1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division
"Forerunners"
The mission of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, is to stand ready to support any call to mission that is ordered by 1st Armored Division for soldiers or supplies no matter the destination.
The 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division is a forward deployed Armor Brigade located in the Federal Republic of Germany. It lies nestled in the rolling hills of the German State of Hessen, in the city of Friedberg. It occupies Ray Barracks along with F Troop, 1st Cavalry Regiment; 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment; 1st Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment; 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment; 501st Forward Support Battalion and elements of 55th Personnel Services Battalion, 39th Finance Battalion, 501st Military Police Company, and 284th Base Support Battalion. 1st BDE stands ready to support any call to mission that is ordered by 1st Armored Division for soldiers or supplies no matter the destination.
The 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, located in Friedberg, Germany has served both the 1st and 3rd Armored Divisions. The Brigade was activated as Combat Command A (CCA), 3rd Armored Division at Camp Polk, LA, on 1 March 1942. CCA underwent training in the United States and England in preparation for the Allied invasion of Europe.
At the close of World War II, CCA had earned campaign streamers for action in Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe and the Rhineland. CCA was inactivated in 1945, then reactivated in 1947 at Ft. Knox, KY. In 1956, the unit returned to Germany with the 3rd Armored Division and was stationed at Ayers Kaserne in Kirchgoens. On 1 October 1963, CCA was reorganized and redesignated as 1st Brigade 3rd Armored Division. In November 1990, the 1st Brigade, known as the Ready First Combat Team, was ordered to Southwest Asia with the 3rd Armored Division as part of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. As the United States forces were withdrawn from Southwest Asia, the Ready First Combat Team remained in Kuwait as the Theater Reserve. In June 1991, the Brigade was relieved by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and returned home to Kirchgoens. On 16 August 1991, 1st Brigade, 3rd Armored Division was redesignated 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division.
The history of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division began on 1 March 1942, with the activation of Combat Command A (CCA), 1st Armored Division at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. In December 1942, CCA and the Division Headquarters joined CCB in North Africa. CCA fought throughout the Tunisian Campaign and was involved in the particularly bitter fighting around Kasserine Pass. When the 1st Armored Division moved to Italy, CCA fought, first in the area of Naples, and later at the Anzio beachhead, where it remained until the breakout in May 1944. CCA lead the breakout from the beachhead and for the rest of the war, fought its way up the Italian Peninsula, sharing all the hardships of mountain combat, which at times forced its tankers to fight as infantry.
In May 1946, CCA and Division Headquarters were inactivated. The 1st Armored Division was reactivated in 1951 at Ft. Hood, TX, and CCA spent the next few years training and testing new Tables of Organization and Equipment. In 1957, the 1st Armored Division was reduced in size to just CCA, which joined the Strategic Army Corps. CCA carried the name of the 1st Armored Division until 1962, when the Division returned to full strength. It was then that the name "Combat Command" was dropped and CCA became the 1st Brigade and took on the nickname of "Forerunners".
In recent years, the 1st Bridge has continued to train for its wartime missions, with an additional focus on Peace Operations. The 1st Brigade provided forces for the first ever Partnership for Peace Exercise in Poland. A Battalion Task Force was deployed for six months of peacekeeping operations to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In 1996, the 1st Brigade was called upon again, when it was sent to conduct peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and upon returning deployed an additional Task Force for peacekeeping operations in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In May 2000, the Ready First Combat Team was called upon to deploy to the Serbian province of Kosovo to conduct peacekeeping operations, and returned home in December 2000 after successful completion of that mission.
