'Helping' the Homeland - Part One: Battle-Tested 1st BTC, 3rd ID Gets New Mission

[Subdivisions]

The 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat Team is one of the Army's most heavily armed, most stealthy, and most deadly units and is battle-hardened in the streets of Anbar and Fallujah, Iraq. And their next mission is coming to the towns and streets of America...

The 1st BTC "Raiders"

A short history of the 1st BCT "Raiders", 3rd ID

The 1st BCT, 3rd Infantry Division out of Ft. Stewart, Georgia, has a storied history in defending America from our enemies and assisting our allies in war.

During WW I, the Brigade saw action in such battles as the Aisne Defensive, Chateau Thierry and the Champagne-Mame Defensive. In 1917, the 1st BCT marched across WW I Europe in offensive actions that broke a three-year stalemate of trench warfare.

Having won a decisive victory in Europe, the 1st BCT came home and was reorganized and re-designated as Headquarters Company, 3rd Infantry Division and in October, 1942, was deployed to North Africa. The 1st Brigade participated in actions in Morocco, then made amphibious landings in Sicily. It moved across France and into Germany where, in fierce opposition, it captured the city of Nuremberg. The long trek across Europe would end near Salzburg, Austria some 3 years after it began.

Five years later, 1st Brigade was deployed; this time to the Republic of Korea. The Brigade landed at Wonsan in November 1950 where it fought in eight campaigns and was decorated twice by the Korean Government.

At the end of the Cold War, after serving 33 consecutive years on foreign soil maintaining world peace, the Brigade returned home and was reactivated in March, 1996, at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

The 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, deployed in mid-2001, to Kosovo on peacekeeping duties, for a six-month rotation.

Then, in 2003, it was the 1st BCT that was the "tip of the spear" as they led the invasion of Iraq, crossing the desert from Kuwait.

Iraq

Some may remember the NBC reporter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ed2Ugkm8s">David Bloom as he rode with the 1st Combat Brigade, who call themselves the "Raiders", into Iraq from its frontier with Kuwait. He was riding with the 1st BCT in what became known as the "Bloom Mobile" and his reports detailed the 3rd Infantry's action as they led the invasion of Iraq, meeting fierce resistance as they traveled to and entered Baghdad.

In March of 2003, the 1st BCT earned its reputation of "Raiders First!" as the first unit to fight its way into Baghdad, spear-heading the attack as they crossed the border into Iraq from Kuwait. The Raiders moved quickly north, fighting around the clock with regular and unconventional Iraqi troops.

After weeks of constant fighting, the Raider Brigade finally captured the International Airport, the primary strategic objective of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Following their success in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the brigade redeployed to Fort Stewart at the of summer, 2003. Then in January, 2005, 1st BTC again deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III. The Brigade fought in the cities of Balad, Samarra, Tikrit, Ad Dawr and Bayji and the surrounding villages and desert. With all of its subordinate units under tactical control, the Brigade had ten battalions – about 6,500 personnel from Forts Stewart and Benning, Georgia; and National Guard soldiers from Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The Brigade then returned to Ft. Stewart in January of 2006. It immediately began recovery and re-set operations and was the first unit of the 3d Infantry Division to start training for another combat deployment. The Raider Brigade will again lead the Division in the defense of our country.


1st Brigade Combat Team "Raiders"

The 1st BCT "Raiders" are comprised of several smaller divisions and batallions. These divisions include the following:

http://www.stewart.army.mil/3DIDWeb/1st%20BCT/unit1-3BTB.htm">1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion "Desert Cats"

http://www.stewart.army.mil/3DIDWeb/1st%20BCT/unit5-7Cav.htm">5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment (RSTA) "Gary Owen"

http://www.stewart.army.mil/3DIDWeb/1st%20BCT/unit3-69Armor.htm">3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment "Speed & Power"

http://www.stewart.army.mil/3DIDWeb/1st%20BCT/unit2-7Inf.htm">2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment "Willing & Able"

http://www.stewart.army.mil/3DIDWeb/1st%20BCT/unit1-41FA.htm">1st Battalion, 41st Field Artillery Regiment "Glory's Guns"

http://www.stewart.army.mil/3DIDWeb/1st%20BCT/unit3rdBSB.htm">3rd Brigade Support Battalion "Ready" (Editorial Note: This is especially personal to me because my first cousin is a soldier assigned to "Ready".)



Next Mission: "Helping" the Homeland

From http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/">ArmyTimes.com:

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

-snip-

This development is actually quite alarming, despite the benign tone of its new mission to "help" the American people. According to ArmyTimes.com, "this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities."

So, what's so startling about having a battle-hardened and fierce fighting force patrolling the streets of the USA, "helping" us? Find out in Part Two of "Helping" the Homeland.


Sources & References:
http://www.mnfwest.usmc.mil/1bct3id">1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
http://www.stewart.army.mil/3didweb/1st%20BCT/1stBrigadehom.htm">3rd Infantry Division - 1st BCT
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/3id-1bde.htm">1st Brigade Combat Team - GlobalSecurity.org
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/">Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1

Disclaimer: Some of this post is taken verbatim from public domain sources including US government sources.

[grannie4peace]

1. it's alarming to me especially after st.paul

[onethatcares]

2. I guess that Posse Comatos (?) is just another one of those quaint ideas

yeah, I know I probly misspelled that but the idea is clear. No active military on the streets of America.

[bananas]

3. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army



<snip>

At 4:45 p.m., commanded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the 12th Infantry Regiment, Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, supported with six battle tanks commanded by Maj. George S. Patton, Fort Myer, Virginia, formed in Pennsylvania Avenue while thousands of Civil Service employees left work to line the street and watch the U.S. Army attack its own veterans. The Bonus Marchers, believing the display was in their honour, cheered the troops until Maj. Patton charged the cavalry against them — to which action the Civil Service employee spectators yelled: "Shame! Shame!" against the charging cavalry.

After the cavalry charge, infantry, with fixed bayonets and adamsite gas, entered the Bonus Army camps, evicting veterans, families, and camp followers. The veterans fled across the Anacostia River, to their largest camp; President Hoover ordered the Army assault stopped, however, Gen. MacArthur—feeling this free-speech exercise was a Communist attempt at overthrowing the U.S. Government—ignored the President and re-attacked. Hundreds of veterans were injured, several were killed — including William Hushka and Eric Carlson; a veteran's wife miscarried; and many other veterans were hurt. The sight of armed U.S. Army soldiers attacking poor American veterans of the recent Great War later prompted formal veteran relief funds, and, eventually, establishment of the Veterans Administration. As member of Gen. MacArthur's staff, Maj. Dwight D. Eisenhower had strong reservations about routing the anti-Bonus Army.

The Posse Comitatus Act — forbidding civilian police work by the U.S. military — did not apply to Washington, D.C., because it is the federal district directly governed by the U.S. Congress (U.S. Constitution, Article I. Section 8. Clause 17). The exemption was created because of an earlier "Bonus March". In 1781, most of the Continental Army was demobilised without pay, two years later, in 1783, hundreds of Pennsylvania war veterans marched on Philadelphia, surrounded the State House wherein Congress was in session, and demanded their pay. The U.S. Congress fled to Princeton, New Jersey, and, several weeks later, the U.S. Army expelled the war veterans back to home, out of the national capital.

<snip>