The 96th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. It was formed in 1918 and served in World War I and in the Pacific War during World War II. It was reformed after the war and was part of the United States Army Reserve until 1965.

In 1967 the number "96" was resurrected for a U.S. Army Reserve area administrative headquarters, the 96th Army Reserve Command. Technically it had no lineage connection to the 96th Infantry Division. With a number of redesignations, it continues in service in the 21st Century. Effective 17 September 2008, it became the 96th Sustainment Brigade, with its headquarters located at Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah.

World War I

On 5 September 1918, the War Department directed the organization of the 96th Division at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina. Plans called for the division to include a headquarters, headquarters troop, the 191st Infantry Brigade (381st and 382nd Infantry Regiments and 362nd Machine Gun Battalion), 192nd Infantry Brigade (383rd and 384th Infantry Regiments and 363rd Machine Gun Battalion), 361st Machine Gun Battalion, 171st Field Artillery Brigade (64th-66th Field Artillery Regiments and 22nd Trench Mortar Battery), 321st Engineers, 621st Field Signal Battalion, and 321st Train Headquarters and Military Police (Ammunition, Engineer, Sanitary, and Supply Trains).

The 171st Field Artillery Brigade (including the 321st Ammunition Train) was to be organized at Camp Kearny, California, while it was intended that the 191st Infantry Brigade would be organized in France from the 3rd and 4th Pioneer Infantry Regiments. Formation of the division began in October with the appointment of Major General Guy Carleton to command. By the end of October and the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the strength of the division was only around 3,100 officers and men and training had not progressed beyond the elementary phases, and it was ordered demobilized on 30 November 1918. The division was demobilized on 7 January 1919 at Camp Wadsworth.

Interwar period The 96th Division was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the Ninth Corps Area, and assigned to the XIX Corps. The division was further allotted to the states of Oregon and Washington as its home area. The division headquarters was organized on 7 October 1921 at the New Post Office Building in Portland, Oregon, and remained there until activated for World War II. To encourage esprit de corps, in September 1922 the division’s officers adopted the nickname “Columbia Division” after the Columbia River, which ran through the middle of the division’s home area. To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the division staff published a newsletter nicknamed "The Columbian." The newsletter informed the division’s members of such things as when and where the inactive training sessions were to be held, what the division’s summer training quotas were, where the camps were to be held, and which units would be assigned to conduct the Citizens Military Training Camps.

The designated mobilization and training station for the division was Camp Lewis (later redesignated Fort Lewis in 1931), Washington, the location where much of the 96th’s training activities occurred over the next 20 years. For the few summers when the division headquarters was called to duty for training as a unit, it usually trained with the staff of the 3rd Division at Camp Lewis. The subordinate infantry regiments of the division held their summer training primarily with the units of the 3rd Division's 5th Infantry Brigade at Fort Lewis or Vancouver Barracks, Washington. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, trained at various posts in the Ninth Corps Area with Regular Army units of the same branch. For example, the 321st Engineer Regiment usually trained with elements of the 6th Engineer Regiment at Fort Lewis or Fort Lawton, Washington; the 321st Medical Regiment trained with the 3rd Medical Regiment at Camp Lewis; and the 321st Observation Squadron trained with the 91st Observation Squadron at Crissy Field, California. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility to conduct the Citizens Military Training Camps training held at Camp Lewis each year.

On a number of occasions, the division participated in Ninth Corps Area and Fourth Army command post exercises (CPXs) in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. These training events gave division staff officers’ opportunities to practice the roles they would be expected to perform in the event the division was mobilized. Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the Ninth Corps Area, the 96th Division did not participate in the various Ninth Corps Area maneuvers and the Fourth Army maneuvers of 1937, 1940, and 1941 as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment. Instead, the officers and a few enlisted reservists were assigned to Regular and Guard units to fill vacant slots and bring the units up to full peace strength for the exercises. For the 1937 maneuver, for example, about 200 of the division’s officers were attached to the National Guard's 41st Division (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming) to allow that unit to function as an almost full-strength division. Additionally, some officers were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel.

The 321st Squadron was redesignated as the 321st Observation Squadron on 25 January 1923. Relieved on 21 February 1929 from assignment to the 96th Division.

World War II

The 96th Division was ordered into active service on 15 August 1942, eight months after the Attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The headquarters companies of the two infantry brigades were consolidated into the division's cavalry reconnaissance troop, and one infantry regiment was removed by inactivation. The 384th Infantry Regiment was relieved from the division and the field artillery regiments were reorganized into four field artillery battalions—the 361st, 362rd, and 921st (105mm howitzers), and 363rd (155mm howitzers). The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery, and its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split.

Ordered into active service: 15 August 1942, Camp Adair, Oregon. Overseas: 23 July 1944. Campaigns: Leyte, Ryukyus Days of Combat: 200 Entered Combat: 20 October 1944 (Leyte) Killed In Action: 1,563Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953) Total Casualties: 8,812 Presidential Unit Citation: 1. Awards: MH-5; DSC-12; DSM-1; SS-232; LM-4; SM-73; BSM-4,588; AM-84. Commanders: Maj. Gen. James L. Bradley commanded the division throughout the entirety of World War II. Assistant Division Commanders: Brig. Gen. Claudius M. Easley (August 1942 – June 1945, KIA); Brig. Gen. Dennis E. McCunniff (December 1945 – February 1946) Division Artillery Commander: Brig Gen. Paul V. Kane (July 1942 – April 1944); Brig Gen. Robert G. Gard (May 1944 – December 1945) Chief of Staff: Colonel Hammond M. Monroe (May 1942 – May 1944) Returned to U.S.: 2 February 1946.

Medal of Honor recipients Beauford T. Anderson, Technical sergeant – 381st Infantry Regiment (Battle of Okinawa) Clarence B. Craft, Private first class – 382nd Infantry Regiment (Battle of Okinawa) Ova A. Kelley, Private – 382nd Infantry Regiment, KIA (Battle of Leyte) Louis Lusardi, Medic – (Battle of Okinawa) Edward J. Moskala, Private first class – 383rd Infantry Regiment, KIA (Battle of Okinawa) Seymour W. Terry, Captain – 382nd Infantry Regiment, KIA (Battle of Okinawa)

Composition

Headquarters, 96th Infantry Division 381st Infantry Regiment 382nd Infantry Regiment 383rd Infantry Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 96th Infantry Division Artillery 361st Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 362nd Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 363rd Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm) 921st Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 321st Engineer Combat Battalion 321st Medical Battalion 96th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized) Headquarters, Special Troops, 96th Infantry Division Headquarters Company, 96th Infantry Division 796th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company 96th Quartermaster Company 96th Signal Company Military Police Platoon Band 96th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

World War II combat chronicle

Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The two infantry brigade headquarters were converted to provide personnel for other units, and the 380th Infantry Regiment was disbanded. The 192nd Infantry Brigade headquarters company was converted into the division's 96th Reconnaissance Troop, while the 191st Infantry Brigade headquarters formed the core of the division's headquarters company. The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery. Its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions; one battalion was taken from each of the two 75 mm gun regiments to form two 105 mm howitzer battalions, the brigade's ammunition train was reorganized as the third 105 mm howitzer battalion, and the 155 mm howitzer battalion was formed from the 155 mm howitzer regiment. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split.

After initial training at Camp Adnes near Corvallis starting in late 1942 where they completed basic training, the 96th Infantry Division went to Ft. Lewis in Washington, before their first combat exercise training in Central Oregon. After that first month in the central Oregon plateau, they settled in the winter of 1943 at Camp White in southern Oregon. The 96th Infantry Division then participated in a second Oregon Maneuver combat exercise in the fall of 1943.Kramer, George, "Camp White", The Oregon Encyclopedia, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, 23 October 2010.Brogan, Phil F., East of the Cascades (Third Edition), Binford & Mort, Portland, Oregon, 1965, pp. 272–275. Major General James L. Bradley commanded the 96th Infantry Division throughout its entire life in World War II. His assistant division commander, Brigadier General (later Major General) Claudius M. Easley, who would later be killed in action on Okinawa on 19 June 1945, personally supervised and emphasized the 96th Division's marksmanship training, leading to the 96th's nickname of "Deadeye Division".