150th Cavalry Regiment

The lineage of the 150th Cavalry Regiment dates back to 1 March 1778, with the formation of the Militia of Greenbrier County. On 22 December 1792, the Militia of Greenbrier County was reorganized as volunteer companies of the 13th Brigade, Virginia Militia. During the War of 1812, five companies from the 13th Brigade were combined with seven companies from what is now northern West Virginia to form the 2nd Regiment, Virginia Volunteer Militia.[3]

During the American Civil War, units with Union sympathies were combined to form the 5th and 9th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment. After becoming a separate state in 1863, West Virginia reorganized its militia, including the 5th and 9th Regiments, which were consolidated and reorganized on 9 November 1864, as the 1st West Virginia Veteran Infantry Regiment, part of the 2nd Division, West Virginia Militia. The regiment was mustered out on 21 July 1865 after the end of the war.[3]

On 7 June 1889, the 1st West Virginia Veteran Infantry Regiment was reorganized as the 2nd Regiment, West Virginia National Guard. After being mustered into service for eight months along the Mexican border in 1916, it was briefly mustered out of service for less than a month only to be mustered back into Federal service on 10 April 1917. After being federalized it was redesignated as the 150th Infantry Regiment and assigned to the 38th Division on 19 September 1917. The regiment would remain assigned to the 38th Division until the beginning of World War II.[3]

On 1 March 1942, the regiment was relieved from its assignment the 38th and transferred to the Panama Canal Zone where it served through the rest of the war. Postwar, it was inactivated at Fort Clayton on 1 February 1946.[3]

After the war, the regiment went through a period of slow but drastic change. On 1 July 1955, the regiment was reorganized from an Infantry table of organization and equipment unit to an Armored Cavalry TO&E unit and redesignated as the 150th Armored Cavalry Regiment. On 1 March 1968, 2nd Squadron was relieved from the regiment and broken up to form other units within the West Virginia National Guard. Meanwhile, two months later, 3rd Squadron was redesignated as 3rd Squadron, 107th Armored Cavalry. 1st Squadron continued on as the only squadron remaining in the regiment until 1 September 1993, when the regiment was reorganized and redesignated as the 150th Armor Regiment, consisting of the 1st Battalion, and assigned to the 28th Infantry Division.[3]

When the 30th Enhanced Heavy Separate Brigade began mobilization to partake in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, 1st Battalion, 150th Armor was chosen to reinforce the brigade. The battalion served with the brigade for approximately one year in Iraq and redeployed with the brigade back to the United States.[4] Upon returning to the United States, 1st Battalion 150th Armor was redesignated as the 150th Cavalry, consisting of the 1st Squadron, reorganized as a Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition squadron, and reassigned to the 30th Brigade as that brigade's RSTA squadron under the new Heavy Brigade Unit of Acton TO&E.

Today, 1st Squadron, 150th Cavalry Regiment is the only active squadron in the regiment.[2] The unit is composed of cavalry scouts and armor crewmen equipped with HMMWVs, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams Main Battle Tanks.

• Headquarters 1-150th Cavalry: Bluefield, West Virginia
• A Troop: Holden & Salem, West Virginia
• B Troop: Eleanor, West Virginia
• C Troop: Glen Jean, West Virginia
• D Troop: Sanford, North Carolina

• Description

A Gold color metal and enamel device 1 ¹⁄₈ inches (2.9 cm) in height overall consisting of a shield blazoned: Azure, a powder horn Argent, mouth to dexter, ferruled Or, stringed of the second; in chief five mullets of the third voided. Attached below the shield a bipartite scroll inscribed "WE CAN TAKE IT" in Blue.

• Symbolism

The shield is blue, representative of the original organization. The powder horn is adapted from the State coat of arms. The five mullets symbolize the wars in which the original regiment participated.

• Background

The distinctive unit insignia was originally approved for the 150th Infantry Regiment on 28 May 1934. It was redesignated for the 150th Armored Cavalry Regiment on 21 September 1955. The insignia was redesignated for the 150th Armor Regiment with the description and symbolism revised effective 1 September 1993.

• List of armored and cavalry regiments of the United States Army

• The 2020 military fiction novel, Assault by Fire,[5] by H. Ripley Rawlings, prominently features the 150th of the West Virginia National Guard holding back a Russian attack on the U.S.

Bibliography

• Pope, Jeffrey Lynn; Kondratiuk, Leonid E. (1995). Armor-Cavalry Regiments: Army National Guard Lineage. Washington, DC.: National Guard Bureau Historical Services Division. ISBN 9780788182068.
• The West Virginia Army National Guard Website