99th Readiness Division


The 99th Infantry Division briefly existed, but never deployed, in the closing days of World War I, was reconstituted as a reserve unit in 1921, was ordered into active military service in 1942, and deployed overseas in 1944. The 99th landed at the French port of Le Havre and proceeded northeast to Belgium. During the heavy fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, the unit suffered many casualties, yet tenaciously held its defensive position. In March 1945, the 99th advanced into the Rhineland, crossing the Rhine River at Remagen on March 11. After fighting in the Ruhr area, the unit moved southward into Bavaria, where it was located at the end of the war.
The 99th Infantry Division gained the nickname the "Checkerboard" division, from its unit insignia that was devised in 1923 while it was headquartered in the city of Pittsburgh. The blue and white checkerboard in the insignia is taken from the coat of arms of William Pitt, for whom Pittsburgh is named. The division was also known as the "Battle Babies" during 1945, a sobriquet coined by a United Press correspondent when the division was first mentioned in press reports during the Battle of the Bulge.
On May 3–4, 1945, as the 99th moved deeper into Bavaria, it liberated one of a number of Dachau subcamps near the town of Mühldorf. The unit reported on May 4 that it had "liberated 3 labor camps and 1 concentration camp." The concentration camp was one of the "forest camps" tied to the Mühldorf camp complex. The 99th Infantry's report stated that 1,500 Jews were "living under terrible conditions and approximately 600 required hospitalization due to starvation and disease."
The 99th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the US Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992.
The insignia, though not the US Army recognized lineage, is maintained by the 99th Readiness Division, a United States Army Reserve unit constituted in 1967, serving as of 2023 as a geographic command, headquartered at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Organization 2025

The 99th Readiness Division is a subordinate geographic command of the United States Army Reserve Command. The division provides programs and services that enhance individual and unit readiness for mobilization and deployment of Army Reserve forces in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. As of December 2025 the division consists of the following units:

World War I

On 23 July 1918, the War Department directed the organization of the 99th Division at Camp Wheeler, Georgia. Plans called for the division to include a headquarters, headquarters troop, the 197th Infantry Brigade, 198th Infantry Brigade, 370th Machine Gun Battalion, 174th Field Artillery Brigade, 324th Engineers, 624th Field Signal Battalion, and 324th Train Headquarters and Military Police. It was intended that the 197th Infantry Brigade would be organized in France from the 54th and 55th Pioneer Infantry Regiments.
The 28th Trench Mortar Battery was formed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, in August 1918 and was assigned to the 174th Field Artillery Brigade, but never ended up joining. The organization of the division began in October with the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Beck as division chief of staff, but organization never progressed beyond the assignment of the division staff and preliminary preparations for the receipt of Selective Service men. After the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the 99th Division was ordered demobilized on 30 November 1918.

Interwar period

The 99th Division was demobilized on 7 January 1919 at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina. It was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the Third Corps Area, and assigned to the XIII Corps. The division was further allotted to the western half of the state of Pennsylvania as its home area. The division headquarters was organized in November 1921 at 3939 Butler Street, in Pittsburgh. The headquarters was relocated in December 1922 to Room 604 in the Chamber of Commerce Building. It was relocated again in October 1923 to Room 310 in the Westinghouse Building and remained there until activated for World War II. After its reorganization, the division slowly built its strength, and by July 1924, the division was at 100 percent strength in authorized officers, but dropped back to 91 percent by March 1926. Typically, many of the division's units in Pittsburgh conducted their inactive training period meetings at the National Guard armory in that city. The division was chiefly composed of graduates from the ROTC programs of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Duquesne University. Pennsylvania State College, and the Pennsylvania Military College as the number of ROTC officers in the Officers' Reserve Corps overtook the number of World War I-veteran officers beginning in 1929. During the interwar period, all units of the division except the 394th Infantry Regiment and 198th Infantry Brigade were headquartered in Pittsburgh. The command of all three Organized Reserve divisions in a given corps area nominally fell to the corps area commander, with the divisions' chiefs of staff responsible for day-to-day operations, but some corps area commanders designated a junior general officer in their corps area to serve as division commander; from 13 June 1929 to 23 August 1932, Brigadier General James B. Gowen, concurrently the commander of the 1st Division's 1st Field Artillery Brigade, commanded the 99th Division.
The designated mobilization and training station for the division was Camp George G. Meade, Maryland, the location where much of the 99th's training activities occurred over the next 20 years. For the few summers when the division headquarters was called to duty for training as a unit, it usually trained with the staff of the 16th Infantry Brigade, 8th Division, at Camp Meade. The infantry regiments of the division held their summer training primarily with the units of the 16th Infantry Brigade at Fort Meade or Fort Eustis, Virginia. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, trained at various posts in the Third Corps Area with Regular Army units of the same branch. For example, the 304th Engineer Regiment usually trained with elements of the 1st Engineer Regiment at Fort DuPont, Delaware; the 304th Medical Regiment trained with the 1st Medical Regiment at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; and the 304th Observation Squadron trained with the 21st and 50th Observation Squadrons at Langley Field, Virginia. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments rotated responsibility to conduct the Citizens Military Training Camps held at Camp Meade, Fort Eustis, and Fort Washington, Maryland, each year.
On a number of occasions, the division participated in Third Corps Area and First Army command post exercises in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. Two of the more notable CPXs were the Third Corps Area CPX at Fort George G. Meade conducted 6–19 July 1930 and a division CPX conducted 23 August–5 September 1936 at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pennsylvania. Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the Third Corps Area, the 99th Division did not participate in the various Third Corps Area maneuvers and the First Army maneuvers of 1935 and 1939 as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment. Instead, the officers and a few enlisted reservists were assigned to Regular and Guard units to fill vacant slots and bring the units up to full peace strength for the exercises.

World War II

  • Ordered into active military service: 15 November 1942 Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi.
  • Overseas: 30 September 1944
  • Campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe
  • Days of combat: 151
  • Returned to U.S.: 17 September 1945
  • Inactivated: 15 October 1945, Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia

    Order of battle

Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The headquarters companies of the two infantry brigades were consolidated into the division's cavalry reconnaissance troop, and one infantry regiment was removed by inactivation. The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery. Its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions; one battalion was taken from each of the two 75 mm gun regiments to form two 105 mm howitzer battalions, the brigade's ammunition train was reorganized as the third 105 mm howitzer battalion, and the 155 mm howitzer battalion was formed from the 155 mm howitzer regiment. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split.
  • Headquarters, 99th Infantry Division
  • 393rd Infantry Regiment
  • 394th Infantry Regiment
  • 395th Infantry Regiment
  • Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 99th Infantry Division Artillery
  • *370th Field Artillery Battalion
  • *371st Field Artillery Battalion
  • *372nd Field Artillery Battalion
  • *924th Field Artillery Battalion
  • 324th Engineer Combat Battalion
  • 324th Medical Battalion
  • 99th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop
  • Headquarters, Special Troops, 99th Infantry Division
  • * Headquarters Company, 99th Infantry Division
  • * 799th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
  • * 99th Quartermaster Company
  • * 99th Signal Company
  • * Military Police Platoon
  • * Band
  • 99th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment
Many members of the 99th Infantry Division had participated in the Army Specialized Training Program or ASTP, derisively nicknamed "all safe 'till peace;" in February 1944, the program was drawn down, and the majority of its members were assigned to later-deploying divisions such as the 99th.