Big Red One: 100 Years and Counting
Editor’s note: If you missed part one of the Big Red One history, you can find it here.
As I sit here listening to the artillery, the impact being made by Big Red One soldiers today is not overlooked.
Marching on from Desert Storm, the 1st Infantry Division soldiers didn’t take a back seat to the world theatre:
- October 1995: 1ID units move into war-torn Bosnia
- Early 1996: Headquarters of 1ID is deactivated at Fort Riley and reactivated in Würzburg, Germany; 1st Brigade remains at Fort Riley
- June 9, 1999: Task Force Falcon deploys BRO to Kosovo in largest air-rail-sea-road movement since Operation Desert Storm
- Early 2003: 1ID deployed to Turkey to push 4ID soldiers into Northern Iraq
- April 2003 : BRO units from Germany deploy to Iraq
- September 2003: BRO units from Fort Riley deploy to Iraq
- Spring 2004: 1ID Mech deploy to Iraq
- Early 2005: 1st Brigade from Fort Riley deploys to Iraq
- March 2006: 1st BN, 16th IN deploys to Horn of Africa
- August 2006: BRO units from Germany deploy on a 15-month rotation to Iraq
- September 2006: BRO units from Fort Riley deploy to Iraq
- Early 2007: 4th Brigade deploys to Iraq
- Between 2005-2008: BRO realignment; most units move from Germany back to Fort Riley
- October 2007: Combat Aviation Brigade deploys
- June 2008: 1ID boots on ground in Afghanistan
- October 2008: BRO deploys to Iraq
- August 2009: One of the last combat units deploys to Iraq
- October 2010: 1ID deploys as part of Operation New Dawn
- Winter 2011/Spring 2011: BRO deploys to Afghanistan covering 58 remote locations
- April 19, 2012: 1ID deploys to Bagram
- September 25, 2014: 1ID soldiers return to Iraq to assist security forces
- July 2016: BRO soldiers deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel
- Fall 2016: 1ID soldiers deploy to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve
- Currently, 1ID Soldiers are either in various places across the world or are preparing to be.
As I was walking through the First Infantry Museum with my oldest child, he asked questions that reminded me that our history is only as good as our remembering to share it and pass it on.
Fort Riley and organizations like the Historical and Archaeological Society of Fort Riley and the Society of the 1st Infantry Division have kept that history alive in our community. Take a few minutes and learn something new about the BRO.
We are a Big Red One Family and proud of it!
