As the 1st Infantry Division Artillery was reactivated at Fort Riley on Oct. 16, it was welcomed back with the boom of big guns from a distant range.
DIVARTY Soldiers, leaders and family members were officially greeted with a traditional ceremony -- complete with ceremonial cannon, salute battery, "Big Red One" band and the Commanding General's Mounted Color Guard -- while one of the division's field artillery battalions conducted gunnery in a training area far from the parade field.
The Big Red One's DIVARTY was inactivated 10 years ago in Germany, and the Oct. 16 activation signified the Army's effort to bring brigade headquarters-sized units back to its 10 divisions. DIVARTYs effectively synchronize joint fires across their divisions and standardize artillery training. The process began Army-wide more than a year ago and the 1st Inf. Div.'s and the 10th Mountain Division's were the final two DIVARTYs to activate.
Many of the unit's younger Soldiers and officers have never served in an Army that had division artilleries, Col. Tom Bolen, DIVARTY commander, said.
"So to them, it may seem like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster," he joked. "They've seen some grainy photos and perhaps heard the elders talk in low voices about mysterious happenings in the old days. But while the Big Red One DIVARTY is legendary, it is by no means fictitious."
History and lineage have been an important part of the unit's activation since Soldiers and leaders started filing its ranks this summer and they reached out to former DIVARTY members. It's an emphasis the unit's command team, Bolen and Command Sgt. Maj. Jonathan Stephens, continued at the ceremony by inviting three former DIVARTY commanders -- retired Maj. Gen. Richard Longo, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Dodson and retired Col. Walter Gilliam -- to help unfurl the colors on the parade field.
"I thought that was great," Bolen said of the former commanders' presence. "You can't describe that."
Bolen and Maj. Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., 1st Inf. Div. commander, harkened back to the DIVARTY's storied history during the activation ceremony. It's a history that started with the division's in 1917 when it was organized as the 1st Field Artillery Brigade. The brigade's artillerymen fired the first American rounds in combat in World War I, landed on Omaha Beach in June 1944, fired more than 6 million rounds in Vietnam and fired more than 18,000 rounds and rockets in the first Gulf War.
"It's just an amazing history," Bolen said.
While an appreciation for the "Drumfire" roots was apparent, the commanding general encouraged those in attendance to focus on the Army chief of staff's current priority: readiness.
"We cannot afford to let our nation's blood and treasure -- our Soldiers -- go into harm's way untrained, lacking equipment or with less-than-competent leadership," he said.
The DIVARTY, he said, like the Big Red One's other units, will conduct tough, realistic training that will build capable, adaptable leaders.
"We will maintain capabilities to fight along the entire spectrum of military operations, from fighting terrorists to fighting nation states, and our fires capabilities are crucial for that," Grigsby added.
He praised Bolen and Stephens, saying they were the right team to lead the DIVARTY into the future.
"Both are battle-tested field artillerymen and more than up to the challenge that our uncertain security environment poses," Grigsby said.
Social Sharing