1st Cavalry Division (German Empire), Order of Battle on mobilisation
On formation, in August 1914, the component units of the division were:


1st Cavalry Division (German Empire), Late World War I organization
In the course of the War, the Division saw a number of changes to its assigned Brigades.


1st Cavalry Division (German Empire), Late World War I organization
Allied Intelligence did not rate the Division's fighting value. Its late war organisation was:


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
The 1st Cavalry Division of the Royal Yugoslav Army was established in 1921, soon after the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. In peacetime it consisted of two cavalry brigade headquarters commanding a total of four regiments. It was part of the Yugoslav 1st Army Group during the German-led World War II Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, with a wartime organisation specifying one cavalry brigade headquarters commanding two or three regiments, and divisional-level combat and support units.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
Along with the rest of the Royal Yugoslav Army, the 1st Cavalry Division began mobilising on 3 April 1941 following a coup d'état. Three days later, with mobilisation not complete, the Germans began an air campaign and a series of preliminary operations against the Yugoslav frontiers. By the end of the following day, the division's cavalry brigade headquarters and all of the division's cavalry regiments had been detached for duty with other formations of the 1st Army Group.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
The divisional headquarters and divisional-level units remained in the vicinity of Zagreb until 10 April, when they were given orders to establish a defensive line southeast of Zagreb along the Sava River, with infantry and artillery support. The division had only begun to deploy for this task when the German 14th Panzer Division captured Zagreb. The divisional headquarters and all attached units were then captured by armed Croat fifth column groups, or surrendered to German troops.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Background
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created with the merger of Serbia, Montenegro and the South Slav-inhabited areas of Austria-Hungary on 1 December 1918, in the immediate aftermath of World War I. The Army of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was established to defend the new state. It was formed around the nucleus of the victorious Royal Serbian Army, as well as armed formations raised in regions formerly controlled by Austria-Hungary. Many former Austro-Hungarian officers and soldiers became members of the new army. From the beginning, much like other aspects of public life in the new kingdom, the army was dominated by ethnic Serbs, who saw it as a means by which to secure political hegemony for the large Serb minority.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Background
The army's development was hampered by the kingdom's poor economy, and this continued during the 1920s. In 1929, King Alexander changed the name of the country to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, at which time the army was renamed the Royal Yugoslav Army (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Vojska Kraljevine Jugoslavije, VKJ). The army budget remained tight, and as tensions rose across Europe during the 1930s, it became difficult to secure weapons and munitions from other countries.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Background
Consequently, at the time World War II broke out in September 1939, the VKJ had several serious weaknesses, which included reliance on draught animals for transport, and the large size of its formations. These characteristics resulted in slow, unwieldy formations, and the inadequate supply of arms and munitions meant that even the very large Yugoslav formations had low firepower. Generals better suited to the trench warfare of World War I were combined with an army that was neither equipped nor trained to resist the fast-moving combined arms approach used by the Germans in their invasions of Poland and France.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Background
The weaknesses of the VKJ in strategy, structure, equipment, mobility and supply were exacerbated by serious ethnic disunity within Yugoslavia, resulting from two decades of Serb hegemony and the attendant lack of political legitimacy achieved by the central government. Attempts to address the disunity came too late to ensure that the VKJ was a cohesive force. Fifth column activity was also a serious concern, not only from the Croatian nationalist Ustaše but also from the country's Slovene and ethnic German minorities.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Formation and composition, Peacetime organisation
The 1st Cavalry Division was a horsed cavalry formation established soon after the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and was part of the army order of battle formalised in 1921, at which time it consisted of four regiments. According to regulations issued by the VKJ in 1935, the 1st Cavalry Division was headquartered in Zagreb during peacetime, and was under the control of Cavalry Command in Belgrade, as was the 2nd Cavalry Division, which was located in southeastern Yugoslavia at Niš. The division's units were manned by a mixture of full-time and part-time personnel. In peacetime, the 1st Cavalry Division comprised:


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Formation and composition, Wartime organisation
The wartime organisation of the Royal Yugoslav Army was laid down by regulations issued in 1936–1937, which introduced a requirement to raise a third cavalry division for war service. The strength of a cavalry division was 6,000–7,000 men. The theoretical war establishment of a fully mobilised Yugoslav cavalry division was:


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Formation and composition, Wartime organisation
Each cavalry regiment was to consist of four cavalry squadrons, a machine gun squadron, and an engineer squadron. Shortly before the war, an abortive attempt was made to motorise the 1st Cavalry Division, but this was stymied by a lack of motor transport and the division largely remained a horsed formation throughout its existence. The 1st Cavalry Division was also never equipped with the planned motorised anti-tank battery, and the divisional artillery battalion was largely equipped with World War I-vintage pieces.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Formation and composition, Wartime organisation
Two peacetime components of the division, the Headquarters of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, were earmarked to join other formations when they were mobilised, so the primary fighting formation of the 1st Cavalry Division was the 1st Cavalry Brigade, commanding the 2nd, 6th and 8th Cavalry Regiments.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Deployment plan
In case of war, Yugoslav planners saw the 1st Cavalry Division as forming the reserve for the 1st Army Group. The 1st Army Group was responsible for the defence of northwestern Yugoslavia, with the subordinate 4th Army defending the eastern sector along the Hungarian border, and the 7th Army stationed along the German and Italian borders. The 1st Cavalry Division was to be deployed around Zagreb.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Deployment plan
On the right of the 4th Army was the 2nd Army of the 2nd Army Group, the boundary running from just east of Slatina through Požega towards Banja Luka, and on the left flank of the 7th Army, the Adriatic coast was defended by Coastal Defence Command. The Yugoslav defence plan saw the 1st Army Group deployed in a cordon, the 4th Army behind the Drava River between Varaždin and Slatina, and the 7th Army along the border region from the Adriatic in the west to Gornja Radgona in the east. The planners estimated that cavalry formations would take four to seven days to mobilise.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Mobilisation
After unrelenting pressure from Adolf Hitler to join the Axis powers, Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941. Two days later, a military coup d'état overthrew the government that had signed the pact, and a new government was formed under the Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force commander, Armijski đeneral Dušan Simović. A general mobilisation was not called by the new government until 3 April 1941, out of fear of offending Hitler and thus precipitating war. The same day as the coup, Hitler had issued Führer Directive 25, which called for Yugoslavia to be treated as a hostile state; on 3 April, Führer Directive 26 was issued, detailing the plan of attack and the command structure for the invasion, which was to commence on 6 April.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Mobilisation
According to the Yugoslav historian Velimir Terzić, on 6 April the mobilisation of the division was proceeding slowly due to the low number of conscripts that reported for duty, and the poor provision of animals and vehicles. A large portion of the strength of the division had been earmarked to be detached to one of the formations of the 4th Army, Detachment Ormozki.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Mobilisation
The commander of the 1st Cavalry Division was Divizijski đeneral Dragoslav Stefanović. While the divisional headquarters and other divisional-level units were mobilising in Sesvete near Zagreb, the headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Brigade had been designated to command Detachment Ormozki, and the 6th and 8th Cavalry Regiments and the divisional artillery battalion had also been allocated to that formation. This reduced the main fighting elements of the division to a single cavalry regiment (the 2nd), which was mobilising in Virovitica.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Mobilisation
The rest of the 1st Army Group reserve comprised an independent artillery battalion mobilising in Zagreb, and the 110th Infantry Regiment which was moving to Zagreb from Celje, a distance of 114 km (71 mi) to the northwest. By early morning of 6 April 1941 when the invasion commenced, the 110th Regiment had reached Zidani Most, still some 90 km (56 mi) from Zagreb.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Operations
Stripped of most of its subordinate units, the 1st Cavalry Division remained in reserve near Zagreb during the first few days of fighting. On 10 April, due to the critical situation on the front of the 4th Army, the division was directed to take under its command the 110th Infantry Regiment and the independent artillery battalion, and defend against crossings of the 110-kilometre (68 mi) stretch of the River Sava between Jasenovac and Zagreb, while collecting stragglers and organising resistance.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Operations
These orders were quickly overtaken by the rapid advance of the 14th Panzer Division to Zagreb when it broke out of its bridgehead across the Drava River at Zákány on the Hungarian border. By 19:30 on 10 April, lead elements of the 14th Panzer Division had reached the outskirts of Zagreb, having covered nearly 160 km (99 mi) in a single day. Armed fifth column Ustase groups and German troops disarmed the division and its attached units before they could establish any coherent defence along the Sava.


1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Operations
On 15 April, orders were received that a ceasefire had been agreed, and that all VKJ troops were to remain in place and not fire on German personnel. After a delay in locating appropriate signatories for the surrender document, the Yugoslav Supreme Command unconditionally surrendered in Belgrade effective at 12:00 on 18 April. Yugoslavia was then occupied and dismembered by the Axis; Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Albania all annexed parts of its territory. Almost all of the Croat members of the division taken as prisoners of war were soon released by the Germans; 90 per cent of those held for the duration of the war were Serbs.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland)
The Polish 1st Cavalry Division (Polish: 1 Dywizja Jazdy, later 1 Dywizja Kawalerii) was a tactical unit of the Polish Army between the World Wars. Formed in 1919, partially of veterans of the Polish Legions, the unit saw extensive action during the Polish-Bolshevik War.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), History
The unit was formed in 1919, compromising of six regiments, each with their own distinct history and made up of World War I veterans who had served in the Austrian, French, German and Russian armies. As such, the division was made up from a distinct variety of soldiers with different equipment and training. Additionally, its soldiers had fought during the first world war in opposing armies. The 1st Cavalry Division was, in this regard, a prime example of the new Polish Army, which was composed in a very similar way of soldiers with completely different military backgrounds but with the common goal of defending their newly reestablished country.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), History
The division took part in the operation which resulted in the battle of Koziatyn and the capture of Kiev in late April and early May 1920, then under the command of Jan Romer.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), History
After this, the unit fought in the battle of Wołodarka, where it faced the Russian Konarmia, led by Semyon Budyonny, who had served as a corporal under Aleksander Karnicki, now the 1st Cavalry Division's commander, in the Imperial Russian Army. The division managed to stop a Russian breakthrough in this battle on 29 May, despite being outnumbered six to one. However, this success could not permanently stop the advance of the Russian forces towards the Polish rear and the division had to retreat.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), History
The division fought the Konarmia again in early June, around Koziatyn, before the Russian cavalry was called to attack Kiev. In another engagement between those two cavalry forces on 10 June, between Zhitomir and Koziatyn, the Konarmia's advance was again halted but the need for more troops on the northern front eventually forced the Poles to retreat.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), History
Upon Piłsudski's orders, cavalry from the northern frontline was moved south in the beginning of July, to reinforce the 1st Cavalry Division in an attempt to decisively defeat the Konarmia, which was seen as the major threat on the southern front for the Polish Army. This expanded force was put under the command of General Kazimierz Raszewski. Meanwhile, Budyonny's forces advanced and took Równe on 2 July. The Konarmia managed to advance as far as Brody by early August, when the 1st Cavalry Division, together with a Cavalry unit under General Kazimierz Sawicki, was ordered to counterattack, but shortly after had to withdraw to the north due to the worsening situation on the northern frontline.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), History
At the battle of Komarów on 31 August 1920, when the division completely defeated the Russian 1st Cavalry Army, it was commanded by Juliusz Rómmel.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), History
The 1st Cavalry Division was heavily reorganised in 1924, as were the other Polish cavalry divisions. The previously separate mounted rifle regiments were integrated with the four cavalry divisions.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), History
The division was disbanded, along with the 3rd and 4th Cavalry Division, in 1929 and 1930 upon the orders of Pilsudski, who had come to the conclusion that cavalry was outdated. Only the 2nd Division in Warsaw remained in existence as a backup force to counter a possible coup attempt.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), Structure, Formation
The unit was formed in 1919 from six individual regiments.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), Structure, Reorganisation in 1924
The Polish cavalry divisions were heavily reorganised in 1924. The 1st Cavalry was now one of four divisions, the divisional headquarter being based in Białystok. Of the others, the 2nd was based in Warsaw, the 3rd in Poznań and the 4th in Lwów. The new organisation, still consisting of six regiments, was:


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), Structure, Reorganisation in 1924
One of the main aims of this reorganisation was to integrate the mounted rifle regiments into the cavalry divisions, which had previously existed separately as a form of second-class cavalry.


1st Cavalry Division (Poland), In history
A 1st Cavalry Division, made up partly of Polish lancers of the 1st Regiment of Lighthorse-Lancers, existed in the French Army under Napoleon, being part of the Imperial Guard, from 1807 until 1815. This unit took part in most major engagements of the Napoleonic wars after 1807 and was highly regarded by Napoleon.


1st Cavalry Division (Reichswehr)
The 1st Cavalry Division was a unit of the Reichswehr, the armed forces of Germany during the Weimar Republic.


1st Cavalry Division (Reichswehr)
It consisted of 6 cavalry regiments, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th (Prussian) Regiments.


1st Cavalry Division (Russian Empire)
The 1st Cavalry Division (Russian: 1-я кавалерийская дивизия, 1-ya Kavaleriiskaya Diviziya) was a cavalry formation of the Russian Imperial Army.


1st Cavalry Division (Soviet Union)
The 1st Zaporozhye Red Cossack Cavalry Division (1st CD) was a Red Army cavalry division. It was based in Proskurov for most of its existence. Formed from the 8th Cavalry Division, it became the 32nd Cavalry Division in 1938.


1st Cavalry Division (Soviet Union), History
On 6 May 1922 the 8th Zaporozhye Cossack Cavalry Division of the 1st Red Cossacks Cavalry Corps became the 1st Zaporozhye Cossack Cavalry Division. The division was commanded by Mikhail Demichev, the former commander of the 8th Cavalry Division.


1st Cavalry Division (Soviet Union), History
The division's 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th and 48th Cavalry Regiments were respectively renamed the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Cossack Cavalry Regiments.


1st Cavalry Division (Soviet Union), History
In 1924 the 1st Corps headquarters was  at Vinnitsa. The division was divided into three brigades. The 1st Cavalry Brigade included the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Regiments, the 2nd Cavalry Brigade included the 3rd and 4th Cavalry Regiments and the 3rd Cavalry Brigade included the 5th and 6th Cavalry Regiments. On 6 September, the division headquarters was at Zhmerynka.


1st Cavalry Division (Soviet Union), History
On 11 July 1925, the division was given the title "on behalf of the French Communist Party". On 15 December 1925, division headquarters moved to Proskurov. In 1928, French Communist politician Marcel Cachin visited the division. On 29 November 1929, the division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In 1930, the mechanization of cavalry began and the division added a tank squadron and an armored car squadron. In 1931, the 1st Mechanized Regiment was activated with the division.


1st Cavalry Division (Soviet Union), History
On 15 November 1932, Kombrig Ivan Nikulin became the divisional commander after Demichev was promoted to command the 1st Cavalry Corps. In November 1936, Kombrig Mikhail Khatskilevich became the division's commander. In June 1938, the division became the 32nd Cavalry Division.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom)
The 1st Cavalry Division was a regular Division of the British Army during the First World War where it fought on the Western Front. During the Second World War it was a first line formation, formed from Yeomanry Regiments. It fought in the Middle East before being converted to the 10th Armoured Division.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Napoleonic Wars
During the Peninsular War, Wellington organized his cavalry into The Cavalry Division from June 1809 under Major-General Sir William Payne. This performed a purely administrative, rather than tactical, role; the normal tactical headquarters were provided by brigades commanding two, later usually three, regiments. On 3 June 1810, Payne returned home and his second-in-command, Major-General Stapleton Cotton, took command. Cotton was to remain in command thereafter and effectively acted as Wellington's chief of cavalry.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Napoleonic Wars
On 19 June 1811, the cavalry was reorganized as two divisions and The Cavalry Division was redesignated as 1st Cavalry Division with the formation of the 2nd Cavalry Division. The divisions were once again amalgamated as The Cavalry Division on 21 April 1813 with Cotton (Lieutenant-General from 1 January 1812) still in command.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), First World War
The 1st Cavalry Division was one of the first Divisions to move to France in 1914, they would remain on the Western Front throughout the war. It participated in most of the major actions where cavalry were used as a mounted mobile force, they would also be used as dismounted troops and effectively serve as infantry. On 11 November 1918, orders were received that the Division would lead the advance of Second Army into Germany, by 6 December, having passed through Namur, the Division secured the Rhine bridgehead at Cologne.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Order of battle in the First World War, 9th Cavalry Brigade
9th Cavalry Brigade was formed in France on 14 April 1915 with the 15th Hussars and the 19th Hussars. These regular cavalry regiments had been serving on the Western Front since August 1914 as divisional cavalry squadrons assigned to infantry divisions. The brigade remained with 1st Cavalry Division for the rest of the war.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Second World War
On 31 October 1939, during the Second World War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reformed. It was assigned to Northern Command, and took command of two pre-war First Line Territorial Army cavalry brigades (the 5th and 6th) and the newly formed 4th Cavalry Brigade. It was the only cavalry division in the British Army during the war.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Second World War
It departed the United Kingdom in January 1940, transited across France, and arrived in Palestine on 31 January 1940. It served as a garrison force under British Forces, Palestine and Trans-Jordan.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Second World War
In May 1941, the Divisional Headquarters and elements of the division (notably the 4th Cavalry Brigade), together with a battalion of infantry from the Essex Regiment (the 1st Battalion), a mechanised regiment from the Arab Legion and supporting artillery was reorganised as Habforce for operations in Iraq including the relief of the base at RAF Habbaniya and the occupation of Baghdad. Following this, in July 1941, Habforce was placed under the command of Australian I Corps and was involved in operations against the Vichy French in Syria, advancing from eastern Iraq near the Trans-Jordan border to capture Palmyra and secure the Haditha - Tripoli oil pipeline.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Second World War
On 1 August 1941, the 1st Cavalry Division was converted into the 10th Armoured Division. 10th Armoured Division later fought at the Battles of Alam Halfa and El Alamein. The 10th Armoured Division was disbanded in Egypt on 15 June 1944.


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Commanders
The 1st Cavalry Division had the following commanders during the First World War:


1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom), Commanders
The 1st Cavalry Division had the following commanders during the Second World War:


1st Cavalry Division (United States)
The 1st Cavalry Division ("First Team") is a combined arms division and is one of the most decorated combat divisions of the United States Army. It is based at Fort Hood, Texas. It was formed in 1921 and served during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, with the Stabilization Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the Iraq War, in the War in Afghanistan and in Operation Freedom's Sentinel. As of October 2017, the 1st Cavalry Division is subordinate to III Corps and is commanded by Major General John B. Richardson.


1st Cavalry Division (United States)
The unit is unique in that it has served as a horseback cavalry division until 1943, an infantry division, an air assault division and an armored division during its existence.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), History
The history of the 1st Cavalry Division began in 1921 after the army established a permanent cavalry division table of organization and equipment on 4 April 1921. It authorized a square division organization of 7,463 officers and men, organized as follows:


1st Cavalry Division (United States), History
On 20 August 1921, the War Department Adjutant General constituted the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions to meet partial mobilization requirements, and authorized the establishment of the 1st Cavalry Division under the new TO&E on 31 August 1921. Since 1st Cavalry Division was to assemble from existing units, it was able to go active in September 1921, even though the subordinate units did not arrive completely until as late as 1922.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), History
1st Cavalry Division was assigned to the VIII Corps Area, with its division headquarters and 2nd Brigade located at Fort Bliss, Texas, and the 1st Brigade at Camp Harry J. Jones in Douglas, Arizona. The headquarters facilities used by 1st Cavalry Division were those previously vacated by 8th United States Brigade when it was commanded by MG John J. Pershing in 1916, and the wartime 15th Cavalry Division, which had existed at Fort Bliss between 10 December 1917 and 12 May 1918.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), History
The 1st Cavalry Division's assembled at Douglas, Arizona. The 1st, 7th, and 8th Cavalry Regiments had previously been assigned to the wartime 15th Cavalry Division until they were returned to the VIII Corps Area troop list on 12 May 1918. 1st Cavalry Regiment remained assigned until it was transferred to 1st Cavalry Division on 20 August 1921. The 7th, 8th, and 10th Cavalry Regiments were transferred on 13 September 1921, although the assignment of the 10th Cavalry Regiment to the 1st Cavalry Division was controversial because the transfer violated the Jim Crow laws. This controversy continued until 18 December 1922, when the 5th Cavalry Regiment, then on the VIII Corps Area Troop List, swapped places with the 10th Cavalry Regiment.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), History
In 1923 the 1st Cavalry Division held division maneuvers for the first time, intending to hold them annually thereafter. However, financial constraints made that impossible. Only in 1927, through the generosity of a few ranchers who provided free land, was the division able to conduct such exercises again. In 1928 Major General Herbert B. Crosby, Chief of Cavalry, faced with personnel cuts, reorganized the cavalry regiments, which in turn reduced the size of the 1st Cavalry Division. Crosby's goal was to decrease overhead while maintaining or increasing firepower in the regiment.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), History
After the reorganization each cavalry regiment consisted of a headquarters and headquarters troop; a machine gun troop; a medical and chaplain element; and two squadrons, each with a headquarters element; and two line troops. The cavalry brigades' machine gun squadrons were inactivated, while the responsibility for training and employing machine guns fell to the regimental commanders, as in the infantry.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), History
About the same time that Crosby cut the cavalry regiment, the army staff, seeking to increase the usefulness of the wartime cavalry division, published new tables of organization for an even larger unit. The new structure increased the size of the signal troop (177), expanded the medical unit to a squadron (233), and endorsing Crosby's movement of the machine gun units from the brigades to the regiments (2X176). A divisional aviation section, an armored car squadron (278), and tank company (155) were added, the field artillery battalion was expanded to a regiment (1,717), and divisional strength rose to 9,595.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Prelude to World War II
With the arrival of the 1930s, serious work started on the testing and refining of new equipment and TO&Es for a mechanized and motorized army. To facilitate this, 1st Cavalry Division traded 1st Cavalry Regiment for 12th Cavalry Regiment on 3 January 1933.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Prelude to World War II
Taking into account recommendations from the VIII Corps Area, the Army War College, and the Command and General Staff School, the board developed a new smaller triangular cavalry division, which the 1st Cavalry Division evaluated during maneuvers at Toyahvale, Texas, in 1938. Like the 1937 infantry division test, the maneuvers concentrated on the divisional cavalry regiments around which all other units were to be organized.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Prelude to World War II
Following the test, a board of 1st Cavalry Division officers, headed by Brigadier General Kenyon A. Joyce, rejected the three-regiment division and recommended retention of the two-brigade (four-regiment) organization. The latter configuration allowed the division to deploy easily in two columns, which was accepted standard cavalry tactics. However, the board advocated reorganizing the cavalry regiment along triangular lines, which would give it a headquarters and headquarters troop, a machine gun squadron with special weapons and machine gun troops, and three rifle squadrons, each with one machine gun and three rifle troops.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Prelude to World War II
No significant change was made in the field artillery, but the test showed that the engineer element should remain a squadron to provide the divisional elements greater mobility on the battlefield and that the special troops idea should be extended to include the division headquarters, signal, and ordnance troops; quartermaster, medical, engineer, reconnaissance, and observation squadrons; and a chemical warfare detachment. One headquarters would assume responsibility for the administration and disciplinary control for these forces.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Prelude to World War II
Although the study did not lead to a general reorganization of the cavalry division, the wartime cavalry regiment was restructured, effective 1 December 1938, to consist of a headquarters and headquarters troop, machine gun and special weapons troops, and three squadrons of three rifle troops each. The special troops remained as structured in 1928, and no observation squadron or chemical detachment found a place in the division. With the paper changes in the cavalry divisions and other minor adjustments, the strength of a wartime divisional rose to 10,680.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Prelude to World War II
In order to prepare for war service, 1st Cavalry Division participated in the following maneuvers:


1st Cavalry Division (United States), World War II, History, Training
With the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the "great laboratory" phase for developing and testing organizations, about which Marshall wrote in the summer of 1941, closed, but the War Department still had not developed ideal infantry, cavalry, armored, and motorized divisions. In 1942 it again revised the divisions based on experiences gained during the great GHQ maneuvers of the previous year. As in the past, the reorganizations ranged from minor adjustments to wholesale changes.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), World War II, History, Training
1st Cavalry Division retained its square configuration after the 1941 maneuvers, but with modifications. The division lost its antitank troop, the brigades their weapons troops, and the regiments their machine gun and special weapons troops. These changes brought no decrease in divisional firepower, but placed most weapons within the cavalry troops. The number of .50-caliber machine guns was increased almost threefold. In the reconnaissance squadron, the motorcycle and armored car troops were eliminated, leaving the squadron with one support troop and three reconnaissance troops equipped with light tanks. These changes increased the division from 11,676 to 12,112 officers and enlisted men.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), World War II, History, Training
The last of the 1st Cavalry Division's mounted units permanently retired their horses and converted to infantry formations on 28 February 1943. However, a mounted special ceremonial unit known as the Horse Platoon – later, the Horse Cavalry Detachment – was established within the division in January 1972. Its ongoing purpose is to represent the traditions and heritage of the American horse cavalry at military ceremonies and public events.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), World War II, History, Training
1st Cavalry Division reported for its port call at Camp Stoneman, CA as follows:


1st Cavalry Division (United States), World War II, Combat chronicle
Although originally being part of the III Corps (which eventually participated in the European Theater), while training in the United States, most of the 1st Cavalry Division arrived in Australia as shown above, continued its training at Strathpine, Queensland, until 26 July, then moved to New Guinea to stage for the Admiralties campaign 22–27 February 1944. The division experienced its first combat in the Admiralty Islands, units landing at Los Negros on 29 February 1944. Momote airstrip was secured against great odds. Attacks by Japanese were thrown back, and the enemy force surrounded by the end of March.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), World War II, Combat chronicle
Nearby islands were taken in April and May. The division next took part in the invasion of Leyte, 20 October 1944, captured Tacloban and the adjacent airstrip, advanced along the north coast, and secured Leyte Valley, elements landing on and securing Samar Island. Moving down Ormoc Valley (in Leyte) and across the Ormoc plain, the division reached the west coast of Leyte 1 January 1945.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), World War II, Combat chronicle
The division then invaded Luzon, landing in the Lingayen Gulf area 27 January 1945, and fought its way as a "flying column" to Manila by 3 February 1945. More than 3,000 civilian prisoners at the University of Santo Tomas, including more than 60 US Army nurses (some of the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor") were liberated, and the 1st Cavalry then advanced east of Manila by the middle of February before the city was cleared. On 20 February the division was assigned the mission of seizing and securing crossings over the Marikina River and securing the Tagaytay-Antipolo Line. After being relieved 12 March in the Antipolo area, elements pushed south into Batangas and provinces of Bicol Region together with recognized guerrillas. They mopped up remaining pockets of resistance in these areas in small unit actions. Resistance was officially declared at an end on 1 July 1945.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), World War II, Postwar
The division left Luzon 25 August 1945 for occupation duty in Japan, arriving in Yokohama 2 September 1945 and entering Tokyo 8 September, the first United States division to enter the Japanese capital. 101 unit was set up in May 1945 to search for the missing soldiers in the Second World War. The detachment consisted of two officers (a Captain MacColeman and a Lieutenant Foley) and 15 enlisted members (among them a Sergeant Ryan). The operation was successful, although it lasted three years. Occupation duty in Japan followed for the next five years.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
In the summer of 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea, and the 1st Cavalry Division was rushed to Korea to help shore up the Pusan Perimeter. From 26 to 29 July 1950, the 7th Cavalry Regiment, one of the Division's three infantry regiments, killed at least 163 South Korean civilians in an incident now known as the No Gun Ri massacre, fearing North Korean infiltrators among with refugee groups. While the 7th Cavalry was directly responsible, Divisional commanders, including General Hobart R. Gay, had given them orders to do so.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
After the X Corps attack at Incheon, a breakout operation was launched at the Pusan Perimeter. The Division then joined the UN counteroffensive that recaptured most of South Korea by the end of September. The UN offensive was continued northwards, past Seoul, and across the 38th Parallel into North Korea on 1 October. The momentum of the attack was maintained, and the race to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, ended on 19 October when elements of the Division and the Republic of Korea Army (ROK) 1st Infantry Division captured the city. The advance continued, but against unexpectedly stiffening resistance. The Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) entered the war on the side of North Korea, making their first attacks in late October.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
On 28 October 1950, Eighth Army commander General Walton Walker relieved the 1st Cavalry Division of its security mission in Pyongyang. The division's new orders were to pass through the ROK 1st Division's lines at Unsan and attack toward the Yalu River. Leading the way on the twenty-ninth, the 8th Cavalry regiment departed Pyongyang and reached Yongsan-dong that evening. The 5th Cavalry Regiment arrived the next morning, with the mission to protect the 8th Cavalry regiment's rear.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
With the arrival of the 8th Cavalry Regiment at Unsan on the 31st, the ROK 1st Division redeployed to positions northeast, east, and southeast of Unsan; the 8th Cavalry took up positions north, west, and south of the town. Meanwhile, the ROK 15th Regiment was desperately trying to hold its position east of the 8th Cavalry, across the Samt'an River.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
During the afternoon of 1 November, the PVA attack north of Unsan gained strength against the ROK 15th Regiment and gradually extended to the right flank of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry. At nightfall, the 1st Battalion controlled the northern approaches to the Samt'an River, except for portions of the ROK 15th Regiment's zone on the east side. The battalion's position on the left was weak; there were not enough soldiers to extend the defensive line to the main ridge leading into Unsan. This left a gap between the 1st and 2nd Battalions.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
East of the Samt'an the ROK 15th Regiment was under heavy attack, and shortly after midnight it no longer existed as a combat force. At 19:30 on 1 November, the PVA 116th Division attacked the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry, all along its line. At 21:00 PVA troops found the weak link in the ridgeline and began moving through it and down the ridge behind the 2nd Battalion, penetrating its right flank and encircling its left. Now both the 1st and 2nd Battalions were engaged by the enemy on several sides.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
Around midnight, the 8th Cavalry received orders to withdraw southward to Ipsok. At 01:30 on 2 November, no PVA activity was reported in the 3rd Battalion's sector south of Unsan. But as the 8th Cavalry withdrew, all three battalions became trapped by roadblocks made by the PVA 347th Regiment, 116th Division south of Unsan during the early morning hours. Members of the 1st Battalion who were able to escape reached the Ipsok area. A head count showed the battalion had lost about 15 officers and 250 enlisted men.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
Members of the 2nd Battalion, for the most part, scattered into the hills. Many of them reached the ROK lines near Ipsok. Others met up with the 3rd Battalion, the hardest hit. Around 03:00 the PVA launched a surprise attack on the battalion command post. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued for about half an hour before the PVA were driven from the area. The disorganized members of the 3rd Battalion formed a core of resistance around three tanks on the valley floor and held off the PVA until daylight.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
By that time, only six officers and 200 enlisted men were still able to function. More than 170 were wounded, and the number dead or missing were uncounted. Attempts by the 5th Cavalry to relieve the beleaguered battalion were unsuccessful, and the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, soon ceased to exist as an organized force.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
Following the battle, there were disparaging rumors about the 1st Cavalry Division's fighting abilities, including a folk song of the time called "The Bug-Out Ballad". The series of engagements were rumored to have given rise to the song were due (at least partly) to the myth that the division lost its unit colors. Other Army and Marine units disparagingly described the division shoulder insignia as representing 'The horse they never rode, the river they never crossed, and the yellow speaks for itself'.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
Another version goes:  "The shield they never carried, the horse they never rode, the bridge they never crossed, the line they never held, and the yellow is the reason why." The aforementioned ballad only lasted until the Division which changed leadership proved itself in the months to come and during operation Crombez when the fifth relived Chipyong-ni.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
Gun crew of a 105mm howitzer in action along the 1st Cavalry Division sector.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
A Division observation post overlooks Hill 518, held by the North Koreans north of Waegwan. September 1950.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
A .50 Cal. Machine gun squad of Co. E, 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, fires on North Koreans along the north bank of the Naktong River, 26 August 1950.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
Capt. Emil Kapaun, right, a chaplain with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, helps evacuate an exhausted soldier from the battlefield.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Korean War
The 1st Cavalry Division remained in the line until it was relieved by the 45th Infantry Division from the United States Army National Guard in January 1952. Following the relief, the division returned to Japan. The division returned to Korea in 1957, where it remained until 1965.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
The 1st Cavalry Division next fought in the Vietnam War. No longer a conventional infantry unit, the division had become an air assault division as the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), commonly referred to as the 1st Air Cavalry Division. The use of helicopters on such large scale as troop carriers, cargo lift ships, medevacs, and as aerial rocket artillery, was never before implemented, but by doing so it freed the infantry from the tyranny of terrain to attack the enemy at the time and place of its choosing.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
In 1965, colors and subordinate unit designations of the Division were transferred from Korea to Fort Benning, Georgia, where they were used, along with separate elements of what had been the 2nd Infantry Division, to reflag the existing 11th Air Assault Division (Test) into the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). Concurrently, the personnel and units of the 1st Cavalry Division, which remained in Korea, were used to reflag the division into a new 2nd Infantry Division.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
Shortly thereafter, the Division began deploying to Camp Radcliff, An Khe, Vietnam, in the Central Highlands and was equipped with the new M16 rifle, the UH-1 troop carrier helicopter, UH-1C gunships, the CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopter, and the massive CH-54 Skycrane cargo helicopter. All aircraft carried insignia to indicate their battalion and company.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
Troops unload from a CH-47 helicopter in the Cay Giep Mountains, Vietnam, 1967.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
31 January 1968. Start of Tet Offensive as seen from LZ Betty's water tower, Quang Tri.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
4 April 1968. 1st Cav forces at LZ Stud, the staging area for Operation Pegasus.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
26 April 1968. Operation Delaware, second crashed helicopter on Signal Hill, A Shau Valley.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
July 1968. Two 1st Cavalry Division LRP teams, Quang Tri.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
Unknown Date. Tunnel rat preparing for entering Vietnamese Tunnel, Vietnam.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
1965. Photo of USS Boxer (CV-21/LPH-4) loaded with helicopters of the 1st Cavalry Division.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
The division's first major operation was to help relieve the Siege of Plei Me near Pleiku and the pursuit of the withdrawing People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) which culminated in the Battle of Ia Drang, described in the book We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, was also the basis of the film We Were Soldiers. Because of that battle the division earned the Presidential Unit Citation (US), the first unit to receive such in the war.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
In 1966, the division attempted to root the communist Viet Cong (VC) and PAVN out of Bình Định Province with Operation Masher, Operation Crazy Horse and Operation Thayer. 1967 was then spent conducting Operation Pershing, a large scale search and destroy operation of PAVN/VC base areas in II Corps in which 5,400 PAVN/VC soldiers were killed and 2,000 captured. In Operation Jeb Stuart, January 1968, the division moved north to Camp Evans, north of Hue and on to Landing Zones Sharon and Betty, south of Quang Tri City, all in the I Corps Tactical Zone.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
In the early morning hours of 31 January 1968, the largest battle of the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive, was launched by 84,000 PAVN/VC soldiers across South Vietnam. In the Division's area of operation, the PAVN/VC forces seized most of the city of Huế. As the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, fought to cut off PAVN/VC reinforcements pouring into Huế, at Quang Tri City, five battalions, most from the 324th Division, attacked the city and LZ Betty (Headquarters 1st Brigade).


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
To stop allied troops from intervening, three other PAVN/VC infantry battalions deployed as blocking forces, all supported by a 122mm-rocket battalion and two heavy-weapons companies armed with 82mm mortars and 75mm recoilless rifles. After intense fighting, 900 PAVN/VC soldiers were killed in and around Quang Tri City and LZ Betty. However, across South Vietnam, 1,000 Americans, 2,100 South Vietnamese, 14,000 civilians, and 32,000 PAVN/VC were killed.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
In March 1968 the Division shifted forces to LZ Stud, the staging area for Operation Pegasus to break the siege of the Marine's Khe Sanh Combat Base—the second largest battle of the war. All three brigades participated in this airmobile operation, along with a Marine armor thrust. US Air Force B-52s alone dropped more than 75,000 tons of bombs on PAVN soldiers from the 304th and 325th Divisions encroaching the combat base in trenches. As these two elite enemy divisions, with history at Dien Bien Phu and the Ia Drang Valley, depleted, the Division leapfrogged west, clearing Route 9, until at 0:800 hours 8 April, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, linked-up with Marines at the combat base, ending the 77-day siege.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
On 19 April 1968, as the 2nd Brigade continued pushing west to the Laotian border, the 1st and 3rd Brigades (about 11,000 men and 300 helicopters) swung southwest and air assaulted A Shau Valley, commencing Operation Delaware. The PAVN was a well-trained, equipped, and led force. They turned A Shau into a formidable sanctuary —complete with PT76 tanks; powerful crew-served 37mm antiaircraft cannons, some radar controlled; twin-barreled 23mm cannons; and scores of 12.7mm heavy machine guns.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
A long-range penetration operation was launched by members of the Division's long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRP) against the PAVN when they seized "Signal Hill"—the name attributed to the peak of Dong Re Lao Mountain, a densely forested 4,879 feet (1,487 m) mountain midway in the valley—so the 1st and 3rd Brigades, slugging it out hidden deep behind the mountains, could communicate with Camp Evans near the coast or with approaching aircraft.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
Despite hundreds of B-52 and jet air strikes, the PAVN forces shot down a C-130, a CH-54, two Chinooks, and nearly two dozen UH-1 Hueys. Many more were lost in accidents or damaged by ground fire. The division also suffered more than 100 dead and 530 wounded in the operation. Bad weather aggravated the loss by causing delays in troop movements, allowing a substantial number of PAVN to escape to safety in Laos. Still, the PAVN lost more than 800 dead, a tank, 70 trucks, two bulldozers, 30 flamethrowers, thousands of rifles and machine guns, and dozens of antiaircraft cannons. They also lost tons of ammunition, explosives, medical supplies and foodstuffs.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
In mid-May 1968 Operation Delaware ended, however, the division continued tactical operations in I Corps as well as local pacification and "medcap" (medical outreach programs to local Vietnamese). In the autumn of 1968, the Division relocated south to Phước Vĩnh Base Camp northeast of Saigon. In May 1970, the Division participated in the Cambodian Incursion, withdrawing from Cambodia on 29 June. Thereafter, the division took a defensive posture while US troops withdrawals continued from Vietnam.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
On 29 April 1971 the bulk of the division was withdrawn to Fort Hood, Texas, but its 3rd Brigade remained as one of the final two major US ground combat units in Vietnam, departing 29 June 1972. However, its 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, Task Force Garry Owen, remained another two months.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War
In the Vietnam War, the Division suffered more casualties than any other army division: 5,444 men killed in action and 26,592 wounded in action. However, the First Marine Division suffered 7,012 men killed in action and the Third Marine Division suffered 6,869 men killed in action.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Vietnam War, Air Cavalry troops serving in the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)
This list of air cavalry troops is alphabetical by regiment, per the U.S. Army Combat Arms Regimental System, known as CARS, in use from 1957 to 1981. Under this system the unit nomenclature "regiment" was not used to designate the lineage of companies/batteries/troops or their parent battalions/squadrons. However, there were five armored cavalry regiments (ACRs) not organized under CARS, these units, including the 11th ACR, retained the "regiment" nomenclature in their official designation.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Cold War service and REFORGER Exercise
When the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) departed Vietnam, its colors were retained by reflagging the existing 1st Armored Division at Fort Hood as the "new" 1st Cavalry Division, configured as an armored division. Concurrently, the colors of the 1st Armored Division were transferred to Germany where the 4th Armored Division was reflagged as the 1st Armored Division.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Cold War service and REFORGER Exercise
In the aftermath of Vietnam, the 1st Cavalry Division was converted from an airmobile light infantry role into a triple capabilities (TRICAP) division. The unit received an infusion of mechanized infantry and artillery, to make it capable of missions needing three types of troops; armored, airmobility, and air cavalry.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Cold War service and REFORGER Exercise
In the post-Vietnam era, morale in the US Army waned. In response, from 1973 through 1979 HQDA permitted local commanders to encourage morale-enhancing uniform distinctions. Consequently, many units embraced various colored berets, for example armor and armored cavalry units often adopted the black beret. Similarly many other units including the First Cavalry Division embraced various colored berets in an attempt to improve dwindling morale. The First Cav decided to assign various colored berets to the three major TRICAP and division support units. In this implementation, armored cavalry, airmobile infantry units, air cavalry units, division artillery units, and division support units all wore different colored berets, including black, light blue, kelly green, and red.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Cold War service and REFORGER Exercise
However, the TRICAP concept was short-lived, and by 1975, the division was equipped as a two-brigade armored division with its third brigade provided by the Mississippi Army National Guard's 155th Armored Brigade from 1984–1991.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Cold War service and REFORGER Exercise
The division participated in numerous REFORGER exercises, and was used to test new doctrinal concepts and equipment, including the XM-1 tank. The unit assignment and structure changed significantly, notably when 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry, the division's most famous unit, was inactivated. The 13th Signal Battalion fielded mobile subscriber equipment (MSE), a secure digital communications system for corps and below units.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Middle East in 1990s, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm
The 1st Cavalry next fought as a heavy division, during Operation Desert Storm in January and February 1991. It participated in the Battle of Norfolk. The 1st Cavalry Division deployed in October 1990 as part of VII Corps. The division's 'round-out' formation, the 155th Armored Brigade was not deployed in a surprise political decision. It was planned to augment the division by attaching the Tiger Brigade from the 2nd Armored Division, but that brigade was attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (1st & 2nd Marine Divisions) to add heavy armor support to that force.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Middle East in 1990s, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm
Consequently, the 1st Cavalry Division was assigned the role of the VII Corps' reserve for much of the ground war, but was crucial in the movement of ground forces to the Kuwaiti and west Saudi Arabian theaters by making two assaults into Iraqi held territory with the division's Black Jack Brigade moving north drawing Iraqi divisions out of Kuwait to support the Iraqi units defending in Iraq. This movement was led by the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, from the Wadi Al-Batien to just north of Basra through several Iraqi divisions before stopping. The assault by M1 Abrams main battle tanks, M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and other support vehicles moved much faster than was thought possible, catching the Iraqi Army off guard.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Middle East in 1990s, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm
The 13th Signal Battalion was the first unit in the U.S. Army to deploy mobile subscriber equipment (MSE) into combat. Installing, operating, and maintaining communications equipment to support a communications network spanning over 280 kilometers, the 13th Signal Battalion again provided the division's communications. 13th Signal Battalion was the first unit in the U.S. Army to provide digital communications in Southwest Asia. It was a gateway link from the Port of Dammam to the U.S. Army XVIII Airborne Corps Headquarters.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Middle East in 1990s, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm
After the division returned from Kuwait, the 1st "Tiger" Brigade, 2d Armored Division was reflagged as the 3d Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (separate lineage). In response to the continued hostile movements by the Iraqi Armed Forces after Desert Storm, the U.S. Department of Defense ordered successive Operation Intrinsic Action deployments by combat brigades and special forces units to the Iraq/Kuwait border. The 1st Cavalry's three brigades contributed heavily to the decade-long deployments from 1992–2002.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Bosnia-Herzegovina
The 1st Cavalry Division took control of the U.S. peacekeeping contingent in Bosnia-Herzegovina with approximately 6,900 personnel on 20 June 1998, as part of the multinational Stabilization Force (SFOR). 1st Brigade served for Rotation SFOR 4. 2nd Brigade served for Rotation SFOR 5. 2nd Brigade was alerted for action during the Russian move from Bosnia to the Pristina International Airport in June 1999, but no action was ultimately taken after consultation at the highest levels in NATO. In August 1999, the 10th Mountain Division took over operations in the Tuzla/Multinational Division North area.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror
Elements of the division arrived in Washington, D.C., shortly after the 11 September attacks.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Iraq
In October 2001 an advance party of a division brigade combat team was deployed to the Iraq/Kuwait border. Some divisional units participated in the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq. The division in its entirety deployed to Iraq in January 2004, sending an initial detachment of the 9th Cavalry Regiment into combat in September 2003. The 1st Cavalry relieved the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Iraq
Among its subordinate formations were: Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade; Arkansas' 39th Infantry Brigade; element of A Company, 28th Signal Battalion; elements of Washington's 81st Armored Brigade; and the 2d Battalion, 162nd Infantry (Oregon Army National Guard), and Company E (Air Traffic Control Services), 126th Aviation, MA ARNG. After spending more than a year in Iraq, it redeployed back to the US by April 2005. It was relieved by the 3d Infantry Division. Division Artillery (DIVARTY) was organized as the 5th BCT. It contained HHB, DIVARTY; 1–7 CAV; 1–8 CAV; 1–21 FA; and the 515th FSB (Provisional).


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Iraq
The division fought in many key battles against insurgents, including the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004, where the 2nd Brigade Combat Team engaged in house to house intense urban combat to root out enemy cells in the city. During its OIF2 deployment division assigned and attached personnel numbered approximately 40,000. 168 personnel were killed in action, with approximately 1,500 wounded.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Iraq
The division assumed duties as Headquarters, Multi-National Division – Baghdad from November 2006 to December 2007. 4th Brigade Combat Team, activated in 2005, arrived in Ninawa Governorate in October and November 2006. However, 2–12 Cavalry was detached, deployed to Baghdad to augment the division efforts there.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Iraq
The 3d Brigade Combat Team, "Greywolf", deployed to the Diyala Province in September 2006 and fought in the Battle of Baqubah as a part of the Iraq War troop surge of 2007.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Iraq
The division assumed duties as the Headquarters, Multi-National Division – Baghdad Jan 2009– Jan 2010. The deployment was extended by 23 days past the one year mark.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Iraq
The 4th Brigade Combat Team "Long Knife" deployed to Mosul, Nineva Province, September 2010 to September 2011.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (2001–2014)
In November 2001, elements of the 1st Cavalry Division (3d Platoon, 545th MP CO, originally assigned to 2d Brigade "BlackJack" 1st Cav) deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (2001–2014)
In May 2011, the division headquarters deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and assumed command of Regional Command East, replacing the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The 1st Infantry Division HQ took command of RC-East on 19 April 2012.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (2001–2014)
In June 2014, the division headquarters returned to Afghanistan and assumed command of Regional Command South, replacing the 4th Infantry Division.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (2001–2014)
In October 2014, the division flag returned to Fort Hood, leaving its Deputy Commanding General behind as the new Train Advise Assist Command South.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (2001–2014)
Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (OEF-A) ended in late 2014.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Freedom's Sentinel (2015–present)
After the completion of Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan, the new US deployment to Afghanistan was known as Operation Freedom's Sentinel.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Freedom's Sentinel (2015–present)
In June 2015, the division element in TAAC South was relieved by an element from the 7th Infantry Division Headquarters.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Freedom's Sentinel (2015–present)
In September 2016, the 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters deployed again to Afghanistan, this time with the 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade alongside it. The headquarters serves as the United States Forces – Afghanistan National Support Element, and is also responsible for Bagram Airfield, the largest US military base in Afghanistan. It supports forces serving in the United States' Operation Freedom's Sentinel and NATO's Resolute Support Mission, enabling both the international effort to train, advise, and assist the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces and the counterterrorism fight. The 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade also supports both Operation Freedom's Sentinel and Resolute Support, and is the Army's only currently-deployed active duty Sustainment Brigade.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Operation Inherent Resolve
The division's 3d BCT deployed in February 2017 to Kuwait, and elements of 3ABCT supported operations in Iraq to retake Mosul from ISIS.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Global missions
The 1st Cavalry Division currently holds three of the active Army's ten armored brigade combat teams. The division provides the Army and Combatant Commanders with trained and ready forces.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Global missions
In April 2014, 2–5 Cavalry from 1st BCT, 1CD deployed to Europe to support Operation Combined Resolve II, a NATO exercise in southeastern Germany. In October 2014, 1CD returned to Europe to support its NATO partners in another pair of exercises, this time participating in Operations Combined Resolve III and Atlantic Resolve with the majority of 1ABCT.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Global missions
A battalion task force from the Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division deployed to Germany in November 2015; it participated in Atlantic Resolve, then stayed in Germany for the next nine months to provide aviation support to US and NATO forces across Europe.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), 2001–present: War on Terror, Global missions
In June 2015, the 2d BCT was the first rotational brigade deployed to South Korea, relieving the 1st BCT, 2d Infantry Division as it inactivated. The 2d BCT deployed for nine months; in February 2016, the Army called on the First Team again, and the 2d BCT was replaced by the 1st BCT on another nine-month rotation.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Current structure
On 15 July 2005, the 1st Cavalry Division transitioned to the Unit of Action modified table of organization and equipment (MTOE). No longer are there battalion-sized elements made up purely of armor and/or infantry battalions. Brigades are now composed of combined arms battalions (CAB), meaning every maneuver battalion combines infantry and armor, excluding the reconnaissance squadrons. The Division's artillery battalions are assigned to all three of the Brigade Combat Teams.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Current structure
1st Cavalry Division consists of a division headquarters and headquarters battalion, three armored brigade combat teams, a division artillery, a combat aviation brigade, and a division sustainment brigade.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Current structure
The 4th Brigade Combat Team "Long Knife" inactivated in October 2013 the following units: the Special Troops Battalion, 4th BCT; the 5th Battalion, 82nd Artillery; and 27th Brigade Support Battalion, with some of the companies of the latter two used to augment artillery and support battalions in the remaining three BCTs. The 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry joined the 2d Brigade Combat Team, the 2d Battalion, 7th Cavalry joined the 3d Brigade Combat Team and the 2d Battalion, 12th Cavalry joined the 1st Brigade Combat Team. The 3d Cavalry Regiment was subordinate to the Division until March 2017.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Shoulder sleeve insignia
The shoulder sleeve insignia was originally approved 3 January 1921, with several variations in colors of the bend and horse's head to reflect the subordinate elements of the division. The design was authorized for wear by all subordinate elements of the division on 11 December 1934, and previous authorization for the variations was canceled. The insignia is worn subdued on field uniforms after experience in the Vietnam War, where the gold was too conspicuous. Normally, the gold is changed to the base color of the uniform to subdue it. With the retirement of the green "Class A" uniform in October 2015, only the subdued version of the SSI is worn, on the ACU's left sleeve.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Shoulder sleeve insignia
It consists on a yellow, triangular Norman shield with rounded corners 5.25 inches (133 mm) in height overall, a black diagonal stripe extends over the shield from upper left to lower right, and in the upper right a black horse's head cuts off diagonally at the neck, all within a 0.125-in green border.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Shoulder sleeve insignia
Yellow was chosen because it is the traditional cavalry color, and the horse's head refer to the division's original cavalry structure. Black, symbolic of iron, alludes to the transition to tanks and armor. The black diagonal stripe represents a sword baldric and is a mark of military honor; it also implies movement "up the field" and thus symbolizes aggressive elan and attack. The one diagonal bend and the one horse's head also allude to the division's numerical designation.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Distinctive unit insignia
Description: A metal and enameled device, 1 inch in height overall, consisting of a gold-colored Norman shield with a black horse's head couped in sinister chief, and a black bend charged with two five-pointed stars. Properly: Or, on a bend sable two stars of five points Or, in chief sinister a sable couped horse head, a border vert


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Distinctive unit insignia
Symbolism: The device is a miniature reproduction of the 1st Cavalry Division's shoulder sleeve insignia with the addition of two five-pointed stars. The Division Commander and the Division Staff wore the distinctive insignia design from 1922 to 1934 as a shoulder sleeve insignia.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Distinctive unit insignia
Background: The distinctive unit insignia was approved 25 August 1965.


1st Cavalry Division (United States), Distinctive unit insignia
The Flag of the 1st Cavalry Division is a white field with the distinctive yellow triangular Norman shield with rounded corners, a black diagonal stripe extending over the shield from upper left to lower right and in the upper right a silhouetted horse's head cut off diagonally at the neck with a green border.


1st Cavalry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 1st Cavalry Division (German: 1. Kavallerie-Division) was formed in October 1939. It fought in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and on the Eastern Front. It was officially transformed into the 24th Panzer Division in late 1941.


1st Cavalry Division (Wehrmacht), Formation
The division was formed on 25 October from the 1. Kavallerie-Brigade and expanded on 20 November with the addition of Reiter-Regiments 21 and 22. It was reconstituted in February 1940 when II\Reiter-Regiment 21 was disbanded and distributed to other regiments.


1st Cavalry Division (Wehrmacht), Operational history
The campaign in Western Europe began in the Netherlands before it was assigned to the 4th Army and sent to France. The division crossed the Somme on 7 June and fought near Meulen. On 18–19 June it fought around Saumur and attempted to capture a bridge across the Loire but the attack failed when it was blown up by English troop with a patrol still on it. The division reached La Rochelle when the fighting in France ended.


1st Cavalry Division (Wehrmacht), Operational history
After the French capitulation the division was stationed in France on occupation duties until the early summer of 1941 when it was moved east in preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union. It was assigned to the XXIV Army Corps in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The division fought in the southern sector of the front, seeing action around the Berezina and Dniepr rivers, especially in efforts to clear the Pripet Marshes of by-passed Red Army units.


1st Cavalry Division (Wehrmacht), Operational history
It was withdrawn to France in November 1941 and its 17,000 horses were handed over to infantry divisions. The “Schlußappell”, the last divisional parade, was held on 5 November at Gomel before it was finally disbanded and reformed as the 24.Panzer-Division.


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States)
The 1st Cavalry Division Artillery (DIVARTY) or "Red Team" is the Force Field Artillery Headquarters for the 1st Cavalry Division. The DIVARTY served with the division from 1941–2005, including combat service in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom and in peacetime in Japan, Korea, and Fort Hood, Texas. As the Force Fires Headquarters, the DIVARTY provides fire support coordination and mission command for the training and readiness of field artillery units across the division.


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States), History, World War II
When first organized in July 1941, the 1st Cavalry Division Artillery consisted of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, two horse-drawn 75mm battalions (the 82nd Field Artillery Battalion and the 61st Field Artillery Battalion), and a newly organized 105mm howitzer battalion (the 62nd Field Artillery Battalion) towed by trucks. The 62nd Field Artillery was removed from the division for deployment to Europe in 1942, and replaced by the 99th Field Artillery Battalion. Before deploying to Australia, the two horse-drawn battalions fielded jeeps to replace their horses in order to save shipping space.


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States), History, World War II
From June - July, 1943, the DIVARTY deployed from Texas to California, and then on to Australia. In October 1943, another 105mm battalion, the 271st Field Artillery Battalion, was added to the division. In February - March, 1944, the Division Artillery participated in the Admiralty Islands campaign, with the 99th FAB landing with the 5th Cavalry Regiment, the 271st FAB landing with the 12th Cavalry Regiment, and 61st FAB landing with the 7th Cavalry Regiment


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States), History, Korean War
In late 1957, as part of the Army's reorganization under the Pentomic structure, the DIVARTY returned to Korea, replacing the 24th Infantry Division. The headquarters was stationed Tonggu and later at Kaya Ri, a five-battery 105mm battalion (2nd Bn, 19th Arty) at Tonggu and later Ichon Ni, and a composite battalion of 155mm howitzers (twelve howitzers in two batteries), 8-in howitzers (a single four-gun battery) and Honest John rockets (a battery of two launchers) stationed at Tonggu and later at Pobwon-Ni.


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States), History, Korean War
Under a modified Pentomic structure from 1960–1963, the DIVARTY consisted of 5 direct support battalions armed with 105mm howitzers (3 towed and 2 self-propelled), and a composite battalion of 8-in howitzers and Honest John rockets.


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States), History, Vietnam
On 1 July 1965, the Division Artillery, less personnel and equipment, returned to the United States, and reflagged elements of the 11th Air Assault Division (Test) and the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Georgia.


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States), History, Vietnam
Three battalions (2nd Bn, 19th Arty; 1st Bn, 21st Arty; and 1st Bn, 77th Arty) were 105mm towed battalions armed with the new M102 howitzer. The 2nd Bn, 20th Arty was an Aerial Rocket Artillery (ARA) battalion, consisting of three batteries, each with twelve UH-1B helicopters firing 2.75-inch rockets, while Btry E, 82nd Arty was an aviation battery with 20 helicopters for observation and other aviation support. Between July and September 1965, the newly organized 1st Cavalry Division Artillery departed Fort Benning for combat in Vietnam


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States), History, Global War on Terror
In preparation for deployment to Iraq, the division provisionally reorganized DIVARTY as a brigade combat team (BCT). On 6 April 2004, the DIVARTY assumed control of Al-Rashid district in Baghdad from the 1st Armored Division Artillery Combat Team. Operating as a provisional BCT, the DIVARTY's task organization included the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment; the 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment; the 1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment; Company B, 8th Engineer Battalion; the 515th Forward Support Battalion (Provisional); and the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines. For a year, the "Red Team" conducted stability operations before returning to Fort Hood.


1st Cavalry Division Artillery (United States), History, Global War on Terror
As part of the division's conversion to modular brigade combat teams, the DIVARTY was inactivated on 26 June 2005. On 2 April 2015, the DIVARTY was activated by reflagging the 41st Field Artillery Brigade.


1st Cavalry Division Band
The 1st Cavalry Division Band is a military band posted at Fort Hood, Texas and assigned to the headquarters of the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division. It was activated in 1945.


1st Cavalry Division Band, History
On 3 March 1855, the 1st Cavalry Band was established in the Second Regiment of Cavalry. In March 1861, the band left their post in Fort Mason, which was transferred to the control of the Confederate Army. It would be based in the union states, specifically Pennsylvania, for a good part of the American Civil War. In December 1866, following the conclusion of the Civil War, the regimental band was disbanded at Camp Sedgwick, only to be reconstituted three years later, In 1916 the band participated in the Mexican Expeditionary Force led by General of the Armies John J. Pershing. The 1st Cavalry Division was organized in 1921, after which the associated band was reactivated and assigned to the division.


1st Cavalry Division Band, History
The modern 1st Cavalry Division Band was activated in Luzon, Philippines on June 3, 1945 and initially formed of personnel and equipment transferred from the recently deactivated band of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, as well as personnel from the bands of the 1st and 5th cavalry regiments. During the Korean War, the band advanced into Pyongyang and was the first American military band to perform in the North Korean capital following its fall to United States and South Korean forces in the Battle of Pyongyang. It later suffered a casualty rate exceeding 33-percent during the American withdrawal from Seoul to Taegu after the Chinese-North Korean victory in the Third Battle of Seoul.


1st Cavalry Division Band, History
In 1953 the band was downsized from 96 to 48 troopers and, the following year, assigned secondary duty as a smoke generator unit. Jeanne Pace was appointed bandmaster of the 1st Cavalry Division Band in 1985, becoming the first female bandmaster in the history of the United States Army.


1st Cavalry Division Band, History
On July 3, 1965, the band participated in the retiring of the colors of the 11th Air Assault Division, and organization of the new 1st Cavalry Division. Throughout the 1960s, the band served multiple tours in Vietnam performing concerts, participating in village support missions, and physical security. This included multiple tours, and rotations in Vietnam that resulted in the loss of seven musicians; three times, the band lost two members in single attacks in 1966, and twice in 1969.


1st Cavalry Division Band, History
According to the U.S. Army, on April 8, 2004 – during the United States occupation of Iraq – the band survived an ambush and attack with rocket propelled grenades fired by insurgents en route to perform at an officer commissioning ceremony of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. Bandsmen involved in the action received the Combat Action Badge.


1st Cavalry Division Band, History
In addition to its service during the Korean War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the band has also been deployed overseas during the Vietnam War and Operation Joint Forge. As of 2012, it was one of three active duty U.S. Army bands posted in Texas. When on parade, the marching band wears the division's trademark black "Cav Hat".


1st Cavalry Division Band, Unit decorations
The 1st Cavalry Division Band is the recipient of eight Meritorious Unit Commendations, three Republic of Vietnam Crosses of Gallantry, the Commonwealth of the Philippines Presidential Unit Citation, and the Cross of Valour of the Greek state, among others.


1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment
The 1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment is a United States Army equestrian military unit. Posted at Fort Hood, Texas, it was activated in 1972 and is a subordinate unit of the 1st Cavalry Division.


1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment, History
In 1943, at the height of World War II, the 1st Cavalry Division disposed of its remaining horses. The Horse Cavalry Detachment was activated 29 years later, in 1972. It is one of seven horse-mounted units remaining in the U.S. Army.


1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment, History
In 2014 the first woman to lead the detachment, Captain Elizabeth Rascon, assumed command.


1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment, Mission
The detachment has primarily public duties functions. It participates in change of command and medal ceremonies, the U.S. presidential inauguration, and represents the 1st Cavalry Division in parades, riding demonstrations, and civic events. In addition to official state and military ceremonies, it has participated in the Rose Parade, Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeos, and U.S. Army recruiting events. Finally, a weekly mounted drill demonstrating equestrian vaulting and cavalry tactics, such as sabre charges, is held for the public by the detachment every Thursday morning at Fort Hood.


1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment, Mission
The Horse Cavalry Detachment's mounted drills are drawn from the U.S. Army's 1883 Manual of Cavalry Tactics.


1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment, Equipment, Armaments and vehicles
The 40-soldier unit is equipped with 40 dark brown horses with minimal white markings which are outfitted with Model 1885 McClellan riding saddles that are hand-made by cavalry troopers in an on-site leather shop maintained at the unit's stables. Each of the unit's mounts are trained for approximately one year before being put into action. It additionally deploys 8 mules, a mascot dog (Sergeant Buddy), a Model 1878 supply wagon, and a M1841 light mountain howitzer. Individual soldiers are equipped with the Colt Single Action Army revolver, Springfield model 1873 carbine rifle, and Model 1860 light cavalry saber.


1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment, Equipment, Uniforms
The Horse Cavalry Detachment is designated by the U.S. Army as a "special ceremonial unit" which allows it to wear specialized, unit-specific uniforms not part of standard Army issue.


1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade
The Sustainment Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division is a divisional logistics and combat support brigade of the United States Army. It was constituted on 22 August 1957 in the Regular Army as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 1st Cavalry Division Trains and activated on 1 November 1957 in Korea. On 1 September 1963 it was consolidated with the 1st Cavalry Division Band (organized in 1856) and the consolidated unit was reorganized and redesignated as Headquarters, Headquarters Company and Band, 1st Cavalry Division Support Command. It was reorganized and redesignated on 5 May 1971 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division Support Command (Band concurrently withdrawn from the 1st Cavalry Division Support Command), and finally redesignated as the Sustainment Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division on 25 June 2015.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile)
The 1st Cavalry (Horse Guards) Regiment "Grenadiers" (Spanish: Regimiento Escolta Presidencial n.º 1 «Granaderos») is the senior cavalry regiment of the Chilean Army, which serves as the Horse Guards unit providing the ceremonial escort in parades and ceremonies to the President of Chile, the Supreme Commander of the Chilean Armed Forces. It provides the guard during flag raising ceremonies monthly in Santiago, the national capital. Together with the 3rd Cavalry Regiment  "Hussars" it forms the remaining mounted components of the army in active service.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), History
The Grenadiers were formed on July 6, 1827 as the then second regiment of cavalry of the reorganized Chilean Army per a presidential decree by President Francisco Antonio Pinto, and its honorific title is a remembrance of the regiment's first commanding officer,  future president Manuel Bulnes. The designation of "Horse Grenadiers" is a remembrance of the role played by the Argentine Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers in assisting the young Army in the campaigns for the independence of Chile in 1818.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), History
The regiment's baptism of fire was in the Chilean Civil War of 1829–30 and later fought in  the Chilean campaigns of the War of the Confederation and for its contribution for the total collapse of the Peru-Bolivia Confederation was rewarded by being bestowed the duty as the presidential horse guards regiment in Santiago, serving until 1862 on public duties activities, having left that role to help in the Chilean Army actions during the long Occupation of Araucanía.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), History
The regiment later saw action during the Chilean ground campaign of the War of the Pacific, having won laurels of glory for the nation in Pisagua, Dolores, Tarapacá, Tacna and Chorrillos, and later on briefly during the Chilean Civil War of 1891.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), History
As part of the wide reorganization of the Army following that war the Grenadiers were reorganized in the early 1900s, co-sharing the duties of the presidential horse guard with the then Cavalry Regiment "Mounted Rifles" and the Army 5th Carabineer Regiment, the predecessor of the current Carabineros de Chile, with the regiment forming a dismounted ceremonial squadron armed in the same manner as Prussian dragoons of the era, a duty it would later share with the Army Mounted Ceremonial Troop, wearing Garde de Corps styled uniforms, and the Army Cavalry School Mounted Regiment, which was dressed in the manner of the cuirassiers, alongside the current Carabineros School. In 1932 the Grenadiers were relegated to being only the travelling escort, as the Carabineros officially raised the then 200-man La Moneda Palace Guard that year as the permanent presidential security unit.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), History
In 1982, the regiment was transferred away to the frontier town of Putre in the Arica y Parinacota Region, while being rerolled as armored cavalry retained the traditions of cavalry with a mounted squadron due to its highland terrain. The Mounted Ceremonial Troop remained with the Army as a directly reporting unit.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), History
In 1999, the regiment was relocated to its current stables in Camp San Isidro in the western city of Quillota, Valparaiso Region, wherein it was reassigned the duties of being the travelling escort to the President, merging the Mounted Ceremonial Troop to it. Today it maintains the primary purpose of protocol and ceremonial public duties as the most senior regiment of cavalry of the modern day Chilean Army, and one of only 2 regiments left standing in the role of mounted cavalry.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), History
Alongside being the travelling escort unit, it maintains guards at the Plaza de la Ciudadanía in Santiago monthly for flag raising ceremonies held there. The regiment's change of command ceremony is the only one in the army wherein most of it is done while mounted, reflecting the long traditions of the Chilean Army cavalry.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), History, Organization of the current regiment, Regimental Band
Being the seniormost band of the cavalry and armoured regiments and squadrons of the Army and the inheritor of the long tradition of mounted bands in Chile since the 20th century the Regimental Band maintains a high standard of excellence and fitness as it performs both mounted and dismounted public duties within the Santiago Metropolitan Region while also playing in community events. Unlike the other mounted bands, but more similar to British and German mounted bands, it is a complete ensemble composed of brass and woodwind instrumentalists, together with a bugle platoon. In mounted formation the band is accompanied by two mounted kettledrummers playing in the old German tradition.


1st Cavalry Regiment (Chile), Current dress uniform
The current full dress uniform of the regiment, adopted in 2011, is a modernized form of the old uniforms worn in the early 1900s. It is a sky blue uniform with a cavalry pickelhaube, with black riding boots and belt for all ranks and epaulettes for officers in the Prussian manner (but not shoulder marks, shoulder boards are worn by the warrant officers). Officer carry sabres while all troopers, including those of NCO rank save for warrant officers and the colour guards, carry lances when mounted and Mauser rifles when dismounted.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States)
The 1st Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army regiment that has its antecedents in the early 19th century in the formation of the United States Regiment of Dragoons. To this day, the unit's special designation is "First Regiment of Dragoons". While they were the First Regiment of Dragoons another unit designated the 1st Cavalry Regiment was formed in 1855 and in 1861 was re-designated as the 4th Cavalry Regiment (units were renumbered based on seniority and it was the fourth oldest mounted regiment in active service). The First Dragoons became the 1st Cavalry Regiment since they were the oldest mounted regiment.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Background
During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), Continental forces patterned cavalry units after those of the opposing British forces, especially the well-supplied mounted dragoons of the British Army. The first cavalry unit formed by the Congress of the United States of America was a squadron of four troops (the Squadron of Light Dragoons) commanded by Major Michael Rudolph on 5 March 1792 (the troops would then be incorporated into the Legion of the United States (1792 to 1796)). In 1796 the dragoons were reduced to two companies, were dismounted units by 1800 and disbanded in 1802.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Background
In 1808 the Regiment of Light Dragoons was formed and in 1812 another regiment (2nd Regiment of Light Dragoons) was raised. Units of both regiments of dragoons served during the War of 1812 in engagements at the Battle of the Mississinewa; the Battle of Lundy's Lane; Fort Erie and the Siege of Fort Meigs.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Background
The 1st Regiment and 2nd Regiment were consolidated on 30 March 1814 into the single Regiment of Light Dragoons of eight troops, but this unit was dissolved in 1815 (the rationale was that cavalry forces were too expensive to maintain as part of a standing army, so Congress insisted on economy and a minimum standing Army).


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Formation
The "United States Regiment of Dragoons" was organized by an Act of Congress approved on 2 March 1833 after the disbandment of the "Battalion of Mounted Rangers" (formed in 1832 due to a lack of mounted units to patrol the frontier and also in response to the Black Hawk War). The first order announcing appointments in the regiment was dated 5 March 1833, and gave the names of the colonel, lieutenant-colonel, major, four captains and four lieutenants, stating that the organization of the regiment would be perfected by the selection of officers from the "Battalion of Mounted Rangers." In June 1834, the regiment filled its complement of officers, many of whom later became noted Civil War generals:


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Formation
The unit became the "First Regiment of Dragoons" when the Second Dragoons was raised in 1836.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Frontier duty
In October 1833, the five companies first organized were sent under Colonel Dodge to winter in the vicinity of Fort Gibson, Arkansas Territory, where they remained until June 1834. Then, the regiment was sent on the First Dragoon Expedition, or the Pawnee Expedition, during which, although it ended in September, a full one-fourth of the officers and men died of fever.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Frontier duty
For the winter, Headquarters with Companies A, C, D and G, were sent to Fort Leavenworth; Companies B, H and I, Lieutenant Colonel Kearny, commanding, into the Indian country on the right bank of the Mississippi River, near the mouth of the Des Moines River; and Companies E, F and K, Major Mason commanding, to Fort Gibson. Throughout the summer of 1835, all the companies of the regiment were kept in the field.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Frontier duty
The regiment became the "First Regiment of Dragoons" when the Second Regiment of Dragoons was raised in 1836, however, the general disposition of the regiment remained unchanged. The various companies were employed in scouting among the Indians, especially along the Missouri frontier, with a portion of the regiment going to Nacogdoches, Texas, to keep white trespassers from the Indian lands, and preserving peace between whites and Indians and among the Indians themselves; also in building wagon roads and bridges. During the winter, the companies returned to their respective stations – Forts Leavenworth, Gibson and Des Moines.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Frontier duty
Colonel Dodge resigned on 4 July 1836, and was appointed Governor of Wisconsin. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Kearny. The regiment was not heavily engaged in the Florida war, although it did take some minor casualties, including a lieutenant. In March 1837, a regimental order designated the color of the horses of each company as follows: A and K, black; B, F and H, sorrel; C, D, E and I, bay; and G, iron gray.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Frontier duty
In October 1837, and again in March 1838, Colonel Kearny led elements of the regiment to quell Osage Indians. In April 1839, the army created Fort Wayne in Indian Territory, and Companies E, F, G and K, were stationed there for several years, with occasional forays into the field to chase hostile Indians. Kearny was promoted to brigadier general on 30 June 1846, and was succeeded by Colonel Mason.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Mexican–American War
General Kearny was placed in command of the "Army of the West (1846)", which consisted of Companies B, C, G, I and K, 1st Dragoons, an artillery battalion, some separate infantry companies, two regiments of Missouri volunteer cavalry, the volunteer Mormon Battalion, and the 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers, which sailed from New York City to California by ship. All in all, the Army of the West consisted of about 3,700 men, which ventured west to New Mexico, some of whom did not reach California. This command was concentrated at Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River, from which point it marched for Santa Fé on 1 August 1846. The force occupied Santa Fé without much opposition, and, after leaving part of his force there, Kearny marched into California, arriving in December.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Mexican–American War
On the morning of 6 December 1846, Kearny's 150-man command met and defeated an equal number of California lancers at San Pasqual, about 40 miles from San Diego, under Major Andrés Pico. The action was severe, with the 1st Dragoons losing 3 officers and 14 men killed, principally with lance thrusts. General Kearny himself received two wounds. His force finally reached San Diego on 12 December 1846.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Mexican–American War
Kearny, with a force consisting of Company C, 1st Dragoons, (60 dismounted men) under Captain Turner, sailors and marines with a battery of artillery and California volunteers, left San Diego for Los Angeles on 29 December. Kearny's troops routed Mexicans under Governor Flores at the crossing of the Rio San Gabriel on 8 January 1847, and on the plains of La Mesa on 9 January. With the capture of Los Angeles on the following day, all Mexican resistance to the American occupation of Southern California ceased.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Mexican–American War
Kearny had left Companies G and I at Albuquerque under Capt. J. H. K. Burgwin. When Col. Sterling Price (then in command at Santa Fé) learned of the seizure and murder of the New Mexico Governor Charles Bent and five others by the Mexicans (20 January), he moved out against them with a force of about 350 dismounted men and easily defeated them, on 24 January, at Canada. Captain Burgwin defeated another Mexican force shortly thereafter and rejoined Price's column for a series of further battles.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Mexican–American War
During 1847, regimental headquarters were still at Leavenworth and Companies A and E were with Zachary Taylor in Mexico. Early in the year, Company B was reorganized at Jefferson Barracks before being sent to Santa Fe in June. On 26 June, while en route, the company was engaged by 300-400 Comanches at Grand Prairie, Arkansas, losing five men killed and six wounded. They were the first unit of the Regiment to seriously tangle with the frontier Indians. Upon reaching Santa Fe, on 6 August with the $350,000 they had been escorting, Company B was retrained as a field artillery battery to support the regiment.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Mexican–American War
Companies D, F and K saw service on Scott's line in Mexico. Company F escorted General Scott from Veracruz to Mexico City and was present at the battles near that city. From 1 November to 20 December, it was engaged on escort duty between the city and Vera Cruz. In 1848, the three companies returned to the United States and were stationed at various points on the northwestern frontier.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Mexican–American War
Companies B, G, and I served with General Sterling Price in February – March 1848 in his campaign down into the State of Chihuahua and participated in the attack on Santa Cruz de Rosales. Company D was sent to the Minnesota Territory commanded by Lieut. J. W. T. Gardiner. In the summer of 1849 they escorted Maj. Woods of the 6th Infantry at Fort Snelling, to mark a northern boundary line and select a site for a future fortification near Pembina.


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Further frontier duty
In September 1848, the First Regiment of Dragoons rode out of Fort Kearny and returned to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and trained their new recruits. On 11 May 1849, the regiment rode further west, and along with two companies of the 6th Infantry Regiment, guarded the treacherous Oregon Trail in the heart of Pawnee territory. In October, an engagement on the Little Blue River near Linden, Nebraska and another engagement on the Platte River resulted in numerous Pawnee fatalities, and 5 Dragoon casualties. On 15 May 1850, J. W. Davidson and Captain Nathaniel Lyon led a regiment of the 1st U.S. Dragoons in an massacre of 60 Pomo Native Americans at Clear Lake, California, the 1850 "Bloody Island Massacre";


1st Cavalry Regiment (United States), Further frontier duty
Brevet Brigadier General Mason, Colonel of the 1st Dragoons, died at Jefferson Barracks, on 25 July 1850, and was succeeded by Col. Thomas T. Fauntleroy, promoted from the Second Dragoons. In 1853, the newly acquired Southwest erupted in violence between the US and local Indian tribes. After a reorganization period, elements of the 1st Regiment of Dragoons set out for New Mexico on 1 July 1854. The year of 1854 was rough for the Dragoons; heavy casualties and a tenacious enemy took their toll.