FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- As they have since the early 1900s, training areas here are resounding with blasts of artillery and battle cries of infantrymen making movements on the objective.
This month, First Army's Division East is leading the first-ever multi-echelon integrated brigade exercise at the installation that was named for a First Army leader during both World Wars.
Camp Drum, which was first called Pine Camp, was named after Lt. Gen. Hugh Aloysius Drum, who served as deputy chief of staff for First Army, Western Front under Gen. John "Blackjack" Pershing during World War I and went on to command First Army during World War II.
Today, Soldiers of the Virginia Army National Guard's 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the Vermont Army National Guard's 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, and the New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division are conducting annual training cycles in collective tasks during the MIBT.
"It's going to be a challenging training event," said Col. Christopher Ramsey, commander of Division East's 188th Infantry Brigade, a training brigade responsible for advising and assisting reserve component partners and helping them to maintain mission readiness as part of the Army Force Generation cycle. He said he wanted the observer coach/trainers to maintain their focus on the training unit and to ensure the training units get the most immersive, realistic training experience possible.
The MIBT facilitates and enables multi-component, integrated collective training exercises in a realistic operational environment. Soldiers in each training unit are going through a series of combined arms live fire and situational lanes, with a goal of maintaining proficiency in infantry and artillery collective tasks.
"It's not about me, it's about you and the formation you are working with," Ramsey told the First Army task force, which includes assets from Division East's 205th, 188th, 174th and 157th Infantry Brigades, in addition to 4th Cav.
First Army was at the forefront of the effort to prepare reserve-component forces for deployment after 2001. The momentum continues today with this training event, which is helping reserve-component units remain prepared for potential deployments to worldwide locations.
The National Guard has fought alongside active-duty forces as long as there has been an Army, but it wasn't until the National Defense Act of 1916 that the National Guard received official federal recognition.
The 116th IBCT traces its roots back to 1741, although it was not organized into a militia until 1858. Since then, elements of the Virginia Army National Guard have been federally activated in support of both World Wars. In World War II, the 116th IBCT, as part of 29th Infantry Division, took part in the storming of the beaches of Normandy.
Supporting the exercise is the 42nd Infantry Division, which includes units in 26 states and the District of Columbia, including Vermont's 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The division was organized in 1917 and gets its nickname, the "Rainbow Division," from Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who once said the 42nd stretches like a rainbow from one end of America to another.
Just as the 42nd ID's area of responsibility covers a wide area of the United States, the Naitonal Guard's contributions covered both the European and Pacific theaters during World War II. The 42nd ID entered the war in 1944, after being called to federal service the previous year. Among the unit's many achievements was the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp.
On the other side of the world, the 86th IBCT (then known as the 172nd Infantry Regiment) fought in the Pacific as part of the 43rd Infantry Division, the only division to serve in four theaters: South Pacific, Southwest Pacific, Japan and the Philippines. The 86th IBCT became a part of the 42nd ID in 1986.
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