4th Cavalry Regiment (United States)

4th Cavalry

4th Cavalry Regiment coat of arms
Active 1855- present
Country  United States
Branch  United States Army
Type Armored cavalry
Motto(s) "Prepared and Loyal"
Engagements American Civil War
Indian Wars
Philippine Insurrection
World War II
Vietnam War
War in Southwest Asia
Global War on Terrorism
Iraq Campaign
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Edwin V. Sumner (1855-58)
Joseph E. Johnston (1855-60)
Robert E. Lee (1861)
Ranald S. Mackenzie (1871-81)
H. R. McMaster (1999-2002; 1st Squadron)
Insignia
Distinctive unit insignia
U.S. Cavalry Regiments
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The 4th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment, whose lineage is traced back to the mid-19th century. It was one of the most effective units of the Army against Indians on the Texas frontier. Today the regiment exists as separate squadrons within the U.S. Army. The 1st Squadron of the 4th Cavalry's official nickname is "Quarterhorse", which alludes to its 1/4 Cav designation. The 3rd Squadron of the 4th Cavalry's official name is "Raiders." Today the "1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry", "2nd Squadron, 4th Cavalry", "4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry", and the "6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" are parts of the 1st Infantry Division, while the "3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry" serves as part of the 25th Infantry Division. On 23 September 2009, the "4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" officially stood up at Fort Riley, Kansas as part of the 1st "Devil" Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. On 28 March 2008, the "5th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" officially stood up at Fort Riley, Kansas as part of the 2nd "Dagger" Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. The 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry served as part of the recently inactivated 1st Infantry Division, 3rd "Duke" Brigade, at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Origin and early service

In 1855, the United States Congress recognized the need for mounted regiments in the U.S. Army in addition to the First and Second Regiments of Dragoons and the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen.[1] The 1st Cavalry Regiment—later re-designated as the 4th Cavalry Regiment—was organized under the act of 3 March 1855.[2] On 26 March 1855, the regiment was organized at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.[1] The regiment's first commander was Colonel Edwin V. Sumner, who served from 3 March 1855 to 16 March 1861.[2] In August 1855, the regiment was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.[1] Colonel Sumner had two missions. The first was to keep the peace between the pro-slavery and free state factions in Kansas; the second was to protect settlers from attacks by Cheyenne warriors.[1]

The 1st Cavalry Regiment:[3] along with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment was authorized in 1855 and formed at Jefferson Barracks, MO. All field grade officers (majors or above) and one half of the company grade officers (captains and lieutenants) were to come from existing army units. The other half of the company grade officers and most of the enlisted men came from civilian life. Each company sent out one lieutenant and one sergeant to city after city to recruit men to fill the ranks. Posters, displayed in each city promised good clothing, rations and medical attention. The pay rate was $12.00 a month for privates, $14.00 for corporals, $17.00 for Duty Sergeants, and $22.00 for First Sergeants.

The regiment had four field-grade officers, one full colonel in command, one lieutenant colonel as second in command and two majors. Each of the ten companies had a captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, four sergeants, four corporals and eighty-four privates. Also attached to each company was a one farrier and blacksmith and two buglers.

Each company had horses of a distinctive color. This served two purposes. In addition to the dramatic effect on parade, the distinctive color made it easy for members of the regiment to locate their company in the heat of battle. The assigned colors were Company A had sorrels, B, grays; C, sorrels; D, bays; E, roans; F, sorrels; G, blacks; H, bays; I, sorrels; and, K, bays. The buglers had white horses. The officers each had two horses. They could select the color of their choice. Officers were required to provide their uniforms, equipment and horses.

The new recruits after a physical exam, were trained in horsemanship and as cavalrymen at Fort Leavenworth and Jefferson Barracks.

In the fall of 1855 the regiment was ordered to participate in an expedition against the Sioux. As it turned out, the regiment were not directly involved in the major engagement with the Sioux.

In 1856 the regiment was engaged in maintaining the peace in the Kansas Territory between the pro-slavery group who fought to make the territory a slave state, and the free-state faction, who bitterly opposed them. This conflict had given rise to the term "Bleeding Kansas".

Its first colonel, Sumner, and lieuternant colonel, Joseph E. Johnston, were both future Civil War generals. During the summer of 1856, Cheyenne war parties attacked four wagon trains, killing twelve people and kidnapping two. The commander of the Department of the West recommended that the Cheyenne be punished for their attacks on emigrant trains. He recommended that any action be put off until spring of 1857.

Campaign against the Cheyenne of 1857[3]

In May 1857 preparation began for the expedition with the organizing of the 1st Cavalry under Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner at Fort Leavenworth. Sumner divided the regiment into two columns in order to circle the Cheyenne hunting grounds in central Kansas Territory. One column, under Major John Sedgwick, departed on May 18 with four companies, five Delaware scouts and forty wagons, heading west along the Arkansas River past Bent's Fort north up to the South Fork of the Platte River. There they were to meet Sumner's column, which had left Fort Leavenworth on May 20, with four cavalry companies, 300 cattle and 51 wagons. Sumner's column went north and then west up to Fort Kearny, where three companies of the 6th Infantry Regiment and two companies of the 2nd Dragoons, five Pawnee scouts and ten more wagons were added. After considerable difficulty in crossing the South Platte River, Sumner's column and Sedgwick's columns met at the South Platte as planned on July 4. The whole regiment then traveled east through central Kansas to their rendezvous with the Cheyenne on the Solomon river. The map in the inset shows the routes taken by both columns.[4]

Meanwhile, the Cheyenne, about three hundred strong, were midway between the two columns, probably around the Republican River, where they had spent the previous winter. The Cheyenne consisted of both Northern Cheyenne and Southern Cheyenne. They knew the U.S. Cavalry were searching for them, so they remained banded together longer than they normally did.

On July 29, 1857, the Regiment caught up with the Cheyenne on the bank of the Solomon River. As the two groups paused within about a mile of each other, the cavalry commander, Col. E.V. Sumner, gave the command "Gallop march." Both groups approached each other at full speed. Col. Sumner then commanded "Sling carbines! Draw Sabers! Charge." It was the first time sabres had been used in the West.[4] The astonished Indians, whose medicine, administered by holy men before the battle, protected them from carbines but not from sabers, became terrified when they saw the sabers. They pivoted and ran as fast as their horses would carry them away from the troopers. The chase lasted for about seven miles before the Indians, having faster horses, pulled ahead too far for the cavalry to follow. During the brief fighting that took place during the chase, two troopers were killed and nine, including Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart (the future Confederates' most famous cavalry general during the Civil War, were wounded. An estimated nine Indians were killed on the field and an unknown number were wounded. The cavalry wounded and a detachment of infantry were left behind in a makeshift fort while the rest of the 1st Cavalry followed the Indians as best they could.

This engagement was the climax of The Cheyenne Expedition, which began two and a half months earlier at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. After the battle the regiment left the wounded, including J.E.B. Stuart and one company of infantry, and followed the trail of the Cheyenne south towards the Arkansas river. They found and destroyed a large abandoned village that had recently been occupied but were not able to catch the rapidly dispersing Indians. The regiment received orders to split up and send four companies under Major Sedgewick to join Col. Albert Sidney Johnston at Fort Kearney to become part of the Utah Expedition, while the other two companies were to proceed to Fort Leavenworth under Col. Sumner. However, before reaching Fort Kearney Major Sedgewick received further orders to return to Fort Leavenworth to rejoin the rest of the regiment.

The regiment was Col. Robert E. Lee's last command in the U.S. Army before the American Civil War. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the 1st Cavalry Regiment was dissolved and reorganized. Many of its commissioned officers rose to prominence during the war, including Lee as well as George B. McClellan and J.E.B. Stuart.

Civil War

As early as 1854, the War Department had been wanting to redesignate all mounted regiments as cavalry and to renumber them in order of seniority. As the 1st Cavalry Regiment was the fourth oldest mounted regiment in terms of active service, it was redesignated as the 4th United States Cavalry Regiment on 3 August 1861.

Most of the regiment was assigned to the Western Theater and fought against Confederates in Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. In 1861–62, two companies served with distinction in Virginia in the Army of the Potomac before being reunited with the rest of the regiment in Tennessee. Those companies fought in the major battles of First Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, Fredericksburg and Antietam.

The bulk of the regiment fought gallantly and continuously in the western theater from Shiloh to Macon, participating in the fights at Chickamauga, Stones River, and Battle of Nashville.

Civil War service

With so many regiments being sent east for the war effort, the 1st U.S. Cavalry was initially kept on the frontier until militia-type units were raised to protect against Indian raids. On 22 June 1861, former 1st Cavalry officer George McClellan, now a major general, requested Company A and Company E to serve as his personal escort. These two companies saw action in the Bull Run, Peninsula, Antietam and Fredericksburg campaigns, not rejoining the regiment until 1864. The rest of the 1st Cavalry was committed to action in Mississippi and Missouri.

Since 1854 it had been advocated to redesignate all mounted regiments as cavalry and to renumber them in order of seniority. This was done on 3 August 1861. As the 1st Cavalry was the fourth oldest mounted regiment, it was redesignated as the 4th Cavalry Regiment.

During the early years of the Civil War, Union commanders scattered their cavalry regiments, conducting company, squadron (two company) and battalion (four company) operations. The 4th Cavalry was no exception, with its companies scattered from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Coast carrying out the traditional cavalry missions of reconnaissance, screening and raiding.

In the first phases of the war in the West, companies of 4th Cavalry saw action in various Missouri, Mississippi and Kentucky campaigns, as well as the seizure of Forts Henry and Donelson and the Battle of Shiloh. On 31 December 1862, a two-company squadron of the 4th Cavalry attacked and routed a Confederate cavalry brigade near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In 1863–64, companies of the 4th saw further action in Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi. On 30 June 1863, another squadron charged a six-gun battery of Confederate artillery near Shelbyville, Tennessee, capturing the entire battery and three hundred prisoners.

By the spring of 1864, the success of the large Confederate cavalry corps of J.E.B. Stuart had convinced the Union leadership to form their own Cavalry Corps in the East under General Philip Sheridan. The 4th Cavalry was ordered to reunite as a regiment and, on 14 December 1864, it joined in the attack on Nashville, Tennessee, as part of the Western Cavalry Corps commanded by General James Wilson. In the hard-fought battle, the 4th help turn the Confederate flank, sending them in retreat. As the Confederate forces attempted a delaying action at West Harpeth, Tennessee, an element of the 4th Cavalry led by Lt. Joseph Hedges charged and captured a Confederate artillery battery. For his bravery, Hedges received the Medal of Honor, the first one to be bestowed on a member of the 4th Cavalry.

In March 1865, General Wilson was ordered to take his cavalry on a drive through Alabama to capture the Confederate supply depot at Selma. Wilson had devoted considerable effort in preparing his cavalry for the mission, and it was a superbly trained and disciplined force that left Tennessee, led by the 4th Cavalry. As the column moved south into Alabama, it encountered Confederate cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest. With superior numbers and firepower, Wilson's force defeated the Confederates, allowing the Union troopers to arrive in Selma the next day. On 2 April 1865, the attack on Selma commenced, led by the 4th Cavalry in a mounted charge. A railroad cut and fence line soon halted the mounted attack. Dismounting, the regiment pressed the attack and stormed the town. Selma's rich store of munitions and supplies were destroyed, along with the foundries and arsenals.

Wilson next turned east to link up with General Sherman. His force took Montgomery, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia, before arriving in Macon, Georgia, where word came of the surrender of Lee's and Johnston's armies. The regiment remained in Macon as occupation troops. After participating in the Battle of Columbus—the last battle of the war—the regiment assisted in capturing fugitive Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Indian Wars

In August 1865, the 4th Cavalry was sent to Texas. At various times during the next thirteen years, units from its twelve companies occupied military posts between the Rio Grande and Jacksboro, and between San Antonio and San Angelo. {See Fifth Military District for reports of the 4th Cavalry in Texas between 1867-1869}. Before 1871, the operations of the regiment were limited to guarding the mail and settlements against Indians and to desultory attempts to overtake bands of Indian raiders. The regiment's commander during this period, Col. Lawrence Pike Graham, never had to lead a major campaign, and none of the regiment's fourteen skirmishes with Indians was of major significance.

However, in December 1870, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie was assigned command of the 4th Cavalry, with orders to put a stop to Comanche and Kiowa raids along the Texas frontier. On 25 February 1871, Mackenzie took command of the 4th Cavalry at Fort Concho. A month later, he moved the headquarters of the regiment to Fort Richardson, near Jacksboro; some companies of the 4th remained at Fort Griffin and Fort Concho. In May, while General William T. Sherman, then the commanding general of the army, was at Fort Richardson, the Kiowas brutally mutilated some teamsters from a wagon train on nearby Salt Creek Prairie (see Warren Wagon Train Raid). A few days later at Fort Sill, Sherman had three leaders of the raid, Satanta (White Bear), Satank (Sitting Bear), and Addo-etta (Big Tree), arrested and had Mackenzie return them to Jacksboro to stand trial for murder. On the way, an enlisted trooper killed Satank when he tried to escape; White Bear and Big Tree were later sentenced to life imprisonment.

In August 1871, Mackenzie led an expedition into Indian Territory against the Comanches and Kiowas who had left the agency, but he was later ordered to return to Texas. He then led eight companies of the 4th Cavalry and two companies of the 11th U.S Infantry, about 600 men, in search of Quahadi Comanches, who had refused to go onto the reservation and were plundering the Texas frontier. On 10 October, he skirmished with a group of them in Blanco Canyon, near the site of present Crosbyton, but the entire band escaped across the plains.

The following summer, Mackenzie, with six companies of the 4th Cavalry, renewed his search for the Quahadis. After establishing his supply camp on the Freshwater Fork of the Brazos River (now the White River) southeast of present Crosbyton, Mackenzie with five companies of cavalry followed a cattle trail across the unexplored High Plains into the New Mexico Territory and returned by another well-watered Comanchero road from Fort Bascom, near the site of present Tucumcari, New Mexico, to the site of present Canyon. At the head of 222 cavalrymen on 29 September, he surprised and destroyed Chief Mow-way's village of Quahadi and Kotsoteka Comanches on the North Fork of the Red River about six miles (10 km) east of the site of present-day Lefors, Texas. An estimated 52 Indians were killed and 124 captured, with a loss of 3 cavalrymen killed and 3 wounded. For almost a year, both the Kiowas and Comanches remained at peace.

In March 1873, Mackenzie and five companies (A, B, C, E, and K) of the 4th Cavalry were transferred to Fort Clark with orders to put an end to the Mexican-based Kickapoo and Apache depredations in Texas, which had cost an alleged $48 million. On 18 May 1873, Mackenzie, with five companies of the 4th Cavalry, crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico; they then surprised and burned three villages of the raiders near Remolino, Coahuila; the cavalrymen killed nineteen Indians and captured forty-one, with a loss of one trooper killed and two wounded. The soldiers recrossed the Rio Grande into Texas at daybreak the next morning, with some of the men having ridden an estimated 160 miles (260 km) in 49 hours. The raid and an effective system of border patrols brought temporary peace to the area. The John Wayne movie Rio Grande (part of John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy) is loosely based on this incident.

When the Southern Plains Indians opened the Red River War in June 1874, the Grant administration discarded its Quaker peace policy and authorized the military to take control of the reservations and subdue all hostile Indians. General Philip H. Sheridan, commander of the Division of the Missouri, ordered five military expeditions to converge on their hideouts along the upper Red River country. In the ensuing campaign, the 4th Cavalry was the most successful. On 26–27 September, it staved off a Comanche attack at the head of Tule Canyon, and, on the morning of 28 September, descended by a narrow trail to the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon. There it completely destroyed five Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne villages, including large quantities of provisions, and captured 1,424 horses and mules, of which 1,048 were slaughtered at the head of Tule Canyon. Afterward, Mackenzie, with detachments of the regiment, made two other expeditions onto the High Plains. On 3 November, near the site of Tahoka, in their last fight with the Comanches, the cavalrymen killed two and captured nineteen Indians. In the spring of 1875, Mackenzie and elements of the 4th Cavalry from various posts in Texas were sent to Fort Sill to take control of the Southern Plains Indians.

Meanwhile, the Indians in Mexico had renewed their marauding in Texas. In 1878 General Sherman, at the insistence of the Texans, transferred Mackenzie and six companies of the 4th Cavalry to Fort Clark. This time Mackenzie led a larger and more extensive expedition into Mexico, restored a system of patrols, and reestablished peace in the devastated region of South Texas.

Outside Texas, Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry administered and controlled the Kiowa-Comanche and the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservations for several years, and, after the defeat of George Armstrong Custer's command at the Battle of Little Bighorn in June 1876, forced Red Cloud and his band of Sioux and the Northern Cheyennes to surrender. In the autumn of 1879, Mackenzie with six companies of the 4th Cavalry subdued the hostile Utes in Southern Colorado without firing a shot and in August 1880 forced them to move to a reservation in Utah Territory.

Immediately thereafter, the 4th Cavalry was transferred to Arizona Territory, where Mackenzie was to assume full command of all military forces in the department and subdue the hostile Apaches. Within less than a month, the Apaches had surrendered or fled to Mexico, and on 30 October, Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry were transferred to the new District of New Mexico. By 1 November 1882, when W. B. Royall replaced Mackenzie as colonel, the 4th Cavalry had forced the White Mountain Apaches, Jicarilla Apaches, Navajos, and Mescaleros to remain peacefully on their respective reservations.

From 1884 to 1886 the 4th Cavalry again operated against the Apaches in Arizona and helped capture Geronimo. Particularly noteworthy was B troop's pursuit of Geronimo into Northern Mexico led by Capt. Lawton and Surgeon Leonard Wood. Thus ended the regiment's participation in the Indian Wars.

In 1890 the regimental headquarters was moved to Fort Walla Walla, Washington. The regiment split, with half going to the Department of the Columbia, and half to the Department of California at the Presidio of San Francisco. The California contingent provided the first superintendent and park guardians for the General Grant, Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks in 1891.

Early 20th century

4th U.S. Cavalry at Fort Meade, South Dakota, 17 July 1909

The 4th Cavalry served on the Mexican border in Texas from 1911 to 1913. For the next six years, the regiment served at Schofield Barracks in the Territory of Hawaii and did not participate in World War I.

World War II

By World War II, the regiment had exchanged its horses for armored vehicles/tanks and was redesignated the 4th Cavalry Group. It put ashore the first Allied soldiers of the D-Day invasion on the Îles Saint-Marcouf islands off the coast of France.[5] With the islands unoccupied, but heavily booby trapped, the cavalrymen came ashore at Utah Beach. The regiment added to its laurels in fierce fighting among the hedgerows of Normandy and in the Hurtgen Forest during the Battle of the Bulge.

Vietnam War

M551 Sheridan and crew members of the 3d Squadron, 4th Cavalry, Vietnam, 1969.

In 1965, the First Squadron of the 4th Cavalry ("1st of the 4th Cavalry" or 1-4 Cavalry - popularly called "Quarterhorse") deployed to the Republic of Vietnam with the First Infantry Division, spending eight years fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia. The Squadron's firepower, mobility, and shock effect led to their use as "Fire Brigades" at the scenes of the hottest action. They were followed by the Third Squadron, Fourth Cavalry (which was part of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Division and commonly called "Three-Quarter Horse" or "Mackenzie's Raiders"). Both divisions were posted near Saigon and participated in some of the largest operations of the Vietnam War.

Gulf War

In 1990, the First Squadron deployed to Saudi Arabia, as part of Operation Desert Shield. This led to the Squadron's spearhead of the division assault into Iraq during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. First Squadron was assigned to 1-41 Infantry to breach Iraq's initial defensive network on the Saudi Arabian-Iraqi border. This joint effort would be known as Task Force Iron.[6]

On 4 May 1991, the 1-4 Cavalry received the Valorous Unit Award for service in the Gulf. Excerpt from orders: "The 1st squadron, 4th cavalry led the 1st infantry divisions attack across Iraq and Kuwait cutting the Iraqi army's escape route, the Kuwait city/Basra highway. The squadron continued its rapid advance, culminating with the capture of the Safwan airfield. During this drive the squadron destroyed 65 tanks, 66 armored personnel carriers, 66 trucks, 91 bunkers, and captured 3,000 enemy soldiers."[7]

2nd Squadron served with the 24th Infantry Division' aviation brigade.[8]

Balkans conflict

In 1995, 1-4 Cavalry was the second cavalry unit deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina, (the first being 1-1 cav from Buedingen, Germany) supporting the peacekeeping mission set forth by the Dayton Peace Accord, for a period of eleven months at Camp Molly, Camp Alicia called the "Dog Pound" near Kalesija and Eagle Camp at Tuzla Main. 1999 and 2000 saw the air cav elements of the Quarterhorse returning to the Balkans, this time Kosovo, as members of Operation Joint Guardian II.

"K4B" and "Operation Iraqi Freedom"

The Schweinfurt-based "Quarterhorse" was tasked to be part of the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade task force due to rotate into Kosovo, in late 2002. The squadron was to lead the U.S. contingent's aviation task force of OH-58D Kiowa and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, as well as provide force protection personnel for the U.S. headquarters at Camp Bondsteel. In late-October 2002, soldiers with 1st Infantry Division's, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment were abruptly told they would not deploy to Kosovo for peacekeeping duties, after working for several months to ready equipment they had received for their peacekeeping mission. 1st Infantry Division officials in Kosovo said they could not comment on the change, while a spokesman for V Corps, the division's Corps headquarters, referred all questions to EUCOM, the overall combatant command for V Corps. An EUCOM spokesman said he could not comment on the change, referring all questions back to V Corps. The first trainloads of the squadron's equipment bound for the Balkans from Germany was called back after departing Schweinfurt, en route to the Balkans.[9]

On 6 November 2002, the 1st Infantry Division published a warning order establishing ARFOR-T (Army Forces Turkey). This mission was enormous, encompassing the subordinate units of 2 heavy mechanized divisions, 4th ID and 1st ID. Normally these missions are assigned to corps headquarters. The following months involved extensive planning, command post exercises, and a joint warfighter with 1st ID key personnel traveling to Ft. Hood, TX, to conduct planning with the 4th ID staff. During this time the 1st Squadron's commander, Lt. Col. James H. Chevallier, designated about 40 personnel to comprise an ADVON, and they deployed to Turkey in early February. Their mission was to conduct a detailed route reconnaissance from the seaport of debarkation (SPOD) at İskenderun, on the Mediterranean Sea coast, in south-central Turkey, to the border crossing near the tactical assembly areas located near the towns of Silopi, Dicle, and Cizre, near the Turkish-Iraqi border. The route reconnaissance conducted by less than 30 officers and non-commissioned officers is believed to the longest route recon conducted in modern times; the men assigned the task cataloged every bridge, route constriction and obstruction, hill grade, and curve radius for nearly 500 miles (800 km). The goal of ARFOR-T was to open a second front, to crush Iraqi armed resistance from the North. The Quarterhorse, mounted on the hastily drawn, and refurbished, HMMWVs they had prepared initially for their Kosovo rotation, would conduct a screen along one of the 4th IDs flanks as it charged south out of Turkey. While the Quarterhorse was conducting the route reconnaissance, the Turkish government debated at length whether they should to allow Coalition forces to invade from their territory, finally signaling in early March 2003 that the invasion would not be permitted from their soil. By early April, all of the Quarterhorse troopers returned to Schweinfurt, unsure what the future held, as the Iraqi regime was toppled by forces assaulting north from Kuwait. The main body of the squadron never deployed out of Germany, despite being on standby and prepared to move for nearly two weeks in early March.

While the invasion from the north that never materialized, the Quarterhorse participated in an accidental, yet convincing and important, deception that caused Saddam Hussein to order 13 armored divisions to the north to meet the invasion force. Because of this, the enemy force strength, or Order of Battle, was significantly reduced in the South, enabling the rapid assault from Kuwait in the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

1-4 Cav deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom II (OIF II) from January 2004 to March 2005. The squadron was deployed to two Base camps; Fob McKenzie near Ad-Duluiya and FOB Wilson just outside Ad-Dawr south of Tikirt in Salah-ad-Din Province. The squadron relieved elements of two battalions from the 4th Infantry Division. In September 2004 the squadron led the way for 1ID's retaking of the city of Samara from insurgent control and passed control of the city back to 2nd BDE, 1 ID. In January 2005 the squadron oversaw the conduct of the first Iraqi parliamentary elections after the 2003 invasion within their sector and passed over control of their sector to elements of the 3rd Infantry division before redeploying to Schweinfurt, Germany in February and March 2005.

Current status

Honors

Campaign participation credit

  1. Comanches;
  2. Solomon River, Kansas; July 1857
  3. Little Big Horn;
  4. Red River;
  5. Ramonlina;
  6. Pale Duro Canyon;
  7. Geronimo's Apaches Expedition; 1886
  1. First Bull Run;
  2. Peninsula Campaign;
  3. Antietam;
  4. Fredericksburg;
  5. Chickamauga;
  6. Murfreesboro;
  7. Nashville;
  8. Columbus, Georgia;
  9. Capture of Jefferson Davis;
  1. D-Day - hedgerows of Normandy; 1944
  2. Huertgen Forest, Battle of the Bulge; 1944
  1. Defense;
  2. Counteroffensive;
  3. Counteroffensive, Phase II;
  4. Counteroffensive, Phase III;
  5. Tet Counteroffensive;
  6. Counteroffensive, Phase IV;
  7. Counteroffensive, Phase V;
  8. Counteroffensive, Phase VI;
  9. Tet 69/Counteroffensive;
  10. Summer-Fall 1969;
  11. Winter-Spring 1970;
  12. Sanctuary Counteroffensive;
  13. Counteroffensive, Phase VII;
  14. Consolidation I;
  15. Consolidation II;
  16. Cease-Fire
  1. Defense of Saudi Arabia;
  2. Liberation and Defense of Kuwait;
  3. Cease-Fire
  1. Transition of Iraq
  2. National Resolution
  3. Iraqi Surge
  1. Consolidation II

Decorations

The Below Decorations have been awarded to the regiment as a whole:

  1. Presidential Unit Citation (Army), Streamer embroidered BOGHEIM GERMANY
  2. Presidential Unit Citation (US) (Army) for BINH THUAN PROVINCE
  3. French Croix de Guerre with Silver-Gilt Star, World War II, Streamer embroidered NORMANDY, 4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron [less "B" Troop]
  4. Valorous Unit Award for QUANG TIN PROVINCE
  5. Valorous Unit Award for FISH HOOK
  6. Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for SOUTHWEST ASIA
  7. Valorous Unit Award for Desert Storm - 1st Squadron
  8. Valorous Unit Award for Operation Iraqi Freedom, 1 Oct - 1 Nov 2004 - 1st Squadron[10]
  9. Valorous Unit Award For Operation Iraqi Freedom, 12 Mar - 30 Sep 2004 - 1st Squadron[11]
  10. Valorous Unit Award For Operation Iraqi Freedom, 14 Mar 2007 – 3 Apr 200 - 1st Squadron[12]
  11. Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for 30 Aug 2009 to 21 Jul 2010 - 1st Squadron[13]
  12. Superior Unit Award for Operation Joint Endeavour - 1st Squadron

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 "History of the Fourth Cavalry". quarterhorsecav.org. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 Heitman, Francis B. (1903). Historical register and dictionary of the United States Army : from its organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903. 1 (1 ed.). p. 70. Retrieved 17 December 2015. This is the unofficial work of a private compiler, purchased and published by direction of Congress
  3. 1 2 Chalfant, William Y., Cheyenne and Horse Soldiers:The 1857 Expedition and the Battle of Solomon's Fork by William Y. Chalfant. Copyright @1989 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
  4. 1 2 Wild West Magazine, Feb, 2002
  5. ↑ pp. 173-175 Balkoski, Joseph Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations on D-Day, 6 June 1944 Stackpole Books, 2006
  6. ↑ Bourque and Burdan p.95
  7. ↑ VUA Citation
  8. ↑ Thomas D. Dinackus, Order of Battle: Allied Ground Forces of Operation Desert Storm
  9. ↑ "Officials silent on Quarter Cav deployment" URL accessed 1 February 2007
  10. ↑ http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/HRC/2007/304-03_20071031_HRCMD.pdf
  11. ↑ http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/HRC/2008/232-014_20080819_HRCMD.pdf
  12. ↑ http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/HRC/2010/202-10_20100721_HRCMD.pdf
  13. ↑ http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/HRC/2011/171-16_20110620_HRCMD.pdf

References

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