Ft Lewis, Washington
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If we are missing any units from Ft Lewis or you have a link for any listed please send a email to Parker2@entercomp.com
Units
HQ & HQ Co. 9th Infantry Division
HQ & HQ Co. 1st Brigade
2nd Batallion, 1st Infantry
2d Battalion, 39th Infantry
3d Battalion, 39th Infantry
HQ & HQ Co. 2nd Brigade
2d Battalion (Mech), 60th Infantry
3d Battalion, 60th Infantry
2d Battalion, 77th Armor
HQ & HQ Co. 3rd Brigade
2d Battalion, 2d Infantry
2d Battalion, 47th Infantry
3d Battalion, 47th Infantry
HQ & HQ Battery, 9th Infantry Division Artillery
2d Battalion, 4th Field Artillery
Note: 2/4th colors cased in 1987 and unit redesignated 6/11th FA
6th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery
1st Battalion, 11th Field Artillery
3d Battalion, 34 Field Artillery
1st Battalion, 84th Field Artillery
E Battery, 333rd Field
Artillery
Division Support Command
9th Division Band
9th Adjutant General Company
9th Finance Company
9th Chemical Company
9th Medical Battalion
9th Signal Battalion
9th Supply & Transportation Battalion
9th Military Police Company
14th Military Police Company
**296th MP Co. which later
became B Co. USAG. (responsible for patrol, gates and the Traffic Section)
709th Maintenance Battalion
525th AG (Replacement) Detachment
100th Ordnance Detachment
Division Material Management Center
1st Forward Support Battalion
3rd Forward Support Battalion
99th Support Battalion
109th Support Battalion
709th Support Battalion
209th Support Battalion
15th Engineer Battalion
73rd Engineer Company
73rd Chemical Company
164th Chemical Company
81st Chemical Detachment
9th Aviation Battalion
214th Attack Helicopter Battalion
268th Attack Helicopter Battalion
2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry
4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry
9th Cavalry Brigade (Air Attack)
3d Squadron, 5th Cavalry
Company B, 75th Infantry (Ranger)
Company E (LRSC), 60th Infantry
109th Military Intelligence Battalion
9th Division Air Defense Artillery (Prov.)
1st Battalion, 67th Air Defense Artillery (Chapparal/Vulcan)
1st Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery (Vulcan/Stiger)
1st Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery
*NOTE
Under the orginizational chart that you show for the division while at Ft Lewis you show the Division Material Management Center as a seperate orginization. It was part of the HHC of the 9th S&T Bn with Alpha Co being the transportation company and Bravo as the Storage and Supply Company.
I was assigned to the MMC from Feb 74 to Nov 75 on team 6.
Michael Champion
Fort Lewis was redesignated Headquarters, 9th Infantry Division and Fort Lewis on 21 April 1972. On 26 May 1972, Army Chief of Staff General William C. Westmoreland unfurled the 9th Infantry Division colors during a day-long activation ceremony held at Gray Army Airfield and presented them to Major General William B. Fulton, signifying the reactivation of the "Old Reliables."
The activation was phased over a 12-month period. During this period, the 9th recruited over 8,000 men, including many from the Pacific Northwest. It became the first "all volunteer" division in the U.S. Army.
Once reactivated at Fort Lewis, the 9th was deeply involved in training for future conflicts. It participated in exercises from Alaska to California and east to North Carolina.
The Fort Lewis Military Museum was established in 1971. It was
originally housed in a two-story barracks, but in July 1973, it relocated in the old Fort Lewis Inn. The Inn, built in 1918 by the Salvation Army, had served the post as a hotel and guest house. Originally called the Red Shield Inn, after the symbol of the Salvation Army, it was renamed the Camp Lewis Inn in 1921 when it was deeded to the Army. When Fort Lewis became a permanent post in 1927, the name was changed to the Fort Lewis Inn; and it was operated until August 1972, when it was closed and renovated for service as a museum. The building was entered on the National Register for Historic Places in February 1979.
The mission of the Museum is to collect, preserve, and exhibit objects, and provide information on the history of the military in the Pacific Northwest. There are approximately 10,000 square feet of interior displays and 2 1/2 acres of outside exhibits.
On 21
March 1973, the 593rd Area Support Group was activated at Fort Lewis as the only area support group in the Active Army, vice the 15th Support Command. The 593rd, with attached supply, maintenance, transportation, ordnance, engineer, and signal units, operates as a composite logistical support group with a peacetime mission of providing support to Fort Lewis and its units. Added missions have been: support to the Vietnamese refugee project, the 1980 Mount Saint Helens relief operation, duty in Operation Desert Storm in 1990-91, and Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1993.
On 3 July 1973, the Headquarters for IV ROTC Region was established here in what at one time had been the installation Headquarters, Building 1010. Handling administrative, procurement, and training for ROTC detachments scattered at college campuses throughout 17 western states and Guam, the Headquarters' most
visible mission is coordinating and commanding the ROTC Senior Cadet Encampments. These train 2,200/ 2,800 cadets each summer.
Almost simultaneously, on 1 July 1973, Readiness Group Fort Lewis was established on North Fort Lewis. This agency, a part of Sixth U.S. Army in San Francisco, controlled through Army Readiness and Mobilization Region IX, is responsible for integrating Army Reserve and Army National Guard units of Washington and Oregon into a comprehensive training and assistance program aimed at achieving and maintaining combat readiness. It was instrumental in the mobilization and demobilization of Reserve Component units for Operation Desert Storm.
The 2nd Battalion (Ranger), 75th Infantry was activated at Fort Lewis on 1 October 1974. This battalion, which traces its lineage back to the famous "Merrill's Marauders" of Burma in World War II, is in
constant training for an aggressive response anywhere in the world. It played key roles in Grenada in 1983, and in Panama in 1989.
In 1979, some decisions were made at the Secretary of Defense and Chief of Staff of the Army level that would have a profound effect on Fort Lewis and its primary tenant, the 9th Infantry Division.
At the time, there was a major movement in the Department of Defense and in Congress to structure Army forces as mechanized or armored forces. All eyes seemed focused on war in Europe or the Middle East. In order to avoid this heavy-division fixation, the Chief of Staff put forward a proposal. He proposed, through the use of high technology, to structure a light division that had a rapid deployment capability, but the firepower and survivability of a heavy division. The 9th Division and Fort Lewis were selected for this task.
The basic
implement of this innovative idea would be an organization on the ground at Fort Lewis known as the High Technology Test Bed (HTTB). The Test Bed was to explore all types of equipment, military and civilian, foreign and domestic, which would be suitable for the new unit. They were to acquire this equipment in the most expeditious way possible, short cutting the normal 10-15 year procurement cycle. In the meantime, the Test Bed, along with the 9th Division and under the guidance of the Chief of Staff of the Army, would develop the tactics and employment doctrine to be used by this High Technology Light Division (HTLD).
Formation of the HTTB began in 1980. In the late summer the Army Science Board met at Fort Lewis for a week. When it left, there was an idea of what the Test Bed should be doing, and from that, what structure it should take. By early 1982, the Test Bed was beginning
to deal with equipment, and had begun to formalize the structure of HTLD. On 14 April 1983, the HTTB became the Army Development and Employment Agency (ADEA). As time went on, the activity's function changed; and in March 1990, it was redesignated the Army Tactical Command and Control Experimentation Site.
Throughout the 1980-1987 time period, the 9th Infantry Division also evolved. At first it was called a High Technology Light Division, and it was equipped with modified and armed dune buggies and many other items of innovative equipment. Later, the dune buggies were replaced with the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicles which carried tank-killing missiles. At about this time, the 9th Division's designation changed from light to motorized.
In 1980, Fort Lewis was notified of another major change of structure. A corps headquarters was to be activated in March 1982.
I Corps was formally activated on 1 October 1981, much earlier than expected. It became a primary contingency planner for U.S. interests in the Pacific region, with a rapidly expanding role in Army affairs. On 1 August 1983, the Corps expanded its operational control of active Army units outside Fort Lewis, to include the 7th Infantry Division (Light) at Fort Ord, California, and the 172nd Infantry Brigade (Light) in Alaska, which then became the 6th Infantry Division (Light).
Fort Lewis itself continued to grow and modernize. The 1st Special Forces Group was activated on 4 September 1984, and the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade on 1 June 1985, both on North Fort Lewis. On 18 January 1985, ground was broken for a new Madigan Army Medical Center, which began to receive its first patients in March 1992.
Three child care centers, new facilities for the 1st Special Forces
Group, a new commissary, and more hangar space on Gray Army Airfield were constructed. Occupation of the new facilities began in 1988.
In 1987, two new units were activated, the 66th Aviation Brigade and the 201st Military Intelligence Brigade.
The 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) was reduced by one brigade "slice" in the summer of 1988, and the civilian workforce was reduced by some 500 positions, both as economy measures. By 11 December 1991, inactivation of the 9th Division was complete.
During 1989-90, it became obvious that the "cold war" had been won. That, combined with national budgetary problems, dictated a careful restructuring of national priorities and of the defense establishment. As these actions evolved, it became evident that Fort Lewis was ideally located to act as a base for mobilization and power projections into the Pacific
region. Thus, while most of the Army was downsizing, Fort Lewis began to grow. Most of the changes described in the paragraphs that follow were driven by these considerations.
A residual of the 9th Division inactivation was that its 3rd Brigade became the 199th Motorized Infantry Brigade. This one-of-a-kind unit was a I Corps unit until its redesignation as the 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light), and its departure for Fort Polk, Louisiana, which occurred in 1993.