181st Infantry Brigade (United States)
The 181st Infantry Brigade is an infantry brigade of the United States Army based at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. As a First Army brigade, the unit serves primarily in a partnering and training role for Reserve Units. The brigade is subordinate to the First United States Army, headquartered at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois. It has ten subordinate battalions. The unit is responsible for training selected United States Army Reserve and Army National Guard units in the Central-Northern United States. The unit was formerly designated as 2nd Brigade, 63rd Infantry Division. The brigade was redesignated and  re-missioned several times: such as in 1999, when the 181st was merged with the 2nd Brigade, 85th Division and carried that name and lineage from October 1993 until December 2006. The 181st Infantry Brigade currently falls under the 1st Army's Division West, headquartered at Fort Hood, Texas. Organization. World War I. During World War I, infantry brigades were purely tactical formations. Administrative and logistical functions were conducted by the division headquarters. The brigade headquarters was composed of the commander (a brigadier general), his three aides, a brigade adjutant, and eighteen enlisted men who furnished mess, transportation, and communications  services. World War II. With the demise of the Square Division in favor of the Triangular division, the now surplus brigade headquarters were converted into either the divisional headquarters company or the division's reconnaissance troop. The 181st was selected to transform into the 91st Infantry Division's reconnaissance troop. 1963-1965. On 1 April 1963, the brigade was reactivated as a subordinate to the 63rd Infantry Division in Pasadena, California. The division and subordinate elements were inactivated on 31 December 1965 as part of the elimination of the Army Reserve divisions. 2006-2016. The 181st Infantry Brigade was reactivated  at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin in December 2006. The Brigade was constituted from the 12th Readiness Brigade and the 2nd Brigade, 85th Training Division. History. World War I. During World War I, the 181st Infantry Brigade was constituted 5 August 1917 in the National Army at Camp Lewis, Washington as a subordinate unit of the 91st Infantry Division. The Brigade was composed of 8,134 personnel organized in a Headquarters Detachment with 5 Officers and 18 Enlisted Soldiers, the 361st and 362nd Infantry Regiments each with 3,755 Officers and Enlisted Soldiers, and the 347th Machine Gun Battalion with 581 Officers and Enlisted  Soldiers. The 181st Infantry Brigade trained for 10 months at Camp Lewis prior to being deployed to France in August 1918 under the command of Brig. Gen. John McDonald. After the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and the liberation of France, the Brigade was sent to assist the British during the battle of Ypres-Lys until the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, which ended World War I. After four months of peacekeeping operations in liberated Belgium, the Brigade returned to the United States and arrived at the port of New York on 2 April 1919 on the U.S.S. Orizaba . Inter War Period. The Brigade was transferred on 2 April 1919 to Camp Merritt, New Jersey. It proceeded to Camp Kearny, California, where it was demobilized on 19 April 1919. The Brigade was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, still assigned to the 91st Division, and allotted to the Ninth Corps Area. The Brigade was redesignated Headquarters & Headquarters Company (HHC), 181st Brigade on 23 March 1925 and again redesignated HHC, 181st Infantry Brigade on 24 August 1936. The unit conducted summer training most years at Del Monte, California, from 1922–40. Subordinate regiments conducted training for the Citizens  Military Training Camp (CMTC) at the Presidio of San Francisco, the Presidio of Monterey and at Del Monte; often with assistance from the 30th Infantry Regiment. World War II. The 91st Reconnaissance Troop participated in the Rome-Arno (22 Jan 44 – 9 Sep 44), North Apennines (10 Sep 44 – 4 April 45), and Po Valley (5 Apr 45 – 8 May 45) campaigns. In July 1944, during the Arno Campaign of the Second World War, the 91st Reconnaissance Troop spearheaded Task Force Williamson under the command of Brigadier General E.S. Williamson, Assistant Division Commander for the 91st Division. The 2nd Platoon  of the 91st Reconnaissance Troop and the 1st Battalion, 363rd Infantry were the first to enter Leghorn (Livorno) on its way to liberating Pisa. Post-War. After VE day, the Brigade was deactivated and reconstituted several times through 1945 as a headquarters and headquarters company and a reconnaissance troop. It was reactivated in 1947 as a mechanized cavalry reconnaissance troop; redesignated in 1949 as the 91st Reconnaissance Company. Operations as a Training Brigade. The 181st Infantry Brigade was reactivated at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin in December 2006. The Brigade trains soldiers, sailors and airmen to support contingency operations in the Global  War on Terror. The 181st facilitates the Army Reserve's Combat Support Training Program (CSTP). The CSTP is composed of two exercises:the WAREXs (Warrior Exercise) focused on platoon level training, and the CSTXs (Combat Support Training Exercise) exercise that focus on Company level training in cooperation with the 86th Training Division and the 84th Training Command. Annually, the 181st provides its Battalions to serve as Observer/Controllers to the NTC and JRTC to evaluate Regular Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard Combat Sustainment Support Battalions. Most years, the 181st provides Observer/Controllers to the Mission Command Training Program  during their Warfighter exercises. The Brigade also provided Master Gunners and other subject matter experts to support Operation Cold Steel, a major initiative to improve the Army Reserve's gunnery training, from February through May 2018.