2nd Infantry Division
"Warriors" Second to None / Warrior Division
The 2nd Infantry Division is the most forward deployed, lethal and combat ready division in the US Army. The Second Infantry Division's mission is to deter war. Should deterrence fail, the soldiers of the Warrior Division stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their Korean allies, ready to defend "freedom's frontier." The 2ID is the major US ground combat unit in Korea. The Division's headquarters is located at Camp Red Cloud, Uijongbu, and its primary mission is to deter war on the Korean peninsula by maintaining a high state of combat readiness and vigilance. 2ID units "SECOND TO NONE" stand shoulder-to-shoulder with first-echelon Korean units immediately south of the DMZ.
The commander of the US Second Infantry Division, a major general (two-star). In April 1990, the United States Department of Defense announced a program to shift gradually the United States military presence in South Korea to a smaller and more supportive role as international political conditions and strengthened South Korean defense capabilities permitted. As part of this program, the United States and South Korea agreed to disband the United States- Republic of Korea Combined Field Army.
Unique force structure and fighting capability not found anywhere else in the US Army or on the Korean peninsula. By the end of the 20th Century the Warrior Division possessed more combat power than any other division within the coalition forces. The 2nd Inf. Div. was a robust, combined arms team that contained armor, mechanized infantry, air assault infantry and combat aviation units. The 1st and 2nd Brigades were the maneuver brigades, and had a total of two M1A1 Abrams tank battalions, two Mechanized Infantry battalions (Bradley) and two air assault infantry battalions. Other major commands were the Aviation Brigade, the Division Artillery, the Engineer Brigade, and the Division Support Command. The Division Artillery (DIVARTY) was the largest in the Army and containd more Multiple-Launched Rocket Systems (MLRS) than any other DIVARTY. The Division boasted top quality soldiers and leaders -- both American and Korean -- who were equipped with the best equipment in the world to include the M1A1 Abrams tank, the M2/3 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, the AH66 Apache helicopter and the MLRS.
The 15,000 Warriors of the 2nd Inf. Div. were spread across 17 different installations throughout the northwestern quadrant of South Korea. The headquarters is located at Camp Red Cloud in the city of Uijongbu. The bulk of the troops were stationed at Camps Casey and Hovey near Tongduchun. The remaining 14 camps have smaller concentrations of combat and support units. "In front of them all" stood the 1st Battalion, 506th Inf. Regiment, located north of Freedom Bridge and the Imjin River, a scant two kilometers from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
2nd Infantry Division's organic 3rd brigade, located at Fort Lewis, Washington, was reorganized as an Interim Brigade Combat Team (IBCT). During this transition, the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Riley, Kansas was the CONUS-based reinforcing Brigade for the Division, and is similar in design to the 2nd ID's Armor-heavy first Brigade. The Stryker, an RDF unit, replaced the former 2ID brigade that was withdrawn from Korea in 1992.
The 2nd Infantry Division of the year 2010 will scarcely resemble that of the year 2001. In the year 2001 it consisted of three maneuver Brigades, to include two heavy Brigades in South Korea and one Stryker Brigade at Fort Lewis, WA. By the year 2010, it will consist of four maneuver Brigades, to include one Combined Arms Brigade [1st Brigade Combat Team] in South Korea, and three Stryker Brigades at Fort Lewis. Two of the new Stryker Brigades will be reflagged, one from the 1st Infantry Division, the other from the 24th Infantry Division.
The Warrior Division faces a real threat. One of the largest armies in the world sits just across the Demilitarized Zone(DMZ). The fighting stopped in 1953, but the Korean War never officially ended. Being combat ready means many things: excellent training, leadership, equipment and professional support. Warrior division leaders bring all these things together in a training program that is ell-planned, tough, and realistic.
Computer simulation plays a large role in leader and battle staff training. The division periodically conducts a five-day Warfighter exercise at Camp Casey and Camp Hovey. Contributing to the division's combat readiness and its ability to team with its Korean allies are the division's Korean Augmentation to the United States Army, or KATUSA soldiers. More than 2,000 KATUSA soldiers are fully integrated into the division's force structure. They serve as tank crew members, artillerymen, administrative specialists and cooks.
In the 1990s the division began a major construction and renovation campaign designed to improve the quality of life of Soldiers. By the end of Fiscal Year 1999, more than 30 new barracks construction projects were completed. New recreational and dining facilities, such as the Borderline Cafe and brigade "Super Dayrooms" have been built to provide soldiers a better living environment. A newly built air assault training facility, located between Camps Casey and Hovey, recently trained and graduated more than 80 new air assault qualified Warriors. The school is the first of its kind built and run overseas.
Tough training kept warriors busy during their stay, but there is more to a tour in the 2nd Inf. Div. than the mission. Quality of life has been, and will remain, a priority in the Warrior Division. Many new barracks facilities had been constructed by the turn of the century, and construction continued thereafter. New clubs have been built, and many existing facilities completely renovated. The Army and Air Force Exchange System and commercial fast food restaurants opened the door to more dining choices. The information superhighway is also coming to freedom's frontier: cable Television installation as installed, and Internet access for soldiers came with the equipment to take advantage of it. Soldiers can also continue their education, often using the creative and flexible programs designed to work around a Warrior's schedule.
There is much to learn outside the classroom--and the gate. During a one-year tour in Korea, soldiers get an opportunity to enjoy a country with a rich and diverse culture and a unique geography. Ancient traditions continue to flourish in a nation that has rapidly become a modern industrial and economic power. Soldiers can take advantage of regularly scheduled tours to local attractions, such as the Folk Village in Suwon, Mount Sorak, the DMZ, Buddhist temples, and many famous shopping areas. Those who take an interest in their surroundings find their tours much more satisfying. Despite the fact virtually all the division's 13,000 soldiers serve one-year, unaccompanied tours, families are also part of the 2nd Inf. Div. During the 1990s about 3,000 family members chose to live in Korea while their warriors serve here.
The 2ID is located in a non-command sponsored area. Soldiers are discouraged from bringing their family members to this area. The 2ID is a wartime mission oriented division and soldiers spend the majority of their tour in the field. Those soldiers that bring their family members to this area must live within earshot of the alert siren. This alone limits the areas and the type of quarters that are available. While there are now some very nice apartment complexes in Area I, they are usually located some distance from the installations and the rent is extremely expensive. The soldiers that bring their families normally reside in local houses that have been converted into small (extremely small) rooms and what might be termed efficiency apartments. It is not uncommon to find that toilet, water, and other utilities are shared.
2d Infantry Division History
One of the few active units organized on foreign soil, the 2nd Infantry Division was born on 26 October 1917, at Bounnont France. At the time of its activation, the Indianhead Division was composed of one brigade of U.S. Infantry, one brigade of U.S. Marines, an artillery brigade, and various supporting units. During The Great War the division was commanded twice by Marine Corps generals; Major General C.A. Doyen and Major General John A. Lejune. This was the only time in U.S. military history when Marine Corps officers commanded an Army Division.
The Division spent the winter of 1917 - 1918 training with French Army veterans. Though judged unprepared by French tacticians, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was committed to combat in the spring of 1918 in a desperate attempt to halt a German advance toward Paris.
The 2nd Infantry Division drew its first blood in the nightmare landscape of Belleau-Wood and contributed to shattering the four-year-old stalemate on the battlefield during the Chateau-Thierry campaign that followed. The Division won hard fought victories at Soissons and Mont Blanc, for which it was awarded the French Fourragire in the colors of the Croix DeGueme. Finally the Indianhead Division participated in the Meuse-Argome offensive, which spelled the end of any German hope for victory. On 11 November 1918 the Armistice was declared, and the 2nd Infantry Division marched into Germany where it performed occupational duties until April of 1919.
Upon returning to the United States, the division was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. It remained there for the next 23 years, serving as an experimental unit, testing new concepts and innovations for the Army. In 1940, the 2d Inf. Div. was the first command reorganized under the new triangular concept, which provided for three separate regiments in each division.
As part of the build up for Operation Overlord, the Normandy invasion, the 2d Inf. Div. was transferred from Fort Sam Houston to Ireland in October 1943. On June 7, 1944, D Day +1, the division stormed ashore at bloody Omaha Beach. While other units were stalled by the determined German resistance, the Indianheads blasted through the hedgerows of Normandy. After a fierce, 39-day battle, the 2d Inf. Div. took the vital port city of Brest, which was liberated on Sept. 18, 1944. From positions around St. Vith, Belgium, and throughout the Battle of the Bulge, the 2nd Inf. Div. held fast, preventing the enemy from seizing key roads leading to the cities of Liege and Antwerp. Resuming the offensive on Feb. 6, 1945, the division joined the race to annihilate the fleeing Wehrmacht.
Transferred from the First Army to Patton's Third Amy, the Indianheads spent their last days of the European War in a dash across Czechoslovakia, finally halting in the town of Pilsen. This city became a meeting point between invading armies from the east and from the west. It was in Pilsen that the soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division first met Soviets who represented the forces of Communism that they would face so often in the future, as adversaries.
Though expecting to participate in the scheduled invasion of Japan, V-J Day found the 2d Inf. Div. back home again. After a series of stateside moves, the Indianheads were stationed in the state of Washington. From their Fort Lewis base, they conducted arctic, air transport, amphibious, and maneuver training.
With the outbreak of hostilities in Korea during the summer of 1950, the 2nd Infantry Division was quickly alerted for movement to the Far East Command. The Division arrived in Korea, via Pusan on 23 July, becoming the first unit to reach Korea directly from the United States. Initially employed piecemeal, the entire Division was committed as a unit on 24 August 1950, relieving the 24th Infantry Division at the Naktong River Line.
The first big test came when the North Koreans struck in a desperate human wave attack on the night of 31 August. In the 16 day battle that followed, the Division's clerks, bandsmen, technical and supply personnel, joined in the fight to defend against the attackers. Shortly thereafter, the 2nd Infantry Division was the first unit to break out of the Pusan perimeter, and they led the Eighth Army drive to the Manchurian border. It was at this time that the 2nd Infantry Division received a crucial new support element. In August of 1950, with American forces dwindling, the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army program was established.
These valiant new 2nd Infantry Division troops, known since simply as KATUSA, helped turn the tide of the war for American forces. Now within fifty miles of the Manchurian border when Chinese forces entered the fight, soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division were given the mission of protecting the rear and right flank of the Eighth Army as it retired to the South. Fighting around Kunu-ri cost the Division nearly one third of its strength, but it cost the enemy many times more and the way was kept open. The 2nd Infantry Division finally blunted the Chinese winter offensive on 31 January 1951 at Wonju.
Taking up the offensive in a two-prong attack in February 1951, the Division repulsed a powerful Chinese counter offensive in the epic battles of Chip-yong-ni and Wonju. The United Nations front was saved and the general offensive continued. Again in April and May 1951, the 2nd Infantry Division was instrumental in smashing the Communists' spring offensive. For its part in these actions the 2nd Infantry Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
What followed were alternating periods of combat and rest, with the Division participating in the battles Bloody Ridge, Heart break Ridge, the outposts, and Old Baldy. Finally, on 9 April 1953, the Division was moved to a rear area and on 20 August 1954, four years after its last unit arrived in Korea, the 2nd Infantry Division was alerted for redeployment to the United States.
In the summer of 1954 the 2nd Division was transferred from Korea to Fort Lewis, Washington, where it remained for only two years, until being transferred to Alaska in August of 1956. Sadly, on 8 November 1957, it was announced that the gallant 2nd Infantry Division was to be transferred to Washington DC, without personnel. In short, the Division was to be deactivated.
However, a few months later, in the spring of 1958, the Department of the Amy announced that the 2nd Infantry Division would be reorganized at Fort Benning, Georgia, with personnel and equipment of the 10th Infantry Division returning from Germany. Fort Benning remained the home of the new 2nd Infantry Division from 1958 to 1965, where it was initially assigned the mission of a training division. To improve combat readiness, in March of 1962 the 2ID was designated as a Strategic Amy Corps (STRAC) unit. Following this the Division became engaged in intensified combat training, tactical training, and field trainimg exercises, in addition to special training designed to improve operational readiness.
As a result of increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula, the 2nd Infantry Division returned to the Republic of Korea in July of 1965. North Korea increased border incursions and infiltration attempts and the 2nd Division was called upon to help halt these attacks. On 2 November, 1966, six soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry were killed in an ambush by North Korean forces. In 1967 enemy attacks in the demilitarized zone increased. As a result, 16 American soldiers were killed that year.
In 1968 North Korea continued to probe across the DMZ but by 1970 the North had decided that their efforts against the 21D weren't worth the cost and most organized attacks stopped that year. By March of 1971 ROK forces had assumed the responsibility for the defense of all but a mile’s yards of the DMZ, allowing the 2nd Infantry Division to maintain combat readiness in case of any eventuality.
On 18 August 1976, during a routine tree trimming operation within the DMZ, North Korean border guards bludgeoned two American officers to death in a melee in the Joint Security Area, what resulted is known as Operation PAUL BUNYAN. The 2nd Infantry Division was chosen to spearhead the United Nations Command response to this incident and on 21 August, Task Force Brady, a group of ROK soldiers, American Infantry, and engineers, swept into the area and cut down the now infamous "Panmunjom Tree". The 2nd Infantry Division delivered an unmistakable message to the North Koreans, as well as to the world. Throughout the 1980s, soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division continued to patrol along the DMZ. With the end of the Cold War, 2ID Warriors left the DMZ in 1991, but remained forward deployed along the most heavily defended frontier in the world. In 1994, the death of the North Korean leader, Kim, Il Sung, saw a period of increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula, this time the North was threatening nuclear development.
In 1994, and again in 1999, the 2nd Infantry Division received their 4th and 5th Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citations.
