6th Infantry Division (United States)

The division returned to U.S. in June 1919. Deactivated: 30 September 1921 at Camp Grant, Illinois. During the interwar period, it was initially located within the Sixth Corps Area as part of the VI Army Corps.

• Headquarters, 6th Infantry Division
• 1st Infantry Regiment
• 20th Infantry Regiment
• 63rd Infantry Regiment
• Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 6th Infantry Division Artillery
  • 1st Field Artillery Battalion
  • 51st Field Artillery Battalion
  • 53rd Field Artillery Battalion
  • 80th Field Artillery Battalion
• 6th Engineer Combat Battalion
• 6th Medical Battalion
• 6th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)
• Headquarters, Special Troops, 6th Infantry Division
  • Headquarters Company, 6th Infantry Division
  • 706th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
  • 6th Quartermaster Company
  • 6th Signal Company
  • Military Police Platoon
  • Band
• 6th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment
• Nickname: "Sightseeing Sixth"

Inactivated: 10 January 1949 in Korea

• Total battle casualties: 2,370[4]
• Killed in action: 410[4]
• Wounded in action: 1,957[4]
• Missing in action: 3[4]

Medal of Honor recipients for the 6th Infantry Division during World War II:

• Corporal Melvin Mayfield of Company D, 20th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division—Cordillera Mountains, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 29 July 1945
• Second Lieutenant (then T/Sgt.) Donald E. Rudolph of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division—Munoz, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 5 February 1945

The 6th Division was reactivated 4 October 1950 at Fort Ord, California. There the division remained throughout the Korean War, training troops and providing personnel for combat, but was never deployed overseas as an entity itself and was again inactivated on 3 April 1956.

In the American build-up during the Vietnam War the Division was reactivated in 1967 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and later a forward brigade was located in Hawaii.[5] There was sentiment against sending the Division to Vietnam because its shoulder sleeve insignia (a red six-pointed star) invited a derisive nickname ("Commie Jew Division") that General Westmoreland, cognizant of troop morale problems, considered too offensive, and the decision was made instead to form the Americal Division (23rd Infantry Division), with less offensive insignia, in Vietnam itself. During June 1968 the US Joint Chiefs of Staff also declared the Division unsuitable for combatant deployment because it failed its readiness report and shortly thereafter the Division was inactivated on 25 July 1968.[6]

The Division never received its full TO&E equipment and most of its personnel were Vietnam returnees. The purpose for activating the division was to obtain military hardware which would eventually be turned over to the South Vietnamese.

The last incarnation of the Division came on 16 April 1986 under the command of Major General Johnnie H. Corns at Fort Richardson, Alaska when the assets of the 172nd Infantry Brigade were used to reactivate the 6th Infantry Division (Light). Over the next seven years the 6th was the U.S. Army's primary Arctic warfare division.

The planned activation of two additional light infantry battalions for the division, one at Fort Richardson in October 1988, and one at Fort Wainwright in May 1989, was cancelled with the Fiscal Year 1988 budget.[7] To round-out the division the 6th Battalion, 297th Infantry, of the Alaska Army National Guard was activated on 1 September 1989.[8]

At the end of the Cold War parts of the division were organized as follows:

• 6th Infantry Division (Light), Fort Richardson, Alaska
  • Headquarters & Headquarters Company
  • 1st and 2nd Brigades (Alaska, active component)
    • Among the battalions of the 1st Brigade was the 6th Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment (United States), an Alaska Army National Guard, reserve component, unit.[9]
  • 205th Infantry Brigade (Light), Fort Snelling, Minnesota (Army Reserve)[10][11]
    • Headquarters and Headquarters Company
    • 3rd Battalion, 3rd Infantry, Saint Paul, Minnesota[10][12][11]
    • 1st Battalion, 409th Infantry, St. Cloud, Minnesota[13]
    • 1st Battalion, 410th Infantry, Iowa City, Iowa[14][11]
    • 3rd Battalion, 14th Field Artillery, Sioux City, Iowa (18 × M101 105mm towed howitzer)[15][11][16][17][18]
    • Support Battalion[19]
    • Cavalry Troop[19]
    • Engineer Company[19]
  • Aviation Brigade, Fort Wainwright
    • Headquarters & Headquarters Company
    • 4/9th Air Cavalry Squadron [20]
    • 2nd Battalion, 123rd Aviation (Attack), Saint Paul, Minnesota (Army Reserve)[21]
    • 4th Battalion, 123rd Aviation (Combat Support)[22]
  • Division Artillery, Fort Richardson, Alaska[15][16][17][18]
    • Headquarters & Headquarters Battery
    • 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery, Fort Richardson (18 × M101 105mm towed howitzer)[16][17][18][15]
    • 5th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery, Fort Wainwright (18 × M101 105mm towed howitzer)[16][17][18][15]
    • Battery G, 11th Field Artillery, Mankato, Minnesota (Army Reserve, 8 × M198 155mm towed howitzer)[16][17][18][15]
  • 6th Division Support Command
    • Headquarters & Headquarters Company, Medical Battalion, Supply & Transportation Battalion, Maintenance Battalion
    • 431st Aviation Intermediate Maintenance Company, Saint Paul, Minnesota (Army Reserve)[21]
  • 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery, Grand Forks, North Dakota (North Dakota Army National Guard)[23][24]
  • 6th Engineer Battalion, Fort Wainwright[25]
  • 6th Signal Battalion, Fort Richardson[26]
  • 106th Military Intelligence Battalion, Fort Richardson[27]
  • Military Police Company
  • Chemical Company
  • 6th Division Band

Notable operational deployments included an eight-month deployment to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt by 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, a subordinate element of 1st Brigade, which included the 4th & 5th Battalions, 9th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division (Light), in 1990 as part of the Multinational Force and Observers. The deployment began as a six-month rotation but was extended in August 1990 due to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait which precipitated Operation Desert Shield and delayed the arrival of their relieving unit. The division headquarters was moved from Fort Richardson to Fort Wainwright (near Fairbanks) in 1990.[28] Commanders during the Arctic activation included Maj. Gen. David A. Bramlett, Maj. Gen. Samuel E. Ebbessen[29] (a former deputy of General Schwarzkopf during the Persian Gulf War who went on to direct hurricane relief in Florida in 1992, ultimately being relieved from that position), and Maj. Gen. Johnnie H. Corns.[30] The division had two active maneuver brigades and the Army Reserve's 205th Infantry Brigade (Light) was assigned as the division's roundout force. The 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery of the North Dakota Army National Guard served as the division's roundout Air Defense Artillery. They were the only National Guard Air Defense battalion to ever roundout an active duty division.[31]

The division was inactivated most recently on 6 July 1994, and reduced to a single brigade, the 1st Brigade, 6th Infantry Division. In reality, the 6th no longer existed as a division and command of the brigade fell under the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Fort Drum, NY. In April 1998, 1st Brigade was reflagged back to the separate 172nd Infantry Brigade from which the division had been reestablished in 1986. The 172nd Brigade was then reflagged as the 1st Brigade Combat Team (Stryker), 25th Infantry Division on 16 December 2006.[32]

On 16 October 2008 the division's HHC 6th Engineer Battalion[33] was reactivated as a non-divisional unit in Alaska.[34] In this new role it is configured as an Airborne unit with two subordinate engineer companies: the 23d Engineer Company[35] and the 84th Engineer Company.[36]