94th Infantry Division (United States)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=94th Division, 1918-1918 & 1921-1942
94th Infantry Division, 1942-1946 & 1956-1963
94th Command Headquarters (Divisional), 1963-1967
94th Army Reserve Command, 1968-1995
94th Regional Support Command, 1995-2001
94th Regional Readiness Command, 2001-2009


caption=shoulder sleeve insignia
1942-1956 & 1991-2009 (top)
1923-1942 & 1956-1991 (lower)
dates=1918 active
1921-1942 reserve
1942-1946 active
1956-2009 reserve
country=United States
allegiance=
branch=U.S. Army 1918;
Organized Res. Corps 1921-1942;
U.S. Army 1942-1946;
Army Reserve 1956-2009
type=division 1918-1967
regional reserve HQ 1968-2009
role=infantry 1918-1967
combined arms & services 1968-2009
size=
command_structure=
garrison=Puerto Rico 1918
Fort Custer, Michigan 1942-1943
deployed to ETO 1943-1946
? 1956-1967
Hanscom AFB, MA 1968-2002
Fort Devens, MA 2002-2009
garrison_label=
equipment=
equipment_label=
nickname="Pilgrim Division"
"Neuf-Cats"
"Patton's Golden Nugget"
patron=
motto=
colors=
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march=
mascot=
battles=World War I
World War II
anniversaries=
decorations=
battle_honours=
current_commander=
current_commander_label=
ceremonial_chief=
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colonel_of_the_regiment=
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notable_commanders=
identification_symbol=
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identification_symbol_3=US Infantry
previous=93rd Infantry Division
next=95th Infantry Division

The 94th Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I, and of the Organized Reserve Corps in 1921 until 1942.

The 94th Infantry Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War II, and of the United States Army Reserve from 1956 until 1963. It continued in the Army Reserve as the 94th Command Headquarters (Divisional) from 1963 until the Army's realignment of reserve component combat arms into the Army National Guard in 1967.

The 94th Army Reserve Command (later redesignated 94th Regional Support Command and 94th Regional Readiness Command) was a regional command and control headquarters over most Army Reserve units throughout the six New England states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. For forty years, beginning in the late 1960s, the United States Army Reserve was divided up into a varying number of regional, branch-immaterial commands. Originally designated "army resere commands" ("ARCOMs"), several were disbanded in and around 1995, while the remainder were redesignated "regional support commands" ("RSCs") at that time and re-dubbed "regional readiness commands" ("RRCs") in 2001. In addition to the RRCs, several mission-oriented commands were established, icluding such as training divisions and engineer commands. Like most RRCs, the 94th Regional Readiness Command is scheduled to be deactivated in fiscal year 2009 as part of the Army Reserve's reorganisation into a functionally-based command structure reporting to respective major Army commands ("MACOMs").

The 94th ARCOM/RSC/RRC wore the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 94th Infantry Division but did not, according to the United States Army Center of Military History, perpetuate the lineage of the old division and was thus not entitled to the division's battle honors. Similarly, Army Regulation 840-10 dictates that the distinguishing flag of an RRC features a white-bordered, 38.1 cm (15 in.) tall rendering of the shoulder sleeve insignia on a plain blue background, rather than on the horizontally divided bi-colour background of red over blue as carried by an infantry division.

World War I

The 94th was originally formed as the 94th Division, based out of Puerto Rico in 1918. With the close of World War I, the division was disbanded.

Inter-War Years

In 1921 the 94th Division was re-activated as an element of the Organized Reserve Corps ("ORC") and nicknamed the "Pilgrim Division" in reference to the rich cultural history. A shoulder sleeve insignia featuring a Native American with bow and arrow was authorized on 21 July 1922. This design was superseded 6 September 1923 by one depicting the black silhouette of a Puritan carrying a blunderbuss on his shoulder, on a gray circle (the wording of the new design's description was amended on 22 December of the same year).

Like the other ORC divisions, the 94th was a authorised only a cadre organisation of officers; even then, the ORC units were perpetually under-strength and little equipment or funds with which to train.

World War II

Re-Formed from Whole Cloth

The ORC units were not mobilized as units. Rather, its officers were ordered to active duty individually, and were disbursed to existing Regular Army and Army National Guard units. The majority of mid-level officers (captains through lieutenant colonels) in the U.S. Army during the Second World War II were ORC officers. ["Twice The Citizen: A History of the United States Army Reserve, 1908-1995", Second and Expanded Edition, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997), p. 67.] As such, the 94th provided leaders to every theater in the war.

With virtually all of the division's personnel having gone off to war without it, the 94th Division existed only on paper when its shoulder sleve insignia was changed on 5 September 1942 to a half-black, half-gray circle with the Arabic numerals 9 and 4 superimposed in reverse colors. Ten days later, on 15 September 1942, the division was recomposed as the 94th Infantry Division at Fort Custer near Kalamazoo, Michigan.

tatistics

*Activated: 15 September 1942.
*Overseas: 6 August 1944.
*Campaigns: Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe
*Days of combat: 209.
*Awards:
** 1 Distinguished Unit Citation
** 1 Medal of Honor
** 54 Distinguished Service Crosses
** 2 Distinguished Service Medals
** 510 Silver Stars
** 10 Legions of Merit
** 12 Soldier's Medals
** 2 Bronze Star Medals
** 66 Air Medals
*Commanders:
** Major General Harry J. Malony (September 1942 through May 1945)
** Brigadier General Louis J. Fortier (June through July 1945)
** Major General Allison J. Barnett (1 August 1945 through 9 February 1946)
*Returned to U.S.: 6 February 1946
*Inactivated: 9 February 1946

Combat Chronicle

Following a brief stay in England, the 94th landed on Utah Beach, France on D plus 94, 8 September 1944, and moved into Brittany to relieve the 6th Armored Division and assume responsibility for containing some 60,000 German troops besieged in there garrisons at the Channel ports of L'Orient and Saint-Nazaire. The 94th inflicted over 2,700 casualties on the enemy and took 566 prisoners before being relieved by the 66th Infantry Division on New Year's Day 1945.

As part of General Patton's Third United States Army, the 94th Infantry Division ("94th ID") was known as "Patton's Golden Nugget". Moving west, the division relieved the 90th Infantry Division on 7 January 1945, taking positions in the Saar-Moselle Triangle south of Wasserbillig, facing the Siegfried Switch Line. Fresh for the fight, the 94th shifted to the offensive, 14 January, seizing Tettingen and Butzdorf that day. The following day, the Nennig-Berg-Wies area was wrested from the enemy, but severe counterattacks followed, and Butzdorf, Berg, and most of Nennig changed hands several times before being finally secured. On the 20th, an unsuccessful battalion attack against Orscholz, eastern terminus of the switch position, resulted in loss of most of two companies. In early February, the division took Campholz Woods and seized Sinz. On 19 February 1945, supported by heavy artillery and air support, the division launched a full-scale attack with all three regiments, storming the heights of Munzigen Ridge, to breach the Siegfried Line switch-line defenses and clear the Berg-Munzingen Highway.

Moving forward, the 94th Infantry Division and the 10th Armored Division secured the area from Orscholz and Saarburg to the confluence of the Saar and Moselle Rivers by 21 February 1945. Then, launching an attack across the Saar, the 94th established and expanded a bridgehead. By 2 March 1945, the division stretched over a 10-mile front, from Hocker Hill on the Saar through Zerf, and Lampaden to Ollmuth. A heavy German attack near Lampaden achieved penetrations, but the line was shortly restored, and on 13 March, spearheading the XX Corps, the division broke out of the Ruwer River bridgehead by ford and bridge. Driving forward, the 94th reached the Rhine on 21 March, where it fought in the Battle for Ludwigshafen. Ludwigshafen was taken on 24 March, in conjunction with CCA of the 12th Armored Division.

The division then moved by rail and motor to the vicinity of Krefeld, Germany, relieving the 102nd Infantry Division on 3 April and assuming responsibility for containing the western side of the Ruhr Pocket from positions along the Rhine. With the reduction of the pocket in mid-April, the division was assigned military government duties, first in the Krefeld and later in the Dusseldorf areas.

By mid-April, the division relieved the 101st Airborne Division and assumed military government duties, first in the Krefeld vicinity and later around Düsseldorf. It was in that status when hostilities were declared at an end on 7 May 1945. From mid-June until the end of November, the division served the military government in Czechoslovakia.

The 94th Infantry Division was inactivated on 9 February 1946.

=Assignments in the ETO=

*27 July 1944: XIII Corps, Ninth Army.
*28 August 1944: XIII Corps, Ninth Army, 12th Army Group.
*23 September 1944: Ninth Army, 12th Army Group.
*9 October 1944: 12th Army Group.
*5 January 1945: 12th Army Group, but attached to Oise Section, Communication Zone, for supply.
*6 January 1945: XX Corps, Third Army, 12th Army Group.
*29 March 1945: XII Corps, Fifteenth Army, 12th Army Group.

Cold War

94th Infantry Division

The division was reactivated in the United States Army Reserve in 1956. On 14 May of that year, the "9/4" shoulder sleeve insignia was recinded, and the former puritan shoulder sleeve insigia (with a minor change in the design) was reinstated.

94th command Headquarters (Divisional)

The division was redesignated the 94th Command Headquarters (Divisional) on 16 October 1963, and was deactivated in 1967 as part of the compromise between U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara who wanted to merge the Army Reserve into the Army National Guard, and the United States Congress who wanted to maintain a the Army Reserve as it then existed. Under the compromise plan, all of the combat divisions and most separate combat brigades of the Army Reserve were deactivated with a corresponding increase in the National Guard; at the same time, non-divisional combat support and combat service support units were reallocated in the Army Reserve. ["Id." at 174-177.]

94th Army Reserve Command

Under the aforementioned compromise plan agreed to by the Congress and the Defense Department, the fourteen area corps were deactivated; in their place, eighteen army reserve commands ("ARCOMs") were established. Commanded by a reserve major general, each ARCOM served as a regional non-tactical peacetime headquarters for unrelated support units. Each ARCOMs was, in turn, assigned to one of five continental U.S. armies ("CONUSAs") under Continental Army Command ("CONARC"). On 22 April 1968, the number and shoulder-sleeve insignia of the former 94th Division were re-allocated to the new 94th U.S. Army Reserve Command ("ARCOM"), headquartered at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts and subordinate to First United States Army.

Two company-level units within the 94th ARCOM served in the Vietnam War: Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 513th Maintenance Battalion (Direct Support); and the 241st Military Intelligence Detachment.

94th ARCOM units participated annually in Exercise REFORGER (from REturn of FORces to GERmany) and Operation Bright Star throughout the Cold War. These exercises were intended to ensure that NATO and the United States military had the ability to quickly deploy forces to West Germany and Egypt in the event of a conflict with the Soviet Union.

In 1980, the peacetime Army Reserve chain of command was overlaid with a CAPSTONE wartime trace. In an expansion of the roundout and affiliation program begun ten years earlier, CAPSTONE purported to align every Army Reserve unit with the active and reserve component units with which they were anticipated to deploy. [James T. Currie and Richard B. Crossland, "Twice The Citizen: A History of the United States Army Reserve, 1908-1995" (2nd revised & expanded edition), Washington, DC: Office of the Chief, Army Reserve (1997), pp. 254-255.] Units maintained lines of communication with the units -- often hundreds or thousands of miles away in peacetime -- who would presumably serve above or below them in the event of mobilisation. This communcication, in some cases, extended to coordinated annual training opportunities.

Many of the 94th's units and individual soldiers rotated through Honduras in the 1980s. Operation Fuertes Caminos ("strong roads") provided villagers with roads on which to move their crops to market, while providing invaluable real-world training and experience to reserve engineers, medical personnel, logisticians and others.

Operation Nordic Shield was held in the summer of 1987. Units of the 94th ARCOM; principally the 187th Infantry Brigade (Separate), the 167th Support Group (Corps) and their subordinate battalions and companies; deployed to Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in southern New Brunswick, to simulate the defense of Iceland against Warsaw Pact forces, the CAPSTONE mission of both the 187th and 167th.

Units under the 94th Army Reserve Command participated in a series of mobilisation exercises in the 1980s, including the Selected Reserve Call-Up (23-25 October 1987), Golden Thrust '88 (November 1988), and Proud Eagle 90 (12 October through 2 November 1989). Each of these was designed to evaluate not only the units' ability to prepare to mobilise, but to examine the mobilisation processes, systems, and logistical coordination so as to find and correct the unanticipated flaws.

In 1990-1991, over 1,000 soldiers from the 94th ARCOM served overseas in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Despite the commonly held belief that CAPSTONE traces were set in stone, the process of selecting units to mobilise and deploy largely ignored CAPSTONE.

Post Cold War

94th Regional Support Command

The ARCOM's Puritan shoulder sleeve insignia reverted again to the "9/4" design on 27 November 1991.

Operation Nordic Shield II was held in the summer of 1992. As they did five years before, units of the 94th ARCOM; principally the 1987th Infantry Brigade (Separate), the 167th Support Group (Corps) and their subordinate battalions and companies; deployed to Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in southern New Brunswick, to simulate the defense of Iceland against Warsaw Pact forces, the CAPSTONE mission of both the 187th and 167th. Part of the 1992 exercise included lanes training as part of the United States Army Forces Command's "Bold Shift" initiative to reinforce unit war-fighting task proficiency.

In 1995, the 94th ARCOM was redesignated the 94th Regional Support Command (RSC) and removed to from Hanscom Air Force Base to Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

The 94th RSC deployed soldiers to Honduras and Guatemala in 1999 in support of [Operation New Horizon] , and later to the Balkans in support of Operation Joint Guardian and Operation Joint Forge.

Continuing with Operation New Horizon, the command deployed members of the 94th Military Police Company to Rambala-Bocas del Toro, Panamá in spring 2007.

Global War on Terror

After 11 September 2001, the 94th RSC deployed soldiers in support of Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Mission areas include Continental United States ("CONUS"), Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Kuwait, the Horn of Africa and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In December 2002, the 94th RSC moved into its final Headquarters at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

94th Regional Readiness Command

In August 2003, the 94th RSC was redesignated the 94th Regional Readiness Command (RRC).

At its end, the 94th Regional Readiness Command was made up of more than 6,000 citizen-soldiers serving with in fifty-six units located throughout New England.

The 94th RRC mobilized and deployed over twenty units and more than 2,500 soldiers in support of the Global War on Terror.

Insignia

Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI)

* Native American design: Featured a Native American with bow and arrow.

* Puritan design:
** Description: On a disc silver gray, edged with a .32 cm (1/8-inch) black border, depicting the black silhouette of a Puritan carrying a flintlock blunderbuss on his shoulder.
** Symbolism:

* "9/4" design:
** Description: a black Arabic numeral "9" on the silver gray and a silver gray Arabic numeral "4" on the black. The diameter is 6.35 cm (2 1/2 in.).
** Symbolism: The insignia represents the numerical designation of the unit.

* Background:
** A design featuring a Native American with bow and arrow was authorized for the 94th Division on 21 July 1922.
** The above design was superseded by approval of the design of a Puritan carrying a blunderbuss on his shoulder on 6 September 1923.
** The above approval was amended to change the wording of the description on 22 December 1923.
** The Puritan design was superseded by design featuring the Arabic numerals "9" and "4" on 5 September 1942.
** The "9/4" design was rescinded (cancelled) on 14 May 1956. The same letter reinstated the Puritan shoulder sleeve insignia, with a minor change in the design, for the 94th Infantry Division.
** The Puritan design was redesignated for the 94th Command Headquarters (Divisional) on 16 October 1963.
** The Puritan design was authorized for the 94th Army Reserve Command on 22 April 1968.
** The Puritan design was rescinded (cancelled) on 27 November 1991. The same letter reinstated the "9/4" design.
** The insignia was redesignated effective 16 July 2003 for the 94th Regional Readiness Command.

=distinctive unit insigia (DUI)=

* Description: A gold color metal and enamel device, 2.86 cm (1 1/8 in.) in height overall, consisting of a nonagon divided diagonally from lower left to upper right, the upper area light gray and the lower area black, bearing overall a blue oblong with long axis vertical, charged with a gold silhouette of the bust of a Puritan with flintlock blunderbuss on his shoulder.

* Symbolism: The diagonally divided gray and black background refers to the shoulder sleeve insignia worn by the 94th Infantry Division during World War II, and by the 94th ARCOM/RSC/RRC in 1991-2009. The geometric four-sided figure commemorates the four European campaign honors. Blue is the color used for infantry. The bust of the Puritan with flintlock blunderbuss is from the shoulder sleeve insignia worn during the period 1923-1942 and 1956-1991. It represents the history and traditions of the area with which past and present organizations have always identified. The nine sides of the device and the four sides of the oblong also allude to the numerical designation of the unit.

* Background: The distinctive unit insignia was originally authorized for the 94th U.S. Army Reserve Command on 4 June 1970. It was reassigned and authorized for 94th U.S. Army Regional Support Command on 16 April 1996. The insignia was redesignated effective 16 July 2003 for the U.S. Army 94th Regional Readiness Command.

Nicknames

* "Pilgrim Division" (pre-World War II)
* "Neuf-Cats" (official, derived from the French "neuf quatre", meaning "nine four")
* "Patton's Golden Nugget" (un-official while assigned to Third U.S. Army in 1945)

Legacy

* Only one unit, the Londonderry, New Hampshire-based 94th Military Police Company [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/lineage/branches/mp/0094mpco.htm] , retains direct lineage to the 94th Infantry Division's organic structure.

* In 1963, a separate Infantry Brigade was organized in the US Army Reserve using the lineage of the division's 1st Brigade. As a separate brigade, however, it was granted its own shoulder sleeve insignia. The 187th Infantry Brigade was inactivated in 1994.

* State Highway 94 in Colorado, New Jersey, and New York are numbered after the 94th Infantry Division.

References

*"The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States" U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950 at http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/lineage/cc/cc.htm
* [http://www.lonesentry.com/gi_stories_booklets/94thinfantry/index.html "On the Way: The Story of the 94th Infantry Division"]
*James T Currie and Richard B. Crossland, "Twice The Citizen: A History of the United States Army Reserve, 1908-1995", Second and Expanded Edition, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997).
* [http://www.94thinfdiv.com 94th Infantry Division Association]

External links

* [http://www.battleofthebulge.org/fact/fact_sheet_of_the_94th_infantry.html Fact Sheet of the 94th Infantry Division] from http://www.battleofthebulge.org