The 9th Infantry Division ("Old Reliables") was created as the 9th Division during World War I, but never deployed overseas. Later, the division was an important unit of the United States Army in World War II and the Vietnam War. It was also activated as a peacetime readiness unit from 1947 to 1962 at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and Fort Carson, Colorado, and from 1972 to 1991 as an active-duty infantry division at Fort Lewis, Washington. Nicknamed the "Old Reliables", the division was eventually inactivated in December 1991.
GIs of C Company, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division at de (Geich), Germany, 11 December 1944.
27 November 1943 Lt. Col. Frank R. Veale, Jr.
6 May 1944 Lt. Col. Asa White Kenney Billings, Jr.
During the war the division's units often served with the Mobile Riverine Force and other US Navy units that made up the Brown Water Navy. Its area of operations was in the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta from 1967 to 1972. Operation Speedy Express was one significant operation in which the division took part during the war and was one of 22 major combat engagements with North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong main force units as well as thousands of small contacts during this period during division's presence in Vietnam.
One of the more unique units serving with the division was the experimental 39th Cavalry Platoon (Air Cushion Vehicle) which used three of the specially designed hovercraft to patrol marshy terrain like the Plain of Reeds along the south Vietnamese/Cambodian border.
From 1967 on, one of the division's brigades (the 2d Brigade) was the Army contingent of the Mobile Riverine Force. This brigade lived on the ships of Navy Task Force 117, and were transported on their infantry missions throughout the Mekong Delta on World War II landing craft supported by various other armored boats some of which mounted flame-throwers (called zippo after the lighter); had mortars in their holds; and even 105mm cannons on their bows (called monitors). The mobile riverine force was often anchored near the South Vietnamese city of Mỹ Tho, or near the Division's Đồng Tâm Base Camp, and they conducted operations in coordination with the Navy SEAL teams, the South Vietnamese Marines, units of the ARVN 7th Division and River Assault Groups. Following the Tet offensive in 1968, General Westmoreland stated that the 9th Infantry Division and the Mobile Riverine Force saved the Delta region from falling to the North Vietnamese Army forces. In 1969, the division also operated throughout the IV Corps Tactical Zone.
By 1989 the division had fielded two complete brigades of motorized infantry in battalions designated as "light attack," "light combined arms" and "heavy combined arms". Motorized battalions traveled in the new Humvee and generally fought as traditional light infantry once engaged. Attack battalions utilized the Fast Attack Vehicles (later re-designated the Desert Patrol Vehicle), first developed at Fort Lewis. Essentially a Volkswagen- engined dune buggy mounted with either a 40mm Mk 19 grenade launcher or .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun, the FAV was designed to provide highly mobile firepower that could attack the flanks of heavier mechanized units. Some variants also mounted TOW missiles. All of these weapons systems were attached to the FAV by a mount designed to break away if the vehicle rolled over, which they were prone to do. The FAVs were problematic at best and were eventually replaced by various versions of the HMMWV.
The 9th Infantry Division (MTR) tested motorized infantry doctrine at the Yakima Firing Center in Eastern Washington, at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin California and in Korea during the annual Team Spirit exercise. While the motorized units performed well they were vulnerable to heavier mechanized forces, particularly if forced to stand and fight. They were also extremely vulnerable to indirect (artillery) fires.
At the end of the Cold War the division was identified for inactivation. By the time of the First Gulf War one brigade was nearly inactivated. However the 3rd Brigade was still at full strength. The need for mobile forces that could be more easily deployed would seem to have never been greater. However the brigade was not deployed to the Middle East, instead providing soldiers and equipment to fill out deploying units from other divisions. While the rest of the army went to war, the 9th ID focused on inactivation and training National Guard and Army Reserve units deploying to the Persian Gulf.
The existing 3d Brigade did not inactivate and was instead reflagged as the 199th Light Infantry Brigade and assigned directly to I Corps. The 199th was later reflagged as the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) and was transferred to Fort Polk, Louisiana.
Though it was inactivated, the division was identified as the second highest priority inactive division in the United States Army Center of Military History's lineage scheme due to its numerous accolades and long history. All of the division's flags and heraldic items were moved to the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Georgia following its inactivation. Should the U.S. Army decide to activate more divisions in the future, the center will most likely suggest the first new division be the 7th Infantry Division, the second be the 9th Infantry Division, the third be the 24th Infantry Division, the fourth be the 5th Infantry Division, and the fifth be the 2d Armored Division.
↑ Experiencing War, Stories from the Veterans History Project, Charles Timothy Hagel, Library of Congress, accessed 12 December 2012.
↑ "The private war of Chuck and Tom Hagel" by Myra MacPherson, Salon, 30 April 2007.
This page was last modified on 14 November 2015, at 17:18.