| 98th Infantry Division | |
|---|---|
 98th Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia | |
| Active | 1918 1921-1946 1947–present |
| Country |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Size | Division |
| Garrison/HQ | Fort Benning, Georgia |
| Nickname | "Iroquois" (special designation)[1] |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Brigadier General David M. Samuelsen |
| Insignia | |
| Distinctive unit insignia |  |
The98th Infantry Division ("Iroquois"[1]) was a unit of theUnited States Army in the closing months ofWorld War I and duringWorld War II. The unit is now one of theU.S. Army Reserve's training divisions, officially known as the 98th Training Division (Initial Entry Training). Its primary mission is to conductInitial Entry Training (IET) for new soldiers. It is one of three training divisions subordinate to the108th Training Command (IET) and handles command and control of units throughout the eastern United States and in Puerto Rico.
Since its creation in 1918, the division has experienced multiple cycles of activation, training, deployment and deactivation as well as substantial reorganizations and changes of mission. Since 1959, the 98th has been a unit of the U.S. Army Reserve with the primary mission of training soldiers. Long headquartered inRochester, New York, with historical ties to New York and New England, the division was moved in 2012 toFort Benning, Georgia.[2]
On 23 July 1918, theWar Department directed the organization of the 98th Division atCamp McClellan,Alabama. Plans called for the division to include a
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headquarters, headquarters troop, the 195th Infantry Brigade (389th and 390th Infantry Regiments and 368th Machine Gun Battalion), 196th Infantry Brigade (391st and 392nd Infantry Regiments and 369th Machine Gun Battalion), 367th Machine Gun Battalion, 173rd Field Artillery Brigade (367th-369th Field Artillery Regiments and 26th Trench Mortar Battery), 323rd Engineers, 623rd Field Signal Battalion, and 323rd Train Headquarters and Military Police (Ammunition, Engineer, Sanitary, and Supply Trains). It was intended that the 195th Infantry Brigade would be organized in France from the 52nd and 53rd Pioneer Infantry Regiments.
The 26th Trench Mortar Battery was formed atDel Rio, Texas, in August 1918 and was assigned to the 173rd Field Artillery Brigade, but never ended up joining. The organization of the division began in October with the appointment of Colonel Jennings B. Wilson as division chief of staff, but organization never progressed beyond the assignment of the division staff and preliminary preparations for the receipt ofSelective Service men. After theArmistice of 11 November 1918, the 98th Division was ordered demobilized on 30 November 1918.[3]
The 98th Division was reconstituted in theOrganized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the SecondCorps Area, and assigned to theXII Corps. The division was further allotted to the upstate area of New York as its home area. The division headquarters was organized on 18 August 1921 at the Federal Building inSyracuse, New York, and remained there until activated for World War II. The designated mobilization and training station for the division was the Syracuse Concentration Area for all elements except the division artillery units, which would mobilize atPine Camp, New York. From 1928 to 1940, the commander of the Second Corps Area designated the commander of the1st Division's 2nd Infantry Brigade to perform additional duties as the commanding general of the 98th Division.
The 98th Division headquarters was called to duty for training as a unit on a number of occasions, usually forcommand post exercises (CPXs). The headquarters usually trained with the staff of the 2nd Infantry Brigade atMadison Barracks, New York, 1924–30 (with the exception of the 1927 annual training atFort Niagara), and atFort Ontario, New York, 1931–39, after the 2nd Infantry Brigade headquarters was moved to that post. In December 1932, the division conducted a CPX atPlattsburg Barracks, New York, with the staffs of the 2nd Infantry Brigade and the26th Infantry Regiment.
The subordinate infantry regiments of the division generally held their summer training with the units of the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Plattsburg Barracks, Fort Niagara, or Fort Ontario. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, trained at various posts in the Second and Third Corps Areas, usually with other units of the 1st Division. For example, the division’s artillery trained with the7th Field Artillery at Pine Camp; the 323rd Engineer Regiment usually trained with the1st Engineer Regiment atFort DuPont,Delaware; the 323rd Medical Regiment trained with the1st Medical Regiment atCarlisle Barracks,Pennsylvania; and the 323rd Observation Squadron trained with the5th Observation Squadron atMitchel Field, New York. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility to conduct theCitizens Military Training Camps held at Plattsburg Barracks and Fort Niagara each year. On a number of occasions, the division participated in Second Corps Area and First Army CPXs in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. The first of these CPXs was held by the Second Corps Area atCamp Dix,New Jersey, 7–21 July 1929, followed by several First Army CPXs in the years leading up to World War II.
Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the First Corps Area, the 98th Division did not participate in the various Second Corps Area maneuvers and the First Army maneuvers of 1935, 1939, and 1940 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. Additionally, some officers were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel.[4]
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.[5] The 98th was ordered into active military service on 15 September 1942 atCamp Breckinridge, Kentucky, filling its ranks primarily with soldiers from New York and New England. The 98th spent the next 18 months training at Camp Breckinridge,Camp Forrest, Tennessee, andCamp Rucker, Alabama, for combat in the Pacific theater.
The roughly 19,590 soldiers of the 98th arrived in Oahu, Hawaii, on 19 April 1944, and relieved the33rd Infantry Division of responsibility for the defense of the Hawaiian Islands. On 15 May 1945, the 98th was relieved of garrison duties by the372nd Infantry Regiment, freeing them up to train forOperation Olympic, scheduled for 1 November 1945 as one of two planned invasions of Japan.[6] Instead, the Japanese surrendered, and the 98th Infantry Division arrived in Japan on 27 September 1945. It served inOsaka as part of theoccupying force until 16 February 1946 when the unit was inactivated.
Awards earned by 98th Infantry Division soldiers during this period include:Legion of Merit: 1;Soldier's Medal: 8;Bronze Star: 146.
Commanding generals during World War II:
On 18 April 1947, the Iroquois Division was reactivated inRochester, New York, on reserve status and began training for combat in the newCold War environment. It had been previously planned to be an airborne division. A note on the troop list nevertheless indicated that the unit was to be reorganized and redesignated as an airborne unit upon mobilization and was to train as such.[7]
The reorganization of 1 May 1959 redesignated the 98th Infantry Division as the 98th Division (Training) and set the unit on a course lasting to the present - training Soldiers. The regimental heritage was retained with the 389th, 390th and 391st Infantry Regiments organized asBasic Combat Training (BCT) regiments and the 392nd Infantry Regiment organized as anAdvanced Individual Training (AIT) regiment.
Additional changes occurred in 1968 with the movement toward a brigade-based structure: the 389th Infantry Regiment became the 1st Brigade (BCT), the 390th Infantry Regiment became the 2d Brigade (BCT) and the 392nd Infantry Regiment became the 3rd Brigade (AIT-Engineer), the only Engineer Pioneer training unit in the Army Reserve at the time. The 3rd Battalion/392nd Infantry Regiment/3rd Brigade was based inHillcrest, New York and performed Engineer AIT training of Soldiers atFort Leonard Wood, Missouri during their annual two-week training periods throughout the Vietnam War. The changes of 1968 also ushered in the designation and training of Army ReserveDrill Sergeants, a significant and enduring innovation. Additional reorganization in 1994 redesignated the unit as the 98th Division (Institutional Training), a change in which the 98th retained its previous IET mission but also acquired the missions and force structure formerly associated with to the U.S. Army Reserve Forces schools. The 98th would maintain this basic organization and mission for the next 14 years.
On 3 September 2004, the 98th Division received mobilization orders forOperation Iraqi Freedom. This mobilization was to be the first overseas deployment for the unit since World War II. The mission, known as the Foreign Army Training Assistance Command (FA-TRAC), consisted primarily of training the new Iraqi Army and Iraqi security forces. An expeditionary force of more than 700 Iroquois warriors were trained and equipped at four sites:Camp Atterbury,Fort Bliss,Fort Hood and Fort Benning.
The demands of Operation Iraqi Freedom required an accelerated training schedule which crammed as many warfighting skills as possible into a forty-one-day period. This was the 98th's first substantial exposure to the asymmetric battlefield, requiring training in counterinsurgency techniques and preparing to face an opponent who did not fight along traditional fronts. The 98th made full use of the 33,000 acres at Camp Atterbury and marched everywhere. It was at Camp Atterbury that the advisory support teams (later renamedmilitary training teams), the heart of the FA-TRAC mission, transformed to cohesive units in long days.
In fall 2004, the 98th Division arrived inBaghdad and filled the ranks of theMultinational Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I), the unit charged with assisting the Iraqi government in developing, training and equipping the new Iraqi security forces. The unit used its pool of drill sergeant and instructor expertise to train Iraqi soldiers and officers to prescribed standards under the constant threat of insurgent attack and under austere conditions.
Instruction and support teams spread out across all points in Iraq from Al Kasik in the north to as far south as Umm Qasr. They established contact with Iraqi security units with the help of interpreters and helped build the six divisions of the new Iraqi Army. They also established officer and noncommissioned officer education schools at the Kirkush Military Training Base. They trained Iraqi police, the Highway Patrol, the special Police Commandos and the Iraqi Border Police.[8]
The division also fielded soldiers to such other locations as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Horn of Africa, Kuwait, Jordan and Afghanistan.
Five 98th Training Division soldiers were killed in action during the division's deployment to Iraq in 2004–05.[9]
As of 8 July 2017 the following units are subordinate to the 98th Training Division (Initial Entry Training):
Nickname: Iroquois.
Shoulder patch: The 98th Division Patch consists of a shield in the shape of the Great seal of the State of New York, with the head of an Iroquois Indian Chief. The five feathers represent the five original Iroquois nations: the Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Mohawk. The blue and orange-gold colors are those of the Dutch House of Nassau, the earliest settlers of New York State.On 8 September 2012, the Armed Forces Reserve Center at Fort Benning, Georgia, where the unit is located, was memorialized in honor of Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel)Elmer W. Heindl who had served in the 98th.[10][11]
Unit honors:
CAMPAIGN PARTICIPATION CREDITWorld War IIAsiatic-Pacific Theater, Streamer without inscriptionDECORATIONSArmy Superior Unit Award, Streamer embroidered 2004-2005
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromThe Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950.United States Army Center of Military History.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.An Encounter With History: The 98th Division and the Global War on Terrorism: 2001–2005: Publisher: Defense Department, Army, Army Reserve Command, 98th Division (Institutional Training)
