84th Training Command (Unit Readiness)
84th Training Command (Leader Readiness)
84th Army Reserve Readiness Training Center (ARRTC)
84th Division (Institutional Training)
"Strike Hard"

The mission of the 84th Training Command (Unit Readiness) is to train and assess Army Reserve units in Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) in accordance with US Army Reserve Command (USARC) and US Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) directives in support of Operational and Functional Commands. The Command, as directed, would provide training to Joint, Combined, and Active Army Forces. Its Mission Essential Task List (METL) includes: Command and control of assigned units; planning, coordinating, and conducting Warrior Exercises and Combat Support Training Center rotations; planning, coordinating, and conducting Basic and Advanced Weapons Training; planning, coordinating, and conducting training on Theater-Directed Tasks; and protecting the force.

The 84th Training Command (Unit Readiness) has a history that reaches back to Abraham Lincoln and the Black Hawk Indian War of 1832. The Division patch was a symbol of that legacy and showed an ax splitting a log for a rail fence, hence the nickname "the Railsplitters." The 84th Division was the famous "Lincoln Country" Division that traced its lineage back to the militia company in which Captain Abe Lincoln served in Wisconsin during the Blackhawk War of 1832. Lincoln volunteered to fight the Indians in 1832 and was mustered into an Illinois unit that trailed Chief Blackhawk as far as what became Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Lincoln later spoke with pride on the floor of Congress about his military service.

Formally, the 84th Training Command was first constituted on 5 August 1917 in the National Army as Headquarters, 84th Division, as part of the buildup related to World War I. It was organized on 25 August 1917 at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. At that time it was a combat infantry unit composed of men from the states of Wisconsin, Kentucky and Illinois. When the men from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky were formed into a new Army Division in 1917, they chose as their nickname "The Railsplitters" harking back to Lincoln's company from the same region of 1832. The Division shoulder patch also referenced that heritage: a white axe embedded in a white log on a circle of Badger Cardinal. The new Division trained for 13 months before it was sent to Europe. Instead of entering the fight as a unit, it was split up to provide replacement personnel for other units. Many individual members did become heroes during this period. The 84th Division served in France as a training center for replacements heading toward the Western Front during World War I, and then came home to be demobilized on 26 July 1919 at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky.

The unit was reconstituted on 24 June 1921 in the Organized Reserves as Headquarters, 84th Division and organized on 28 September 1921 at Indianapolis, Indiana. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 194, the United States entered World War II and began rapidly mobilizing its military. Headquarters, 84th Division was redesignated on 23 February 1942 as Division Headquarters, 84th Division. The unit was ordered into active military service 15 October 1942 and reorganized at Camp Howze, Texas, as Headquarters, 84th Infantry Division after some 23 years as merely a name on a sheet of paper. On 20 September 1944, the 84th Infantry Division landed in England, trained for a month, then headed for the fighting on the European continent.

On 10 November 1944, the Division landed in France and was rushed to the front in Belgium. It was the first unit to smash the northern section of Germany's dreaded Siegfreid Line. When the German Army began its last great counter-offensive, the 84th Infantry Division again blocked the path. In freezing cold and snow, General Von Rundstedt threw the German Army at the 84th Infantry Division, but the Division held its ground in what became known as "The Battle of the Bulge."

By the end of November 1944, the 84th Infantry Division moved into Germany. Its first mission was the capture of Geilkenkirchen, Germany as part of a larger offensive, north of Aachen. From there, the 84th Infantry Division moved on to capture Boeck and Linden in the face of heavy enemy resistance. The 84th Infantry Division remained in almost continuous action until it reached the Elbe River in April 1945 where it established contact with the Russians at Barlow in May 1945. The 84th Infantry Division earned 7 Distinguished Unit Citations, 12 Distinguished Service Crosses, 1 Distinguished Service Medal, 555 Silver Stars, 4 Legions of Merit, 27 soldier Medals, 2962 Bronze Stars, and 59 Air Medals. It participated in 3 campaigns during the Second World War: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe. After the war, the 84th Infantry Division was inactivated on 21 January 1946 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.

The unit was redesignated on 19 December 1946 as Headquarters, 84th Airborne Division an activated on 24 September 1947 at Madison, Wisconsin. The 84th Airborne Division became an integral part of the nation's defense program, part of America's Ready Reserve. In 1947, it was designated as an Airborne Reserve command. The location of the Division's headquarters was changed on 17 November 1947 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and on 15 March 1948 back to Madison, Wisconsin. The Organized Reserves was redesignated on 25 March 1948 as the Organized Reserve Corps, which was in turn redesignated 9 July 1952 as the Army Reserve. The 84th Airborne Division remained assigned these new entities.

The Division continued as an Airborne Infantry division until it was reorganized and redesignated 1 March 1952 as Headquarters, 84th Infantry Division. A training division, the 84th Infantry Division had 3 regiments, the 274th Infantry Regiment, 334th Infantry Regiment, and the 339th Infantry Regiment. The location of the Division's headquarters again changed on 20 August 1957 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The 84th Infantry Division Division developed skills in offensive and defensive tactics until 1959 when it was organized into a training division. The Division was then composed of 4 Brigades and a Training Group with over 3,000 men and women throughout Wisconsin, with the Division headquarters in Milwaukee. Three of the brigades, the 1st Brigade, 3rd Brigade, and 4th Brigade, as well as the Training Group and Logistics Group were also stationed in Milwaukee. The 2nd Brigade had its headquarters in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. The 5091st Reception Station, although not active to the Division, were assigned battalions. Additionally, subordinate units of the Division were located in 9 other Wisconsin cities.

On 21 January 1991, a portion of the 84th Division (Training) was mobilized in support of Operation Desert Storm. More than 500 Railsplitters reported to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, along with equipment and weapons systems to provide refresher training to several thousand reactivated Individual Ready Reservists. On 22 March 1991, after achieving tremendous success, the Railsplitters returned home.

As the result of a reorganization in 1993, the 84th Division (Training) merged with the 85th Division (Training) and expanded its area of operation to include Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. The 84th Division (Training) provided refresher training in June 1994 for 41 Army Reservists who were deployed to the Sinai in 1995 as part of the US contribution to the Multinational Force and Observer (MFO) conducint peacekeeping operations in the Sinai Desert in Egypt from January through July 1995.

In April 1995, the Division become an Institutional Training division, again expanding its area of operation to include Wisconsin, Illinois Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. A subsequent reorganization in August 1995 expanded the traditional missions of the instituational training division units to include peacetime and mobilization school training of individual soldiers. The reorganization also shifted the command and control of US Army Reserve Forces Schools from the former Army Reserve Commands to the Institutional training divisions. The 84th Division assumed responsibility for 14 USARF Schools in Region E, comprised of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

Meanwhile, the training model that matched mission to unit and individual soldier qualification was implemented. Selected units performed initial entry training missions augmenting active forces at Forts Jackson, Knox and Sill. Others performed skill level 1 and 2 training at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, while others participated in counterpart training at Fort Hood, Texas. The quality of the 84th Divisions support consistently exceeded active components expectations. In one year, 13 Army Achievement Medals were awarded by the active component counterparts, along with numerous letters of commendation, to a force of only 43 soldiers, as a result of the 84th Division support to its mobilization station, Fort Hood, Texas.

During the 1990's, the 84th Division became an integral force at the US Military Academy where soldiers wearing the Railsplitters patch regularly assisted in training the best and brightest future officers of the Army. Both NCOs and Junior officers were sent by the 84th Division to train West Point Cadets in a variety of military subjects at the academy.

What was to be a test of the commander's alert notification on 18 October 2001, turned out to be the real deal for 20 Army Reserve soldiers and their families from the 84th Division (Institutional Training). The soldiers, members of 1st Battalion, 334th Regiment, 7th Brigade (Reception), were called to active duty in support of Operation Noble Eagle in the wake of the attack on America on 11 September 2001. Twenty soldiers, mostly drill sergeants, left Oshkosh, Wisconsin on 20 October 2001 for an undetermined period in support of Operation Noble Eagle. They were bound for Fort Benning, Georgia to train other soldiers in basic soldier skills. During annual training they processed new recruits through the military entry stations in preparation for basic training. During this deployment, they processed into active duty Individual Ready Reserve soldiers, people who had previously been in the Army, but were not already assigned to a unit.

As of September 2003, the 84th Division (Institutional Training) was headquartered in Milwaukee and had subordinate units and soldiers throughout the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana. The 84th Division (Institutional Training) had 4,137 soldiers in 43 subordinate commands. As an institutional training division, the 84th Division performs a variety of missions in support of the Army school system. Missions included providing basic combat training and infantry one station unit training to new soldiers and officer training to ROTC cadets. The Division personnel also trained active- and reserve-component servicemembers in combat-service, combat-service-support, health services and professional-development courses. The Division had 8 brigades. Three brigades conducted initial entry training, while the remaining 4 school brigades trained in a wide variety of subjects including; combat support MOS training, health services MOS training, and professional development training.

In 2004, the 84th Division (Institutional Training) underwent a major transformation. All 8 brigades were inactivated and reflagged as elements of the 100th Division. The Headquarters and Division Band were combined with the Army Reserve Readiness Training Center (ARRTC) located at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, to create the 84th US Army Reserve Readiness Training Command (84th USARRTC). The 3 Army Reserve NCO Academies were realigned under the new 84th USARRTC. The expertise and resources from the 2 units gave the 84th USARRTC an edge on the type and amount of training opportunities offered.

In October 2006, the 84th USARRTC underwent another major transformation as 12 brigades from the Army Reserve's Institutional Training Divisions realigned under the command. The brigades were responsible for Officer Education System (OES) training, such as the Combined Arms Exercise (CAX) and Intermediate Level Education (ILE), and Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps (SROTC) support to universities across the country.

In February 2007, the 84th USARRTC was redesignated as the 84th Training Command (Leader Readiness) in response to the unit's transformation under the Army Reserve's Decision Point 74. The 84th Training Command would exercise command and control over 3 Professional Development Brigades, one Schools Brigade, one Training Development Brigade, the 84th Division Band. It was expected to command and control the Small Arms Readiness Group. Initially, the 78th Division (Fuctional Training), 86th Division (Functional Training), and the 91st Division (Operations Training) were assigned to the Command.

In 2008, the 70th Division (Functional Training) and the 104th Division (Leader Training) were brought under the 84th Training Command (Leader Readiness) umbrella to round out the planned structure for the Command. Many units were transfered from under the direct supervision of the 84th Training Command (Leader Readiness) to the 70th Division (Functional Training), with the remaining units moved to the 104th Division (Leader Training). Some units were also transfered between the 2 divisions to better align them for the type of training provided by the divisions.

The 84th Training Command became an organization located coast-to-coast and border-to-border. The command provided Army Reserve Soldiers with a wide variety of training that will help prepare them for current worldwide operations. The 84th Training Command also provided an Army Reserve presence on the Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS) through Army Reserve Net and Unit Administrator (UA) Net. Both forums served as a platform for discussion threads and lessons learned.

In 2009, the 104th Division was reassigned to the 108th Training Command (Initial Entry Training). In September 2010, the 84th Training Command (Leader Readiness) was reorganized as the 84th Training Command (Unit Readiness).