation Nordic Shield II was held in the summer of 1992. As they did five years before, units of the 94th ARCOM; principally the
In 1995, the 94th ARCOM was redesignated the 94th Regional Support Command (RSC) and moved from Hanscom Air Force Base to
The 94th RSC deployed soldiers to Honduras and Guatemala in 1999 in support of
Global War on Terror
After 11 September 2001, the 94th RSC deployed soldiers in support of
The 804th Medical Brigade, a major subordinate command of the 94th Regional Support Command, mobilized at Fort Devens and trained for combat in support of operations in Kuwait (and eventually Iraq) at Fort Drum, New York in February 2003. The 804th arrived in Kuwait in March 2003 and assumed command and control of over 4400 soldiers in five countries in support of both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. In mid-February 2004 the 804th arrived back at Fort Devens after successfully completing an over 12-month activation. The 804th conducted a relief-in-place/transfer-of-authority with the 8th Medical Brigade from New York City.
In December 2002, the 94th RSC moved into its final headquarters at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.
94th Regional Readiness Command
In August 2003, the 94th RSC was redesignated the 94th Regional Readiness Command (RRC).
At its end, the 94th Regional Readiness Command was made up of more than 6,000 citizen-soldiers serving within fifty-six units located throughout New England.
The 94th RRC mobilized and deployed over twenty units and more than 2,500 soldiers in support of the
94th Division rebirth in the 21st century
In September 2008, the 94th Training Division (Force Sustainment) entered "carrier status", under the command of Brigadier General Mark Corson, at Ft. Lee, Virginia. The division is one of three major divisions under the umbrella of the 80th Training Command (The Army School System), the third-largest command organization in the U.S. Army Reserve.
On 17 October 2009, the 94th Training Division was reactivated, under the command of Brigadier General Karen LeDoux, at Ft. Lee, Virginia. The activation ceremony included many of the veterans of who served in the 94th Infantry Division during World War II. The event included the 3rd Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) and its Fife and Drum Corps.
The 94th Training Division's original red and blue colors flown by the division during World War II were returned by Army Heraldry.
Subordinate units
As of 2018 the following units are subordinated to the 94th Training Division (Force Sustainment):
- 1st Brigade (Quartermaster)[15]
- 8-80th Battalion (Quartermaster)
- 9-95th Battalion (Quartermaster)
- 7-100th Battalion (Quartermaster)
- 8-104th Battalion (Quartermaster)
- 9-108th Battalion (Quartermaster)
- 2nd Brigade (Transport)
- 80th Battalion (Transport)
- 95th Battalion (Transport)
- 100th Battalion (Transport)
- 104th Battalion (Transport)
- 108th Battalion (Transport)
- 3rd Brigade (Ordnance)
- 80th Battalion (Ordnance)
- 95th Battalion (Ordnance)
- 98th Battalion (Ordnance)
- 100th Training Battalion (Ordnance)
- 108th Training Battalion (Ordnance)
- 4th Brigade (Personnel Services)
- 95th Battalion (Personnel Services)
- 98th Battalion (Personnel Services)
- 100th Battalion (Personnel Services)
- 104th Battalion (Personnel Services)
- 108th Battalion (Personnel Services)
- 5th Brigade (Health Services)
- 11-98th Battalion (Health Services)
- 10-95th Battalion (Health Services)
- 8-100th Battalion (Health Services)
- 10-108th Battalion (Health Services)
- 9-104th Battalion (Health Services)
Insignia
Shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI)
- Native American design: Featured a Native American with bow and arrow.
- Puritan design:
- Description: On a disc silver gray, edged with a 0.32 cm (0.13 in) black border, depicting the black silhouette of a Puritan carrying a flintlock blunderbusson his shoulder. (This insignia was derisively referred to by some as the "Puking Pilgrim".)
- Symbolism: Being organized in New England, the armed Puritan symbolized colonial era militiamen who were the figurative (and, in some cases, literal) ancestors of the division's soldiers.
- Description: On a disc silver gray, edged with a 0.32 cm (0.13 in) black border, depicting the black silhouette of a
- "9/4" design:
- Description: a black Arabic numeral "9" on the silver gray and a silver gray Arabic numeral "4" on the black. The diameter is 6.35 cm (2.50 in).
- Symbolism: The insignia represents the numerical designation of the unit.
- Background:
- A design featuring a Native American with bow and arrow was authorized for the 94th Division on 21 July 1922.
- The above design was superseded by approval of the design of a Puritan carrying a blunderbuss on his shoulder on 6 September 1923.
- The above approval was amended to change the wording of the description on 22 December 1923.
- The Puritan design was superseded by design featuring the Arabic numerals "9" and "4" on 5 September 1942.
- The "9/4" design was rescinded (canceled) on 14 May 1956. The same letter reinstated the Puritan shoulder sleeve insignia, with a minor change in the design, for the 94th Infantry Division.
- The Puritan design was redesignated for the 94th Command Headquarters (Divisional) on 16 October 1963.
- The Puritan design was authorized for the 94th Army Reserve Command on 22 April 1968.
- The Puritan design was rescinded (canceled) on 27 November 1991. The same letter reinstated the "9/4" design.
- The insignia was redesignated effective 16 July 2003 for the 94th Regional Readiness Command.
Distinctive unit insignia (DUI)
- Description: A gold color metal and enamel device, 2.86 cm (1.13 in) high overall, consisting of a nonagon divided diagonally from lower left to upper right, the upper area light gray and the lower area black, bearing overall a blue oblong with long axis vertical, charged with a gold silhouette of the bust of a Puritan with flintlock blunderbusson his shoulder.
- Symbolism: The diagonally divided gray and black background refers to the shoulder sleeve insignia worn by the 94th Infantry Division during European campaign honors. Blue is the color used for infantry. The bust of the Puritan with flintlock blunderbuss is from the shoulder sleeve insignia worn during the period 1923–1942 and 1956–1991. It represents the history and traditions of the area with which past and present organizations have always identified. The nine sides of the device and the four sides of the oblong also allude to the numerical designation of the unit.
- Background: The distinctive unit insignia was originally authorized for the 94th U.S. Army Reserve Command on 4 June 1970. It was reassigned and authorized for 94th U.S. Army Regional Support Command on 16 April 1996. The insignia was redesignated effective 16 July 2003 for the U.S. Army 94th Regional Readiness Command.
Nicknames
- "Pilgrim Division" (pre-World War II)
- "Neuf-Cats" (official, derived from the French "neuf quatre", meaning "nine four")
- "Patton's Golden Nugget" (unofficial while assigned to Third U.S. Army in 1945)
- "Roosevelt's Bloody Butchers" (unofficial German nickname)
Legacy
- Until the re-merger of the division's and division HHC's lineages with those of the reserve command and reserve command HHC, only the Londonderry, New Hampshire-based 94th Military Police Company,[16] retained direct lineage to the 94th Infantry Division's organic structure.
- In 1963, a separate infantry brigade was organized in the US Army Reserve using the lineage of the division's 1st Brigade. As a separate brigade, however, it was granted its own 187th Infantry Brigadewas inactivated in 1994.
- State Highway 94 in Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania are numbered after the 94th Infantry Division.
- Interstate 94 (I-94) in southwestern Michigan is named the 94th Infantry Division Highway. It runs past Fort Custer where the division was formed and trained during World War II.[17]
- The 94th Infantry Division also has a World War II reenacting unit by the same name. The 94th Infantry Living History Alliance was formed in 2004 and has been working with the veterans and divisional histories to accurately portray the division. They are honored by the 94th Infantry veterans and alliance as being Division's official living historians.[18]
Popular culture
The movie "Everyman's War" (Thad T. Smith, 2009) is about a platoon of the 94th Infantry Division near Saint-Nazaire (France) in September 1944 and during the battle of the Bulge.[19]
References
- ^ "94th Military Police Company".
- ^ Clay, Steven E. (2010). U.S. Army Order of Battle, 1919-1941, Volume 1. The Arms: Major Commands and Infantry Organizations. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press. p. 289-290. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Clay, Steven E. (2010). U.S. Army Order of Battle, 1919-1941, Volume 1. The Arms: Major Commands and Infantry Organizations. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press. p. 242-243, 268-269, 272-273, 289-290, 348. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Twice The Citizen: A History of the United States Army Reserve, 1908–1995, Second and Expanded Edition, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997), p. 67.
- ^ "Expert Infantry Regiment Awards Planned Today--Public Will Attend". Commercial Appeal. Memphis, Tennessee. 9 July 1944.
- ^ Tony Le Tissier Patton’s Pawns The 94th U.S. Infantry Division at the Siegfried Line (2007) University of Alabama Press, Chapter 8 "Crossing the Saar" (commencing at p. 147) p. 158
- ^ citation text of General Orders: Headquarters, 3d Army, General Order No. 158 (2 July 1945), awarding Lt. Col. William A. McNulty the Silver Star
- ^ Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
- ^ Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
- ^ Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
- ^ Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
- ^ Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
- ^ Twice The Citizen, at 174–177.
- ^ James T. Currie and Richard B. Crossland, Twice The Citizen: A History of the United States Army Reserve, 1908–1995 (2nd revised & expanded edition), Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief, Army Reserve (1997), pp. 254–255.
- ^ "80th Training Command (TASS)".
- ^ "94th Military Police Company Lineage and Honors". United States Army Center of Military History. 9 February 2007. Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
- ^ "I-94; "94th COMBAT INFANTRY DIVISION HIGHWAY"".
- ^ "The 94th ID Living History Alliance". Archived from the original on 6 October 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
- ^ "Everyman's War". IMDb.
- The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950 at http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/cbtchron/cbtchron.html Archived 21 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- "On the Way: The Story of the 94th Infantry Division"
- James T Currie and Richard B. Crossland, Twice The Citizen: A History of the United States Army Reserve, 1908–1995, Second and Expanded Edition, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997).
- 94th Infantry Division Association
- This article incorporates public domain material from 94th Regional Readiness Command: History. United States Army.
- 94th Infantry Living History Alliance
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