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<p>Roughly 500 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division headquarters are headed to the Middle East, with 200 of them to end up in Iraq.</p>

I'm camping at Colleville-sur-Mer, which should be a familiar name to those of you who are familiar with D-Day. Not only do I have a quick walk to the beach, but that walk happens to take me straight into the area of some of the hardest fighting that day. The eastern-most thrust on Omaha walked into a meat grinder, and one part of that grinder was a German position known to them as WN60. WN60 is on a high bluff to the east of where the eastern push by the Big Red One attemped to move up the draw towards...

Amazing...Check this out on breitbart TV. My apologies in advance if this is already in circulation here. Sears apparently has a deal in the works to launch a line of clothing with the "Big Red One" patch on it. Amazingly stupid,not to mention a slap in the face to all who served with that patch on their uniform. Here's the link..... http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=171143

From Cantigny, France, and the Argonne Forest to North Africa, Normandy, Vietnam’s Iron Triangle and Iraq —and now hauteconcept.com? Foreign battles aren’t new for the 1st Infantry Division, but this firefight is from another world, a clash between the New Army and Old over plans to commercialize the 1st Division’s historic “Big Red One” insignia in a sportswear line at Sears. After days of questioning, the Army confirmed Monday the arrangement was first reached in June 2007 on the advice of an outside licensing agency, The Beanstalk Group in New York, but the full scope of the royalties to be...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2006 – An entire Army combat division has been given the mission of training U.S. military advisors for duty within Iraqi army and police units, a senior U.S. military officer in Baghdad said yesterday. The U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kan., is now responsible for training U.S. advisors for service in Iraq, Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraq Advisory Group, told reporters at a news conference in the Iraqi capital city. The change represents “a huge investment,” Pittard said, noting two brigade combat teams based at Riley also are...

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...

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...

The people of Kirkuk, Diyala, Salah Ad Din and Sulamaniyah will not soon forget. The Iraqis living in the cities and villages of those north-central provinces will long remember the contributions to their security and stability, to their daily lives, made by the Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division. Those Soldiers, in the honored tradition of their Big Red One forebears who fought at St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne, in Sicily and on Normandy beaches and in Vietnam, have added a new chapter of courage, perseverance and devotion to duty to the division’s history as they prepare to leave Iraq.

THE SAMARRA CRUSH “The Big Red One” mopping-up after launching a major offensive By W. Thomas Smith Jr. in National Review Online In the 1980 film, The Big Red One, iconic actor Lee Marvin leads a motley band of American riflemen — including actors Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, and Bobby Di Cicco — against some of the toughest diehards in the German army. A somewhat-romanticized chronicling of the experiences of an infantry unit from North Africa to Czechoslovakia, the movie celebrates the combat prowess of the famed 1st Infantry Division — the oldest active division in the U.S. Army, a...

When you watch a mortar strike at around 200 meters, it lets you know there is nowhere for you but here and now. That all you may have interest in can not be considered now. So you are left with mortality and time ticking away. Sometimes it is no wonder why so few people join the army. I'll sign off now, just a quick blog to work through some thoughts...

Iraq - A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers and wounded three Saturday, the first casualties suffered by an Army regiment taking over security in Saddam Hussein's hometown as part of a giant troop rotation. In Baghdad, the brother-in-law of a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council was killed when a bomb exploded in a shop Saturday, an official said. The bomb destroyed the troops' armored Humvee as they patrolled through downtown Tikrit at around 5 a.m., hours before the outgoing 4th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment handed over security duties in the area from to the...

CAMP NEW YORK, Kuwait — An Army convoy snakes along a dusty desert road. Suddenly, there’s a flash and a bang. A hidden explosive knocks out a Humvee and badly injures a soldier. For Iraq-bound 1st Infantry Division troops now training in Kuwait, the scenario was fake. Next time, all of them knew, it could be for real. All week, troops at Camps New York and Udairi have been trekking to a remote firing range for three days of convoy live-fire training. Special Forces and Army Ranger veterans from the military contractor MPRI taught Big Red One soldiers how to...

Monday, February 16, 2004 1st ID gets taste of sandstorms By Steve Liewer, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Monday, February 16, 2004 Steve Liewer / S&S Spc. Rocco James, 29, of Gallup, N.M., left, and Spc. Jason Cole, 25, of Elizabeth City, N.C., hunker down against a strong sandstorm — one of the first of the season — Friday afternoon. The desert sandstorms, called shamals, began this week and typically continue all spring, with one every three or four days through April, Air Force meteorologists said. Steve Liewer / S&S Winds in Friday's storm topped out at 40 mph, said Capt....

It is different when a National Guard unit deploys. The "total force" includes active duty and reserve component service members. And while the missions that like units go on are identical, there are differences in the way active duty and reserve components deploy. These differences were apparent at the Feb. 12 deployment ceremony for the 30th Heavy Separate Brigade. The unit is the first National Guard combat brigade to deploy since the end of World War II. The brigade will deploy in the next few weeks, and includes units from New York, Minnesota, Maryland, California, West Virginia and Illinois. The...

Sunday, February 1, 2004 1st ID days from deployment in Iraq By Steve Liewer, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Sunday, February 1, 2004 Steve Liewer / S&S Sgt. Anita Taylor, right, and Sgt. Jayson Essmyer of the 1st Infantry Division's Kitzingen-based 12th Chemical Company, stand at attention shortly before the farewell ceremony Friday in Würzburg, Germany, for the "Big Red One." WÜRZBURG, Germany — With the Würzburg-based 1st Infantry Division just days from deployment to Iraq, senior German leaders bid auf wiedersehen Friday to the “Big Red One” — and urged the United States to leave the unit in southern Germany...

Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, said Saturday that the Bush administration was justified in toppling Saddam Hussein, regardless of whether American intelligence before the war that Iraq had stockpiled unconventional weapons was proved wrong. "You have to make decisions based on the intelligence you have, not on the intelligence you can discover later," Mr. Wolfowitz said during a visit here with troops of the First Infantry Division, which is to go to Iraq in coming weeks. The invasion of Iraq, he said, was about more than biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. "We have an important job to do...

America to pull its tank units out of Germany By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 10/01/2004) The United States plans to withdraw its heavy armoured formations from Germany next year, in the largest reshaping of the European military landscape since the end of the Cold War, it emerged yesterday. The historic plans are part of a drive to turn the American military into a more flexible, rapid reaction force. They have been in gestation since long before the Iraq war, and Washington officials insist they are not punishing Germany for opposing the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The decision to move...

Reporting for duty: Wesley Clark Posted: September 23, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 David H. Hackworth With Wesley Clark joining the Democratic presidential candidates, there are enough eager bodies pointed toward the White House to make up a rifle squad. This bunch of wannabes could make things increasingly hot for Dubya – as long as they don't blow each other away with friendly fire. Since Clark tossed his steel pot into the inferno, I've been constantly asked, "Hack, what do you think of the general?" For the record, I never served with Clark. But after spending three hours interviewing...