WASHINGTON -- This weekend, 40 U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers, from eight of 13 legacy units whose heritage can be traced to World War I, will visit battle sites in northern France and participate in U.S.-French ceremonies marking the centennial of the Great War.
U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers served in every division of the American Expeditionary Force, or AEF, during WWI, said one of the Soldiers going, Maj. Franklin Huffman, operations officer for U.S. Army Reserve Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Huffman, whose great-grandfather fought in WWI, said the conflict was significant because it shaped the way the Army fights today and its reliance on a strong and ready Reserve.
By September 1917, 2.8 million men were inducted into the National Army, later renamed the Army Reserve, he said. They constituted 72 percent of the total U.S. Army.
In the final months of the war, these Soldiers helped tip the balance in favor of the allies in decisive battles such as the Marne, Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne, he said.
During the Saint-Mihiel offensive of Sept. 12, 1918, the 82nd, 89th and 90th Divisions experienced their first combat. These Soldiers won a "stunning victory," securing the 200 square mile Saint-Mihiel salient, he noted.
In the Meuse-Argonne campaign, the 77th, 79th, 80th, 89th and 91st Divisions were critical to the U.S. Army gaining strategic surprise in this campaign, which was the largest battle Americans ever fought up to that time in history, he said.
Many of the Soldiers who served would later see service again during World War II, Huffman said.
George Marshall led the 1st Division's mobilization efforts during WWI and then became a planner under Gen. John Pershing, who led the AEF, he said.
All that experience paid off when he became the Army's chief of staff in 1939. Marshall knew war was coming and he effectively prepared the Army for it.
In 1918, Pershing unified the Active, Reserve and Guard Components into the AEF, rather than incorporating them into French and British units, as was the allies' desire, Huffman said.
Eschewing the failed tactics of trench warfare, Pershing organized the AEF to fight in a combined arms maneuver fashion that included tanks, aircraft, Artillery, Cavalry and Infantry.
One of those tank commanders was George Patton, Huffman noted. Gen. Patton would later command the Seventh Army and then the Third Army during World War II.
COMMEMORATION ITINERARY
Sept. 21: Soldiers will go on a symbolic walk from the town of Malancourtto to Mont Faucon, ending with a town celebration at Mont Faucon.
Sept. 22: The day will begin with a sunrise ceremony in Fleury, followed by a military parade from Thiaucourt to Saint-Mihiel American Cemetery, where a ceremony and concert will take place.
Sept. 23: Candles will be placed on 14,000 graves at the Meusse-Argonne Cemetery, along with a reading of the names of the missing from that campaign, followed by a ceremony.
Sept. 24: Soldiers will walk the Sergeant York Trail, where the Medal of Honor recipient's valorous actions took place. The Soldiers will also visit the Argonne Forest, where nine companies of the 77th Infantry Division got lost, then became surrounded by Germans before being rescued by other U.S. forces. They became known as the "Lost Battalion." That evening, the city of Verdun will host a dinner and social event for Soldiers of all components visiting the city.
PARTICIPATING UNITS
Reserve units that will participate in the WWI centennial are:
-- 77th Sustainment Brigade, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey
-- 78th Training Division, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst
-- 79th Theater Support Command, Los Alamitos, California
-- 80th Training Command, Richmond, Virginia
-- 81st Readiness Division, Fort Jackson, South Carolina
-- 89th Sustainment Brigade, Wichita, Kansas
-- 90th Sustainment Brigade, Little Rock, Arkansas
-- 91st Training Division, Fort Hunter Liggett, California
Legacy Reserve units not represented are:
-- 83rd U.S. Army Reserve Readiness Training Center, Fort Knox, Kentucky
-- 85th Support Command, Arlington Heights, Illinois
-- 86th Training Division, Fort McCoy, Wisconsin
-- 88th Readiness Division, Fort McCoy
-- 98th Training Division, Fort Benning, Georgia
Huffman noted that the 82nd Airborne Division was a Reserve Infantry division during WWI, but later became an active-component unit, so no representative from that division was selected.
Social Sharing