America’s First Corps is training and working with Indo-Pacific allies and partners throughout 2023, with a series of exercises in countries spanning the region.
In this vast region, covering almost half the globe and designated as the Dept. of Defense’s priority theater, I Corps holds a unique responsibility as the U.S. Army’s operational headquarters in the Indo-Pacific.
“America’s First Corps maintains a persistent presence west of the International Dateline, with our forces serving throughout the Indo-Pacific alongside allies and partners,” said Lt. Gen. Xavier Brunson, I Corps commanding general, during a Dec. 2022 exercise in Japan.
It is a vital role for I Corps, based in Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, at a crucial moment for the security of the U.S. and its allies and partners. It comes at a time when U.S. forces in the region are working to adapt to new challenges and – in the words of Adm. John Aquilino, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command – to “think, act and operate differently” to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.
It is not, however, a new role for I Corps, which has spearheaded U.S. Army efforts in the Indo-Pacific for decades, both in peace and wartime.
“Apart from the first World War, I Corps has been present in the Indo-Pacific for its entire history,” said Erik Flint, former I Corps historian and now director of the Lewis Army Museum at JBLM.
World War II
I Corps’ history in the Pacific dates back more than 80 years, when the unit reactivated for World War II and deployed in 1942 to the Southwest Pacific Area. There, alongside Australian allies, I Corps went on the offensive in an island-hopping series of hard-fought, ultimately victorious operations in Papua, New Guinea and Luzon – memorialized by three campaign streamers still adorning the I Corps colors to this day.
“It was…a new kind of amphibious warfare,” recalled Lt. Gen. Robert Eichelberger, who commanded I Corps during the war and recognized the vital, interconnected role of the land, sea and air domains. “Every military arm was important and interdependent,” he wrote in his memoirs.
It was not the last time I Corps would deploy in the Indo-Pacific as part of a joint force.
Korean War
Following World War II and after brief service in post-war Japan, I Corps deployed in 1950 to defend U.S. allies in the Republic of Korea (RoK) following an invasion from the north. The Soldiers of I Corps fought in austere conditions against larger enemy forces over the course of three years and ten campaigns, before fighting ceased with the armistice in 1953. The Corps’ contributions to the defense of a U.S. ally were memorialized by ten campaign streamers, which still adorn the I Corps colors and mark the phases of the conflict – UN Defensive; UN Offensive; CCF Intervention; First UN Counteroffensive; CCF Spring Offensive; UN Summer-Fall Offensive; Second Korean Winter; Korea, Summer-Fall 1952; Third Korean Winter; and Korea, Summer 1953.
In the decades since, I Corps units have continued to operate west of the International Dateline, supporting operations and training with Indo-Pacific allies and partners.
Continuing to ensure a Free and Open Indo-Pacific
From 1953 into the 1970s, I Corps oversaw U.S. forces patrolling the Korean Demilitarized Zone, including the 2nd and 7th Infantry Divisions, in support of the Republic of Korea Army. Today, I Corps units continue to support the RoK Army, participating in various exercises and recently deploying 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7th Inf. Div., as the Korea Rotational Force.
“The Lancer Brigade is proud to be selected as the first Stryker Brigade Combat Team to deploy to the Republic of Korea as a Korea Rotational Force,” said Col. Chad M. Roehrman, commander of 2-2 SBCT. “We fought together during the Korean War, trained together in the Brigade’s more recent history, and we are honored to be able to train once again with our ROK-Army partners.”
I Corps units have remained engaged with a host of other Indo-Pacific allies and partners over the years. JBLM public affairs officer Joseph Piek served on the I Corps staff in the early 2000s and recalls the frequency of I Corps engagements throughout the Indo-Pacific during that time.
“I was TDY (on temporary duty) about 17 times in the Indo-Pacific,” Piek said. “At any time, we were either planning or executing an exercise.” In 2002, his travels with I Corps took him from Ft. Lewis to exercise Yama Sakura in Japan, Cobra Gold in Thailand and still more exercises in Korea, Hawaii and elsewhere.
Many of these exercises continue today as part of U.S. Army Pacific’s Operation PATHWAYS, and I Corps units remain actively involved.
The Corps again participated in Yama Sakura in December 2022 alongside the Japan Ground Self Defense Force.
Soldiers of I Corps continue to train with the Royal Thai Armed Forces during annual exercise Cobra Gold in the Kingdom of Thailand. I Corps served as the joint task force headquarters overseeing the 2023 iteration of Cobra Gold, Feb. 28 to March 10, featuring the largest contingent of U.S. troops in recent years. This marked the 42nd iteration of the exercise, as well as 190 years of formal diplomatic relations between the two nations and almost seven decades as security treaty allies.
I Corps also trains and works with the Philippines, Australia, India, Indonesia and some 20 allied and partnered nations across the region.
For more than 80 years, Soldiers of I Corps have served, trained and fought alongside allies and partners throughout the Indo-Pacific. As Gen. Eichelberger recounted in his memoirs of World War II, his Soldiers in I Corps and the Army Ground Forces faced and overcame any challenge that came with operating in this complex theater – emblematic of the resilience of I Corps’ Soldiers through history.
He wrote of “the ordinary, muddy, malarial, embattled, and weighed-down-by-too-heavy-packs GIs…They waded through the surf, they struggled through the swamp mud, they pushed the trucks out of quagmires with their shoulders, they cut the tracks which ultimately became roads leading to the airfields they constructed. They were the true artisans of the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific.”
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