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JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 8, 2009 – An agribusiness development team from the Kansas National Guard unfurled its colors in Afghanistan’s Laghman province May 3 and began its work of jump-starting the agricultural economy. A ceremony to mark the arrival of the Kansas Agribusiness Development Team takes place in the Mehtar Lam district of Afghanistan’s Laghman province, May 3, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Luke Atherton  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Before the unit arrived in northeastern Afghanistan, an ADT from Missouri was the only one operating in the Nuristan, Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman provinces, also known...

FORT RILEY, Kan., March 18, 2008 – The 1st Infantry Division’s commanding general yesterday welcomed home 37 U.S. servicemembers who served overseas for the past year as advisors with Afghan or Iraqi forces. Army Capt. James King and wife Alisha embrace at the end of the redeployment ceremony on Fort Riley, Kan., March 17,2008. Defense Dept. photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The first thing that I will do is tell all the troops and their families that they have my personal thanks and my professional admiration for the service that they provide to...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier stationed in southern Germany was shot dead by police after threatening an ex-girlfriend and then going on the run armed with an assault rifle, authorities said on Friday. The 30-year old, who was serving in the 2nd, "Dagger," brigade of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, broke into the woman's house late on Thursday, threatened her and tied her up, police in the Bavarian region of Unterfranken said. She was able to free herself and alerted the police, who began a search using a commando unit and a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging equipment. Officers...

BAGHDAD, March 4, 2008 – With the security situation here improving every day, Iraqi and coalition forces increasingly are helping displaced families move back into their old neighborhoods. A sheik addresses displaced Iraqi families returning to their homes, appealing for adherence to the local reconciliation agreement, during a ceremony welcoming families back to Baghdad’s Aamel neighborhood, Feb. 9, 2008. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division’s Company A, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, in cooperation with Iraqi security forces, the local reconciliation committee, and local and civic...

SIERRA VISTA — A first-grade class at Huachuca Mountain Elementary School was buzzing with excitement Tuesday morning. They knew something their student teacher Rebecca Schaeffer and her husband to be, Spc. Jerome Horrace, didn’t. Horrace had returned Saturday for a mid-tour break from Iraq, and Susan Hilliard’s class of 23 students had adopted his unit, writing letters and sending cards to the 1-28 Intelligence Section at Forward Operating Base Falcon in the Baghdad city limits. The section is officially part of the Black Lions, as the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division...

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq , Nov. 1, 2007 – Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, hosted a social gathering, including a cookout and a soccer tournament, for Iraqi army troops and a volunteer group from Ameriya, a neighborhood in the Mansour district of western Baghdad on Oct. 28. Army Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, presents the first-place trophy to Rafeid Khaleiel, the coach of the Forsan Al Rafadeen soccer team at the end of a soccer tournament hosted by his unit at Camp Liberty in...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2007 – Coalition offensives in southern Baghdad, spurred by Iraqi intelligence, have dramatically reduced al Qaeda-inspired violence, a military commander said today. "We've had about a 60-percent reduction in murders since we arrived and took over in March," Army Col. Ricky Gibbs told online journalists and 'bloggers' during a conference call from Iraq. "That's huge." Gibbs commands the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team "Dragons" of 1st Infantry Division, part of Multinational Division Baghdad, deployed from Fort Riley, Kan. His soldiers patrol the Rashid district in southern Baghdad, where al Qaeda insurgents have sought to establish a base,...

BAGHDAD — Multi-National Division – Baghdad troops opened fire on insurgents emplacing a roadside bomb, killing three and wounding at least one more July 21 during continuing clearing operations in the Rashid District.Troops from Company B, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, attached to the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, witnessed five men out after curfew excavating a hole by the side of the road in a Doura neighborhood of southern Baghdad. The location was an area historically used by insurgents to employ deep-buried improvised explosive devices against Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces.When one of the men was...

WUERZBURG, Germany, July 6, 2006 – The U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, known as the "Big Red One," bid farewell to its host country of Germany at Victory Park on Leighton Barracks here today. The colors of Big Red One are scheduled to be unfurled at Fort Riley, Kan., Aug. 1, and the division will assume command and control of its units now there. Among other duties, the division is slated to take on the mission of training foreign security forces training teams in support of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Despite numerous deployments to distant countries within the...

BAMBERG, Germany — The 1st Infantry Division’s Artillery (Divarty) inactivated Wednesday as part of a transformation that will see its three battalions join brigade combat teams in Germany, Italy and the U.S. The Divarty’s inactivation marked a period of great change for artillery units everywhere, commander Col. Walter L. Gilliam told some of his unit’s 2,000 soldiers who assembled at Warner Barracks in Bamberg. “Artillerymen across the Army will find themselves in ever-expanding roles — from delivering lethal fire to support maneuver units … to being a motorized infantry task force,” he said. The change will see 10 field artillery...

TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Jan. 17, 2006) – The American Diabetes Association has created a teddy bear in honor of a diabetic patient who fought to deploy to Iraq after being medically excused. After Sgt. 1st Class Mark Thompson discovered that he had type one diabetes in 2000, he had to begin a strenuous health regimen. “I’m on an insulin infusion pump, with a catheter that goes through my stomach and gives me insulin shots every nine minutes through the day and every six minutes during the night,” said Thompson. “I have to change the catheter out every three...

WURZBURG, Germany (Army News Service, Sept. 16, 2005)–-The 1st Infantry Division held an inactivation ceremony Sept. 15 at Leighton Barracks for the 4th Batallion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, the oldest air defense battalion in the active Army. During the ceremony, the colors of 4-3 ADA were sheathed to signify the inactivation, while the colors of the Air and Missile Defense Detachment were presented to the command. The Air and Missile Defense Detachment was created in order to serve as the 1st ID commanding general’s advisor on all matters related to air and missile defense, as well as provide early...

FRIEDBERG, Germany — First came the bright flash, then the ball of flame, then a man named War burst onto the scene to chase down a burning tank and pull two soldiers from its smoking hull. An officer on the scene later said Staff Sgt. War Mobley didn't hesitate, inserting himself into an extremely dangerous situation. But despite the valiant effort, Pvt. Chris W. Morados, 18, and Pfc. Robert L. White Jr., 19, died in the July 29, 2002, training accident at Fort Hood, Texas. Nine soldiers, including Mobley, were injured. “I would have done it for anybody,” Mobley said....

By Liz Sidoti, The Associated PressEuropean edition, Thursday, August 25, 2005 J. Scott Applewhite / AP With fate of the Navy submarine base at New London, Conn., at stake, Anthony J. Principi, center, chairman of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, leads the vote to keep the Atlantic Coast sub facility, rejecting the Department of Defense recommendation for closure, during the BRAC hearing in Arlington, Va., Wednesday. The verdict ... Stars and StripesThe nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission voted Wednesday to shutter major Army bases in Georgia and Michigan, and to close nearly 400 Army Reserve and National Guard...

First Infantry Division veterans met for the 87th time at the Society of the 1st Infantry Division’s annual reunion July 20-24. The reunion not only afforded veterans the opportunity to visit the sites in Washington and take in a concert by the U.S. Army Choir, but also to re-kindle old friendships. “It’s great for all the veterans to get together and talk about what we’ve been through,” said Paul Leifholtz, who served with the 1st ID from 1966-67. “I’ve been to five of these,” said Bill Baty, 1st ID Soldier from 1965-66. “It’s a healing process to see people you...

WÜRZBURG, Germany — Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste, who led the 1st Infantry Division through its yearlong deployment to Iraq, stepped down as the 60th commander of the Big Red One on Monday. Batiste, who commanded the Germany-based division for the past three years, turned over the reins to Maj. Gen. Kenneth W. Hunzeker during a change of command ceremony at Leighton Barracks. “We are surrounded by great soldiers, men and women, who are very competent at what they do, totally committed to each other,” Batiste said during the ceremony. “Our soldiers were tested under the most arduous of conditions...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2005 – Army leaders recognized the Iraq service and sacrifice of members of Task Force Danger at a ceremony in Kitzingen, Germany, today. Army Secretary Francis Harvey told the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division that their service in Iraq was crucial to the success of the Iraqi elections held Jan. 30. The "Big Red One" was the center of the 22,000-member Task Force Danger, headquartered in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit -- the heart of the Sunni Triangle. The soldiers operated against "a ruthless and immoral enemy willing to employ any means necessary to achieve their...

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Spc. Aaron Fischer lost two of his best friends during the 1st Infantry Division’s year in Iraq. Spc. Michael Campbell, 34, was killed instantly May 19, 2004, in Samarra when a convoy hit a roadside bomb, Fischer said — a convoy Fischer was supposed to be on. Sgt. William Kizner, 27, died in a January grenade attack in Ad-Duluiya, just days before the 1st ID began returning to Germany. Fischer, 21, figures he survived about 250 convoys during his year in Iraq as fueler with Headquarters, Headquarters Troop of the 1st ID’s Schweinfurt-based 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry...

The court-martial of a 1st Armored Division captain accused of murdering an Iraqi man last year is set to begin March 28, according to Army officials. If coverage of the preliminary hearings last fall is any indication, the trial of Capt. Rogelio M. Maynulet should generate great interest among servicemembers and the media. Some view the case as “an act of mercy” to a dead or dying man, while Army prosecutors maintain it was murder. Maynulet is charged with premeditated murder and dereliction of duty relating to the May 21 death of a man believed to be associated with the...

WÜRZBURG, Germany — The 1st Infantry Division is not yet fully home from it’s yearlong tour in Iraq, and already its work there is being enshrined in history. Workers at the three-year-old 1st Infantry Museum — just outside the division’s headquarters building in Würzburg — are busily working on a new $70,000 display dedicated to the Big Red One’s role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Gabriele Torony, the museum’s curator, said the new display carries forward a museum “story line” that stretches from the trenches of Cantigny, France, in World War I, through North Africa, Normandy, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf...