DSTB inactivated, reactivated as DHHB

FORT STEWART Ga. - In 2004 the Third Infantry Division Special Troops Battalion became the first unit of it's kind in the Army. The unit was started from scratch, with no manuals or knowledge of how to manage a special troops battalion.

The DSTB perservered numerous deployments to Iraq during some of the conflict's toughest times.

In a ceremony April 8, DSTB was inactivated and re-activated as Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion.

Lieutenant Colonel Earl W. Rilington, commander of HHBN, oversaw the ceremony, alongside Command Sgt. Maj. Byron Loyd, the battalion's command sergeant major. He will lead the new unit during its transition.

"We're really proud of the lineage we inherit," said Lt. Col. Rilington. "Today's ceremony solidifies the commitment of our Army to continuously adapt to changes in the environment. As professional Soldiers, we know the battlefield environment is more complex today than at any point in our history."

While this is a proud moment for the battalion's first commander, it is also exciting for one of the Soldiers who will serve in the new unit.

Sergeant Bradley Fisher served with DSTB during their last deployment and was on hand at the ceremony. The Operations Company, HHBN, operations noncommissioned officer in charge was looking forward to the future of his unit.

"The ceremony was great," he said. "It was well put together. And I'm very excited about HHBN's job, future deployments and see what we can accomplish."

The battalion's new motto will be Nous Resterons La, which is French for "we shall remain here." This is what Maj. Gen Joseph Dickman, the first commanding general of the Third Infantry Division, during World War I, told French generals during the German onslaught on the Marne River in the summer of 1918.

The division's tenacious fighting earned the division the nickname the "Rock of the Marne" by the French, because they stood strong against the Germans.