173rd Airborne Brigade


The 173rd Airborne Brigade is an airborne infantry brigade combat team of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Europe.
Activated in 1915, as the 173rd Infantry Brigade, the unit saw service in World War II but is best known for its actions during the Vietnam War. The brigade was the first major United States Army ground formation deployed to South Vietnam, serving there from 1965 to 1971 and losing 1,533 soldiers. Noted for its roles in Operation Hump and Operation Junction City, the 173rd is best known for the Battle of Dak To, where it suffered heavy casualties in close combat with North Vietnamese forces. Brigade members received over 7,700 decorations, including more than 6,000 Purple Hearts. The brigade returned to the United States in 1972, where the 1st and 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, were absorbed into the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, and the 3rd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery was reassigned to Division Artillery in the 101st. The remaining units of the 173rd were inactivated.
Since its reactivation in 2000, the brigade served five tours in the Middle East in support of the war on terror. The 173rd participated in the early invasion and occupation of Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003–04, and had four tours in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–10, and 2012–13. The 173rd Airborne Brigade has received 21 campaign streamers and several unit awards, including the Presidential Unit Citation for its actions during the Battle of Dak To.

Organization

The 173rd Airborne Brigade serves as the conventional airborne strategic response force for Europe. It was a subordinate unit of the U.S. Army's V Corps and after June 2013, subordinate to US Army Europe.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade currently consists of 3,300 paratroopers in five subordinate battalions as well as a headquarters company:
All of these units are airborne qualified, making the 173rd Airborne Brigade the only separate airborne IBCT in the United States Army.

History

World Wars

The 173rd Infantry Brigade was constituted on 5 August 1917 as an infantry brigade and organized on 25 August at Camp Pike, Arkansas, as an element of the 87th Division along with the 174th Infantry Brigade. The brigade deployed to France along with the rest of the division in September 1918, but it did not participate in any campaigns and never saw combat, instead being utilized as a pool of laborers and reinforcements for frontline units. Four months later, the brigade returned to the United States, and was demobilized with the rest of the division in January 1919 at Camp Dix, New Jersey. Commanders during the war included:
  • BG Robert Campbell Van Vliet, 25 August 1917 – 8 June 1918
  • COL John O'Shea, 9 June 1918 – 14 July 1918
  • BG Otho B. Rosenbaum, 15 July 1918 – 26 July 1918
  • COL John O'Shea, 27 July 1918 – 28 July 1918
  • BG Otho B. Rosenbaum, 29 July 1918 – 19 September 1918
  • COL John Shea, 20 September 1918 – 2 December 1918
  • BG George Herbert Harries, 3 December 1918
  • COL John Shea, 4 December 1918 – 20 December 1918
  • BG Marcus D. Cronin, 21 December 1918 – 9 January 1919
  • COL John Shea, 10 January 1919 – 19 January 1919
  • BG Marcus D. Cronin, 20 January 1919 – 8 February 1919
On 24 June 1921, the unit was reconstituted as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 173rd Infantry Brigade, and was assigned to the Organized Reserve Corps and the 87th Division at Shreveport, Louisiana. It was reorganized in December 1921 at Mobile, Alabama, redesignated on 23 March 1925 as the HHC 173rd Brigade, and redesignated as HHC 173rd Infantry Brigade on 24 August 1936.
During World War II, brigades were eliminated from divisions. Consequently, the HHC 173rd Infantry Brigade was designated as the 87th Reconnaissance Troop in February 1942 and activated on 15 December 1942. Though the brigade in name did not exist during the war, the redesignation meant that it carried the lineage of the 87th Reconnaissance Troop, and when the brigade was reactivated, it would include the troop's lineage and campaign streamers. The troop entered combat in 1944 and fought in three European campaigns; central Europe, the Rhineland and Ardennes-Alsace operations. The maneuver battalions of the Vietnam era 173rd trace their lineage to the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, which successfully assaulted the fortress island of Corregidor in the Philippines by parachute and waterborne operations, thereby earning the nickname "The Rock". After the war, the troop reverted to reserve status and was posted at Birmingham, Alabama from 1947 until 1951. On 1 December 1951, the troop was inactivated and released from its assignment to the 87th Infantry Division.

Re-creation as airborne brigade

From 1961 to 1963, the Army began reorganizing its force so that each division would have a similar structure, which would vary depending on the type of division it was. This move was called the Reorganization Objective Army Division plan. The plan eliminated regiments but reintroduced brigades to the Army's structure, allowing three brigades to a division. The reorganization also allowed for the use of "separate" brigades which had no division headquarters and could be used for missions that did not require an entire division. The 173rd Brigade was selected to become a separate brigade and a special airborne task force, which could deploy rapidly and act independently. It was then designed uniquely from other separate brigades. The 173rd was the only separate brigade to have support formations permanently assigned to it, though other separate brigades would receive support elements of their own a year later. The brigade was also the only separate brigade to receive its own tank company, in the form of Company D, 16th Armor. Consistent with regimental combat teams activated before them, these separate brigades were given their own shoulder sleeve insignia. The soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade created a patch with a wing on it to symbolize their status as an airborne unit, along with red, white, and blue, the national colors of the United States. The SSI would be given to them in May 1963.
On 26 March 1963, the 173rd Airborne Brigade was assigned to the Regular Army and activated on Okinawa. Brigadier General Ellis W. Williamson took command of the unit, which was chartered to serve as the quick reaction force for the Pacific Command. Under Williamson, the unit trained extensively, making mass parachute jumps. They earned the nickname Tien Bing, literally Sky Soldiers, from the Taiwanese paratroopers. During their time in Okinawa, they prided themselves as the "toughest fighting men in Okinawa, if not the entire U.S. Armed Forces". They took their theme song from the television series Rawhide. As the Pacific quick-reaction force, they were the first brigade to be sent to South Vietnam two years later when hostilities escalated there.

Vietnam War

The brigade arrived in South Vietnam on 7 May 1965, the first major ground combat unit of the United States Army to serve in the country. Williamson boldly predicted on arrival that his men would defeat the Viet Cong quickly and that they "would be back in Okinawa by Christmas". The 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division; the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division; and the 1st Cavalry Division quickly followed the 173rd into Vietnam, the first of what would eventually be 25 U.S. Army brigades to serve in the country. As larger US Army commands were established in Vietnam, the brigade was assigned to the III Corps and II Corps tactical zone, which they would serve in for the next six years. The brigade was put under the command of II Field Force, Vietnam.
The 1st and 2nd Battalions, 503rd Infantry were the first Army combat units from the 173rd sent into South Vietnam, accompanied by the 3rd Battalion, 319th Artillery. They were supported by the 173rd Support Battalion, 173rd Engineer Company, Troop E/17th Cavalry and Company D/16th Armor. The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment and the 161st Battery, Royal New Zealand Artillery were attached to the brigade for one year in 1965. Late in August 1966, the 173rd received another infantry battalion, the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry from Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 3rd Battalion, 503rd joined the brigade at Tuy Hoa Province in September 1967 following the former's activation and training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The 173rd was also assigned Company N, 75th Infantry. At its peak of its deployment in Vietnam, the 173rd Airborne Brigade comprised over 7,000 soldiers.
The brigade was the first unit sent into War Zone D to destroy enemy base camps, introducing the use of small Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols. On 8 November 1965, the 173rd took part in Operation Hump, just north of Biên Hòa on the outskirts of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. They were ambushed by approximately 1,200 VC fighters, suffering 48 deaths. The unit fought in the Iron Triangle, a VC stronghold north of Saigon, seeing many engagements with VC forces during that time. In January 1966 they launched Operation Marauder, the first U.S. military operation in the Plain of Reeds. They participated in Operation Crimp in 1966, a failed attempt to root out VC forces from the Củ Chi tunnels. File:Lawrence Joel.jpg|thumb|left|Specialist Six Lawrence Joel from the 173rd Brigade, receiving the Medal of Honor The attached helicopter unit became the Casper Aviation Platoon, befitting a separate infantry brigade as the only separate aviation platoon deployed in Vietnam. Casper platoon was part of the HHC 173rd Airborne Brigade and its members wore the brigade patch. The attached Assault Helicopter Company, the 335th AHC, the "Cowboys", deployed with the brigade all over Vietnam into mid-1968 and comprised the Airmobile capability along with the Caspers. Soldiers of the brigade became involved in Operation Attleboro in fall of 1966, an operation that started out as a small search and destroy mission north of Saigon, but eventually involved 22,000 troops from 21 battalions. Soldiers of the brigade also took part in smaller humanitarian missions in between major combat operations.
On 22 February 1967, the 173rd conducted Operation Junction City, the only combat parachute jump of the Vietnam War. The operation saw three brigades controlling eight battalions dropped by helicopters and US Air Force aircraft into War Zone C, in Tây Ninh Province. During the battle, the brigade operated out of the northeastern part of the war zone along with the 196th Infantry Brigade, as four other brigades from the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions attempted to surround and destroy the 9th Division in the War Zone. The operation was a success, and the battered VC division fled. In August of that year, the brigade received its distinctive unit insignia. The soldiers chose to have it contain a parachute and dagger to symbolize their participation in Operation Junction City and the other heavy fighting they had been through. The DUI was also inscribed "Sky Soldiers" as homage to the nickname that the Taiwanese soldiers had given them.