Society of the First Infantry Division

Big Red One TBT: Brandon Coyle shared this photo and caption - 1-63 CAB were occupying this FOB from 08-09 before finishing out the deployment at Victory Base Complex/ BIAP. I.E. Camp Stryker

17 June 1967: A 1st Infantry Division soldier tries to sleep during a heavy rain near Phuoc Vinh.

Big Red One, June 2013

1st Infantry Division Infantrymen, seeking out Viet Cong snipers firing at them, also Medic James E. Callahan trying to save lives in the midst of machine gun fire in Phuoc Vinh, north of Saigon in Vietnam's War Zone D, June 15, 1967.
Thirty-one men of the 1st Infantry Division were reported killed in the guerrilla ambush, with more than 100 wounded.
(AP Photo/Henri Huet)
Photo colorized by Colourising History

Happy 251st Birthday to the U.S. Army and 249 years ago, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag.

General Pershing disembarks in Boulogne on 13 June 1917. On June 13, 1917, a little more than two months after the United States entered World War I, Gen. John J. Pershing arrived in France with his staff to establish American forces in Europe. Although not the first Americans to arrive, Pershing’s presence served as an important symbol to the British and French. Thousands of Americans were already serving in Allied uniform, or as international medical and relief volunteers. American military units, an Army hospital, U.S. Navy destroyers, and advanced military missions were by now supporting Allied forces. But Pershing’s arrival signified that the United States had arrived in earnest as a partner of the Allied powers.

The 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry got into a ferocious fight at the Loc Ninh Rubber Plantation on 11 June 1966. As part of Operation EL PASO II, elements from 2/28 planned to sweep Village #10 in the rubber plantation northwest of Loc Ninh. Their two-platoon air assault was delayed for two hours by morning fog and the rest of A Company moved by foot to establish blocking positions. The battle was joined when a battalion from the 273d VC Regiment, dug in on a nearby hill, opened fire on A Company. A new LZ was selected to engage the enemy and additional troops brought in. C Company, maneuvering to join the battle, found more dug-in VC on Hill 177 nearby. Both hills were taken and the VC left 98 bodies on the field - but there were 34 American dead as well.

(Picture of the headquarters sign for the Battalion in 1968 courtesy Sgt. Larry McDevitt.)

The 1st Infantry Division, the oldest continuously serving division in the Regular Army, celebrates its birthday today. Duty First!

June 6, 1944: Troops of the 3rd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division assemble on a narrow strip of Omaha beach before moving inland near Collville-sur-Mer on D-Day. USS LCI(L)-83 is in the background, landing more men. Photographed by Taylor. For a closeup view of casualties in this location, see Photo # SC 189924. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.
ORIGINAL HISTORIC WARTIME CAPTION. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

June 5, 1944: 1st Infantry Division troops leave the port of Weymouth, Dorset in Southern England en route to Omaha Beach in Normandy.
Photo by Robert Capa, colorized by Jecinci