63rd Infantry Division ( United States ) The 63rd Infantry Division ( " Blood and Fire " ) was an infantry division of the United States Army that fought in Europe during World War II . After the war it was inactivated , but later reactivated as a command in the United States Army Reserve . The 63d Regional Support Command was responsible for the base and administrative support of all United States Army Reserve units throughout the seven - state region of southwestern United States including California , Nevada , Arizona , New Mexico , Oklahoma , Texas and Arkansas . Although the 63d Regional Readiness Command located in Los Alamitos , CA was not authorized to carry the lineage of the 63rd Infantry Division , the creation of the new 63d Regional Support Command in Moffett Field , CA authorizes it to inherit the lineage and the bi - color red and blue background 63rd Infantry Division flag as an exception to policy . The unit was deactivated on 6 December 2009 and replaced by the 79th Sustainment Support Command , and was reactivated as a regional support command . World War II . The 63d Infantry Division was activated on 15 June 1943 , at Camp Blanding , Florida . Shortly thereafter , the division removed to Camp Van Dorn , Mississippi to prepare for deployment to Europe . On three occasions during the next seventeen months , the division trained up recruits only to have them cross - leveled to other divisions heading for theater . The first elements of the division , anxious to get in the fight , finally arrived in Europe in December 1944 and were joined by the rest of the division in January 1945 . The division consisted of the following units : " Source : World War II Order of Battle : An Encyclopedic Reference to U . S . Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division , 1939 - 1946 by Shelby Stanton . " Three regiments of the 63rd Division arrived in Marseille , France , 8 December 1944 , trained at Haguenau and , under the designation Task Force Harris , protected the east flank of the Seventh Army along the Rhine River . The task force fought defensively from 22 to 30 December 1944 . On 30 December 44 , while the 253d Inf Regt was attached to the 44th Inf Div and the 255th Inf Regt was attached to the 100th Inf Div , the 254th Inf Regt was moved to the Colmar area of France where it was attached to the 3d Inf Div which was at the time a part of the First French Army . The infantry regiments remained with their attachments until early February 1945 . The rest of the division arrived at Marseilles , 14 January 1945 , and moved to Willerwald on 2 February , where it was joined by the advance elements on 6 February . On 7 February , the 63rd conducted local raids and patrols , then pushed forward , crossing the Saar River on 17 February , and mopping up the enemy in Muhlen Woods . After bitter fighting at Güdingen early in March , the division smashed at the Siegfried Line on 15th at Saarbrücken , Germany , taking Ormesheim and finally breaching the line at Sankt Ingbert and Hassel on 20 March . Hard still fighting lay ahead , but the Siegfried Line was Germany ' s last attempt to defend its prewar boundaries along the western front . Before resting on 23 March , the 63rd took Spiesen - Elversberg , Neunkirchen and Erbach . From then until the end of the war , the 63rd Division carved a path of “ blood and fire ” from Sarreguemines through Germany . On 28 March , the division crossed the Rhine at Lampertheim , moved to Viernheim and captured Heidelberg on 30 March . Continuing the advance , the 63rd crossed the Neckar River near Mosbach and the Jagst River . Heavy resistance slowed the attack on Adelsheim , Möckmühl , and Bad Wimpfen . The division switched to the southeast , capturing Lampoldshausen and clearing the Hardthauser Woods on 7 April . A bridgehead was secured over the Kocher River near Weißbach on 8 April , and Schwäbisch Hall fell on 17 April . Advance elements crossed the Rems River and rushed to the Danube . The Danube was crossed on 25 April , and Leipheim fell before the division was withdrawn from the line on 28 April , and assigned security duty from the Rhine to Darmstadt and Würzburg on a line to Stuttgart and Speyer . The 63rd began leaving for home on 21 August 1945 , and was deactivated on 27 September 1945 . Army Reserve . The 63rd Infantry Division was reactivated in February 1952 as a unit reflagged from the 13th Armored Division , and assigned to the Army Reserve , with headquarters in Los Angeles , California . The division was again inactivated in December 1965 , and the colors were transferred to the 63rd Reinforcement Training Unit . On 1 January 1968 , the 63d Army Reserve Command ( ARCOM ) was activated and , as an exception to policy , allowed to wear the shoulder sleeve insignia and distinctive unit insignia of the 63d Infantry Division . The 63d ARCOM did not , however , perpetuate the lineage and honors of the 63rd Infantry Division , as Department of the Army policy does not authorize TDA units , such as ARCOMs , to inherit the lineage and honors of TO & E units , such as divisions . Based at Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center , the command encompassed Army Reserve units in Southern California , Arizona , and Nevada . From 1990 through 1991 , over 2 , 500 Army Reserve soldiers from the 63d ARCOM served on active duty in support of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm . Twenty - two of the command ' s units were mobilized , with fourteen of them deploying to the Persian Gulf . In April 1995 , the 63d ARCOM was redesignated as the 63d Regional Support Command ( later revised to Regional " Readiness " Command ) , and its geographic boundaries were realigned to coincide with those of Federal Emergency Management Agency Region IX . The 63d maintained command and control of 14 , 000 soldiers and 140 units in the states of California , Arizona and Nevada , and assumed additional responsibility to support the major functional reserve commands within its area . The 63d RRC supported both foreign and domestic active Army missions , including participation in NATO operations in Bosnia and Kosovo . Since 2001 , thousands of soldiers from the 63d RRC have served in Afghanistan and . Iraq . In September 2008 , the 63d and 90th Regional Readiness Commands combined into the 63d which was redesignated the 63d Regional Support Command again , with its new headquarters at Moffett Field , California . As a key component of the Army Reserve ' s transition to an operational force , the newly formed 63d RSC has foregone command and control of units in favor if a greatly expanded area of responsibility . The 63d RSC provides base support and administrative support to over 40 , 000 Army Reserve soldiers in the southwest United States .