7th Infantry Division (United States)


The 7th Infantry Division is a deployable active duty division of the United States Army based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. It is charged with maintaining the capability of two Stryker infantry brigade combat teams, a combat aviation brigade, and a Division Artillery Unit, as well as preparing units for several U.S. Army Pacific yearly exercises. The 7th Infantry Division is the only active-duty multi-component division headquarters in the Army. Brigadier General Bernard J. Harrington commands the division. The 7th Infantry Division is also home to two of the Army's newest enabling battlefield capabilities, the Multi Domain Task Force and the Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare and Space Capabilities, or I2CEWS battalion.
The division was first activated in December 1917 in World War I, and has been based at Fort Ord, California for most of its history. Although elements of the division saw brief active service in World War I, it is best known for its participation in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II where it took heavy casualties engaging the Imperial Japanese Army in the Aleutian Islands, Leyte, and Okinawa. Following the Japanese surrender in 1945, the division was stationed in Japan and Korea, and with the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 was one of the first units in action. It took part in the Inchon Landings and the advance north until Chinese forces counter-attacked and almost overwhelmed the scattered division. The 7th later went on to fight in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill and the Battle of Old Baldy.
After the Korean War ended, the division was headquartered at Camp Casey with artillery units supporting the 1st Cavalry Division just south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone until the mid-1960s. In the late 1980s, it briefly saw action overseas in Operation Golden Pheasant in Honduras and Operation Just Cause in Panama. In the early 1990s, it provided domestic support to the civil authorities in Operation Green Sweep and during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. In 1994 the division was inactivated with a few units transferring to Fort Lewis, and Fort Ord closing. In June 1999 the 7th was reactivated at Fort Carson, Colorado and comprised three National Guard brigades. The 1st Battalion, 162d Infantry of the Oregon Army National Guard was attached to the 7th Infantry Division and deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003 to 2004. The division's final role was as a training and evaluation unit for Army National Guard brigades, which it undertook until its inactivation in 2006.
On 26 April 2012, the Department of Defense announced the reactivation of the 7th Infantry Division headquarters supporting the mission of I Corps.

History

World War I

Activation and movement to France

The War Department ordered the formation of the 7th Division on 6 December 1917 at Camp Wheeler, near Macon, Georgia. The nucleus of the division was formed by Regular Army units stationed at Camp Wheeler, Camp Greenleaf, and Chickamauga Park, Georgia, Fort Bliss, Camp Logan, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Camp Vail, Vermont. Regular Army officers and graduates of the First and Second Officers' Training Camps formed the commissioned personnel of the unit, and Brigadier General Charles H. Barth assumed command on 1 January 1918. Systematic training began in the spring and was continued through the summer despite many transfers. In May and June 1918, 20,000 new men joined the division from Camp Wheeler, Camp Travis, Texas, and Columbus Barracks, Ohio, the majority hailing from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.
On 18 July 1918, the division moved to ports of embarkation as it prepared to deploy to Europe as a part of the American Expeditionary Forces. The unit arrived at Hoboken, New Jersey and in New York, via Camp Merritt, where additional replacements joined the unit. The majority of the unit sailed to Brest, France. The 7th Supply Train and the 7th Train Headquarters and Military Police sailed for Bordeaux, France. The units began to arrive in France on 26 July with the last units arriving on 3 September 1918. Most of the division sailed to Europe aboard the SS Leviathan.

Training in France

From the period of 17 August to 9 October, the division conducted final training and preparation to enter the line in the Ancy-le-Franc Training Area. Some soldiers from the unit were sent to the 4th and 26th Divisions as replacements for losses. From the period of 2 September through the 14th the unit was under the administrative control of the VI Corps.

World War I Combat

While on the Western Front, the 7th Division did not see action at full divisional strength, though its infantry and reconnaissance elements did engage German forces. On 11 October 1918, it first came under shell fire and later, at Saint-Mihiel, came under chemical attack. Elements of the 7th probed up toward Prény near the Moselle River, capturing positions and driving German forces out of the region. It was at this time that the division first received its shoulder sleeve insignia.
From the period of 10 October until the end of the war on 11 November, the division, minus their artillery occupied and conducted local engagements in the Puvenelle Sector. On 10 October 1918, the division relieved the 90th Division on the front with a front line from Sablière, Vandières, Côte 327, north edge of Bois des Rappes, la Souleuvre Fme, 1½ km south of Rembercourt-sur-Mad. The 92nd Division was on the right and the 37th Division was on the left. On 16 October, the 28th Division moved in on the left of the 7th Division. Several days later, on 23 October, the 92nd Division occupied the sector on the. Three days later on 26 October the sector was reduced by moving the east boundary to a line between Villers-sous-Prény and Prény. Elements of the 92nd Division relieved the 56th Infantry Regiment. On 29 October, the sector was extended west to a line from Xammes to Charey, with the 64th Infantry relieving elements of the 28th Division, on a front along the eastern edge of Bois de Blainchamp, northern edge of Bois de Hailbat, eastern edge of Bois du Rupt, northern edge of Bois de la Montagne.
File:US 64th regiment celebrate the Armistice.jpg|thumb|left|Doughboys of the 64th Infantry Regiment, 7th Division, celebrate the news of the Armistice with Germany, November 11, 1918.
During this period in early November, the 7th Division began preparing for an assault on the Hindenburg Line as part of the Second Army. The division launched a reconnaissance in force on the Voëvre plain, but the main assault was never conducted as hostilities ended on 11 November 1918 with the signing of the Armistice with Germany.
On 1 November the division conducted local attacks and established outposts at Bois de Trou-de-la-Haie and Bois de Grand-Fontaine. From 9 November through 11th the division executes local attacks and makes gains along the front. On 9 November the division assumes temporary occupation of a hill west of Prény. On 10 November, Hill 323 is occupied. On 11 November, the line is established from 310.2 to 287.1 in the Bois de Grand-Fontaine, the quarry near 278.7, west of Rembercourt, and the small woods ¼ km south of Mon Plaisir Fme.
During its 33 days on the front line, the 7th Division suffered 1,709 casualties, including 204 killed in action and 1,505 wounded in action and was awarded a campaign streamer for Lorraine. The division then served on occupation duties as it began preparations to return to the United States.

Order of battle

7th Division commanders during World War I included Brigadier General Charles H. Barth and Major General Edmund Wittenmyer. The following lists shows the order of battle, units that contributed personnel to form the nucleus of units, and the unit activation dates and locations.
Headquarters, 7th Division
The 7th Division arrived at Camp Mills, New York, 20 June 1919, after completing 6 months of training at the Colombey-les-Belles Training Area in France. On arrival, emergency period personnel were discharged from the service at Camp Mills. The division proceeded to Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas, arrived 29 June, and remained there until July 1920. The division was transferred to Camp George G. Meade, Maryland, in July 1920 for permanent station. As a part of the War Department's decision to maintain only three fully-active stateside infantry divisions, the 7th Division was inactivated, less the 14th Infantry Brigade and several smaller units, on 22 September 1921 at Camp Meade. Concurrently, the inactivated units were assigned active associate units for mobilization purposes. The 7th Division was allotted to the Seventh Corps Area for mobilization responsibility and assigned to the VII Corps. Fort Snelling, Minnesota, was designated as the mobilization and training station for the division upon reactivation. During the period 1921–39, the 7th Division was represented by the 14th Infantry Brigade and other assorted active elements that formed the base force from which the division would be reactivated in the event of war. Additionally, most of the inactive elements were organized by mid-1927 as "Regular Army Inactive" units with Organized Reserve personnel.
The active elements of the division maintained habitual training relationships with divisional RAI units, as well as with those of the VII Corps, XVII Corps, and the 88th, 89th, and 102nd Divisions. The RAI and Reserve units often trained with the active elements of the division during summer training camps usually conducted at Forts Riley and Leavenworth, Kansas, Fort Crook, Nebraska, or Fort Snelling. The 3rd and 17th Infantry Regiments also supported the Reserve units’ conduct of the Citizens' Military Training Camps held at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Des Moines, Iowa. The 14th Infantry Brigade, reinforced by the active elements of the 7th Tank Company, 9th and 14th Field Artillery Regiments, and 7th Quartermaster Regiment, held maneuvers in those years when funds were available, at Fort Riley or Camp Ripley, Minnesota. During these maneuvers, the 7th Division was occasionally formed in a provisional status to exercise division-level command and control procedures. The division headquarters was also provisionally formed on 21 July 1937 for the August 1937 Fourth Army maneuvers at Camp Ripley. For that maneuver, the division was reinforced by the Minnesota National Guard’s 92nd Infantry Brigade, in addition to the other active divisional elements.