84th Training Command


The 84th Training Command is a formation of the United States Army. During World War I it was designated the 84th Division, American Expeditionary Forces; during World War II it was known as the 84th Infantry Division. From 1946 to 1952, the division was a part of the United States Army Reserve as the 84th Airborne Division. In 1959, the division was reorganized and redesignated once more as the 84th Division. The division was headquartered in Milwaukee in command of over 4,100 soldiers divided into eight brigades—including an ROTC brigade—spread throughout seven states.
Changes to the U.S. Army Reserve organizations from 2005 until 2007 redesigned the unit as the 84th Training Command and it was paired with the Army Reserve Readiness Training Center. The flag resided at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. As a result of Base Realignment and Closure throughout the Army, the ARRTC was moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky. The 84th Training Command underwent a command-directed move to Fort Knox, Kentucky in advance of the ARRTC in September 2008. Since the move, the 84th Training Command and ARRTC split, leaving the ARRTC with leader readiness and training support. The 84th Training Command was re-designated once again to 84th Training Command .
In September 2010, the 84th was renamed 84th Training Command and began reorganization. The 84th mission currently supports three numbered and three named training divisions – The 78th Training Division, the 86th Training Division, and the 91st Training Division, Atlantic Training Division, Great Lakes Training Division, Pacific Training Division
Tradition has it that the division traces its lineage to the Illinois militia company in which a young Captain Abraham Lincoln served during the Black Hawk War of 1832. The division patch was selected to honor this legacy and the division's origin in Illinois. For this reason, the alternative nickname of "Lincoln County" Division" has been used to denote the 84th.

World War I

The division was activated in September 1917 at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. It was initially made up of enlisted draftees from Indiana and Kentucky, with a cadre of Regular Army, Officers Reserve Corps, and National Army officers, including Laurence Halstead as chief of staff. Later groups of enlisted men assigned to the division to replace men transferred to other units came from Ohio, North Dakota, and Montana. The division remained in training at Camp Taylor until August 1918. It was deployed to France in October 1918 to serve as a training formation for replacements which would be sent to the Western Front. At the war's end, the formation was recalled home and, without having seen combat actions, inactivated in January 1919.
Its commanders included Brig. Gen. Wilber E. Wilder, Maj. Gen. Harry C. Hale, Brig. Gen. Wilber E. Wilder, Brig. Gen. Wilber E. Wilder, Maj. Gen. Harry C. Hale, Maj. Gen. Harry C. Hale, Maj. Gen. Harry C. Hale, Brig. Gen. Wilber E. Wilder, Maj. Gen. Harry C. Hale.

Order of battle

  • Headquarters, 84th Division
  • 167th Infantry Brigade
  • * 333rd Infantry Regiment
  • * 334th Infantry Regiment
  • * 326th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 168th Infantry Brigade
  • * 335th Infantry Regiment
  • * 336th Infantry Regiment
  • * 327th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 159th Field Artillery Brigade
  • * 325th Field Artillery Regiment
  • * 326th Field Artillery Regiment
  • * 327th Field Artillery Regiment
  • * 309th Trench Mortar Battery
  • 325th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 309th Engineer Regiment
  • 309th Field Signal Battalion
  • Headquarters Troop, 84th Division
  • 309th Train Headquarters and Military Police
  • * 309th Ammunition Train
  • * 309th Supply Train
  • * 309th Engineer Train
  • * 309th Sanitary Train
  • ** 333rd, 334th, 335th, and 336th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals

    Interwar period

The 84th Division headquarters arrived at the Port of Hoboken, New Jersey, aboard the USS Wilhelmina on 19 January 1919 after four months of overseas service and was demobilized on 26 July 1919 at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. It was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the Fifth Corps Area, and assigned to the XV Corps. The division was further allotted to Indiana as its home area. The division headquarters was organized on 6 September 1921 at room 408 in the Federal Building in Indianapolis. The headquarters was relocated in August 1922 to 24 East Michigan Street and moved again in 1928 to the Meridian Life Building. The headquarters was moved twice more before World War II: first to the Chamber of Commerce Building in 1933; and finally back to the Federal Building in 1937. It remained there until activated for World War II.
Though the designated mobilization and training station for the division was Camp Knox, Kentucky, and some of the division's training occurred there, much of the training activities for the division headquarters and its subordinate units transpired in other locations as well. For example, the headquarters occasionally trained with the staff of the 10th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division, at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. The infantry regiments of the division held their summer training primarily with the units of the 10th Infantry Brigade at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, or Fort Benjamin Harrison, but some years they went to Camp Knox. For some years, the 167th and 168th Infantry Brigades and their subordinate units conducted camp at the Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster trained at various posts in the Fifth Corps Area, usually with similar active units of the 5th Division. For example, the division's artillery trained with the 5th Division artillery units stationed at Camp Knox; the 309th Engineer Regiment usually trained at Fort Benjamin Harrison; the 309th Medical Regiment trained at Camp Knox; and the 309th Observation Squadron trained with the 88th Observation Squadron at Wright Field, Ohio. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility for conducting the infantry Citizens Military Training Camps held at Fort Thomas and Camp Knox each year.
On a number of occasions, the division participated in various Fifth Corps Area or Second Army command post exercises in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the First Corps Area, the 84th Division did not participate in the Fifth Corps Area maneuvers and the Second Army maneuvers of 1936, 1940, and 1941 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 war strength for the exercises. Additionally, some were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel.

World War II

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.
The 84th Infantry Division was ordered into active military service on 15 October 1942, at Camp Howze, Texas, about 60 miles north of Dallas. It embarked on 20 September 1944 and arrived in the United Kingdom on 1 October, for additional training. The division landed on Omaha Beach, 1–4 November 1944, and moved to the vicinity of Gulpen, the Netherlands, 5–12 November.
The division entered combat on 18 November with an attack on Geilenkirchen, Germany, as part of the larger offensive in the Roer Valley, north of Aachen. Operating under the command of Lt-Gen Brian Horrocks the division was supported by British tanks of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, specialist armoured units of 79th Armoured Division, and XXX Corps' artillery. Taking Geilenkirchen on 19 November, the division pushed forward to take Beeck and Lindern in the face of heavy enemy resistance, 29 November. After a short rest, the division returned to the fight, taking Wurm and Würm, Mullendorf, 18 December, before moving to Belgium to help stem the German winter offensive.
File:President Truman strides along inspecting a line of troops near Frankfort, Germany. He is on break from the Potsdam... - NARA - 198692.jpg|thumb|left|On a break from the Potsdam Conference, President Harry S. Truman strides along inspecting a line of G.I.'s of the 84th Infantry Division at Weinheim, July 26, 1945. Stood behind him is the division's commander, Major General Alexander R. Bolling.
Battling in snow, sleet, and rain, the division threw off German attacks, recaptured Verdenne, 24–28 December, took Beffe and Devantave, 4–6 January 1945, and seized La Roche, 11 January. By 16 January, the Bulge had been reduced. After a 5-day respite, the 84th resumed the offensive, taking Gouvy and Beho. On 7 February, the division assumed responsibility for the Roer River zone, between Linnich and Himmerich, and trained for the river crossing.
On 23 February 1945, the first day of Operation Grenade, the division cut across the Roer, took Boisheim and Dülken, 1 March, crossed the Niers on 2 March, took Krefeld, 3 March, and reached the Rhine by 5 March. One day before, the 'Krefeld-Uerdinger Brücke' was blown off by Wehrmacht soldiers.
The division trained along the west bank of the river in March.
After crossing the Rhine, 1 April, the division drove from Lembeck toward Bielefeld in conjunction with the 5th Armored Division, crossing the Weser River to capture Hanover, 10 April. By 13 April, it had reached the Elbe, and halted its advance, patrolling along the river. Soviet troops were contacted at Balow, 2 May 1945. The division remained on occupation duty in Germany after VE-day, returning to the United States on 19 January 1946 for demobilization. It was redesignated a reserve formation on 21 January 1946.
Troops of the 84th Infantry Division liberated two satellite camps of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp: Ahlem, on 10 April 1945, and Salzwedel, on 14 April 1945. As such, the 84th is officially recognized as a "Liberating Unit" by both the U.S. Army's Center of Military History and the Holocaust Memorial Museum.