Fort Dix
Fort Dix, the common name for the Army Support Activity located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is a United States Army post. It is located 16.1 miles south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix is under the jurisdiction of the Air Force Air Mobility Command; as of the 2010 United States Census, Fort Dix census-designated place had a total population of 7,716, of which 5,951 were in New Hanover Township, 1,765 were in Pemberton Township and none were in Springfield Township. Fort Dix, established in 1917, was designated as part of an adjoining U. S. Air Force and Navy facility to become part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst on 1 October 2009. However, it remains known as "Fort Dix", "ASA Dix", or "Dix" as of 2015. In 2015, Colonel Shelley Balderson became Fort Dix' first female commander in the base's 100-year history. Fort Dix was established on 16 July 1917 as Camp Dix, named in honor of Major General John Adams Dix, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the American Civil War, a former United States Senator, Secretary of the Treasury and Governor of New York.
Dix has a history of mobilizing and demobilizing Soldiers from as early as World War I through April 2015 when Forts Bliss and Hood in Texas assumed full responsibility for that mission. In 1978, the first female recruits entered basic training at Fort Dix. In 1991, Dix trained Kuwaiti civilians in basic military skills so they could take part in their country's liberation. Dix ended its active Army training mission in 1991 due to Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations, which ended its command by a two-star general. Presently, it serves as a joint training site for all components and all services of the U. S. military and is commanded by an Army Colonel. In 2009 Fort Dix, the adjacent Air Force and Naval facilities were consolidated into a single secure facility, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst; the supporting component is the United States Air Force, base operations are executed by the 87th Air Base Wing. The 87 ABW provides installation management to all of JBMDL while both the Navy and Army retain command and control of their mission, personnel and component-specific services.
Neither the Navy nor the Army bases are subordinate to the Joint Base. The commanders of both Fort Dix and Lakehurst serve as a Deputy Joint Base Commanders. Marine Aircraft Group 49 99th Regional Support Command 1st Brigade, Atlantic Training Division, 84th Training Command USCG Atlantic Strike Team United States Air Force Expeditionary Center Military Entrance Processing Station NCO Academy Navy Operational Support Center 174th Infantry Brigade Fleet Logistics Squadron See footnoteConstruction began in June 1917. Camp Dix, as it was known at the time, was a training and staging ground for units during World War I. Though the camp was an embarkation camp for the New York Port of Embarkation it did not fall under the direct control of that command with the War Department retaining direct jurisdiction; the camp became a demobilization center after the war. Between the World Wars, Camp Dix was a reception and discharge center for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Camp Dix became Fort Dix on March 8, 1939, the installation became a permanent Army post.
During and after World War II the fort served the same purpose as in the first World War. It served as a staging ground during the war and a demobilization center after the war. On July 15, 1947, Fort Dix became the home of the 9th Infantry Division. In 1954, the 9th moved out and the 69th Infantry Division made the fort home until it was deactivated on March 16, 1956. During the Vietnam War rapid expansion took place. A mock Vietnam village was constructed and soldiers received Vietnam-specific training before being deployed. Since Vietnam, Fort Dix has sent soldiers to Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Bosnia and Iraq; the Atlantic Strike Team of the U. S. Coast Guard is based at Fort Dix; as part of the Department of Homeland Security, the AST is responsible for responding to oil pollution and hazardous materials release incidents to protect public health and the environment. Fort Dix is home to Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution, the largest single federal prison in America, it is a low security installation for male inmates located within the military installation.
As of November 19, 2009, it housed 4,310 inmates, a minimum-security satellite camp housed an additional 426. The coinage macks. Knowing that Fort Dix was on a base closure list the U. S. Air Force attempted to save the U. S. Army post during 1987; the USAF moved the Security Police Air Base Ground Defence school from Camp Bullis Texas to Dix in the fall of 1987. It was realized that it was not cost effective to put 50-100 S. P. trainees on a commercial flight from San Antonio, Texas to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania every couple of weeks, so the school was moved back to Camp Bullis Texas. Fort Dix was an early casualty of the first Base Realignment and Closure process in the early 1990s, losing the basic-training mission that had introduced new recruits to military life since 1917, but Fort Dix advocates attracted Army Reserve interest in keeping the 31,000-acre post as a training reservation. With the reserves, millions for improvements, Fort Dix has grown again to employ 3,00
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Đồng Tháp Mười
Đồng Tháp Mười is an inland wetland in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Most of the wetlands are within Đồng Tháp Province. Đồng Tháp Mười is a "back swamp" forming a large inundated depression of acidic soil. Until the 1970s, only primitive floating rice could be grown in the area, it is similar to a large swampy floodplain stretching along the Bassac River from Châu Đốc to the foot of the Takeo Plateau. It was around 1,000,000 hectares in the 18th Century, is now half that size due to drainage. Within Đồng Tháp Mười the Tràm Chim National Park has been protected for the conservation of wetland ecosystems. Pre-Angkor remains along the Vàm Cỏ indicate that the Vàm Cỏ connected with the main Mekong riverways at Dong Thap Muoi, would have formed the main route from Cambodia to the South China Sea. However, when the river silted up the Khmers abandoned the area.Đồng Tháp Mười had served as a base for rebels and bandits throughout Vietnam's recent history. During the First Indochina War, the swamp served as a base for the Viet Minh, though the French anticipated and prevented this on at least one occasion.
The area was used as a base by Ba Cụt. During the Vietnam War the Plain covered an area of 2500 square miles across Kien Tuong, Kien Phong, Hậu Nghĩa, Long An and Định Tường Provinces and again served as a base for Vietcong forces. From 1–8 January 1966 U. S. Australian and Army of the Republic of Vietnam forces conducted Operation Marauder/Operation An Dan 564 in the area. Láng Sen Wetland Reserve
Croix de Guerre
The Croix de Guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins; the decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, in other conflicts. The Croix de Guerre was commonly bestowed on foreign military forces allied to France; the Croix de Guerre may either be awarded as an individual or unit award to those soldiers who distinguish themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with the enemy. The medal is awarded to those who have been "mentioned in dispatches", meaning a heroic deed or deeds were performed meriting a citation from an individual's headquarters unit; the unit award of the Croix de Guerre with palm was issued to military units whose members performed heroic deeds in combat and were subsequently recognized by headquarters. The Croix de Guerre medal varies depending on which country is bestowing the award and for what conflict. Separate French medals exist for the Second World War.
For the unit decoration of the Croix de Guerre, a fourragère is awarded. As the Croix de Guerre is issued as several medals, as a unit decoration, situations arose where an individual was awarded the decoration several times, for different actions, from different sources. Regulations permitted the wearing of multiple Croix de Guerre, meaning that such medals were differentiated in service records by specifying French Croix de Guerre, French Croix de Guerre, etc. There are three distinct Croix de Guerre medals in the French system of honours: Furthermore, the French collaborationist government created two croix during World War II; these croix are now illegal under French law and wearing them is outlawed: The Croix was created by a law of April 2, 1915, proposed by French deputy Émile Briant. The Croix reinstated an older system of mentions in dispatches, which were only administrative honours with no medal; the sculptor Paul-André Bartholomé created the medal, a bronze cross with swords, showing the effigy of the republic.
The French Croix represents a mention in dispatches awarded by a commanding officer, at least a regimental commander. Depending on the officer who issued the mention, the ribbon of the Croix is marked with extra pins. Mentioned in Despatches: a bronze star for those, mentioned at the regiment or brigade level. A silver star, for those, mentioned at the division level. A silver-gilt star for those, mentioned at the corps level. A bronze palm for those, mentioned at the army level. A silver palm stands for five bronze ones. A silver-gilt palm for those, mentioned at the Free French Forces level; the French Croix de guerre des TOE was created in 1921 for wars fought in theatres of operation outside France. It was awarded during the Indochina War, Korean War, other wars up to the Kosovo War in 1999; when World War II broke out in 1939, a new Croix de Guerre was created by Édouard Daladier. It was abolished by Vichy Government in 1941. In 1943 General Giraud in Algiers created another Croix de Guerre. Both Vichy and Giraud Croix were abolished by General de Gaulle in 1944, who reinstated the 1939 Croix.
The Croix de Guerre takes precedence between the Ordre national du Mérite and the Croix de la Valeur Militaire, the World War I Croix being senior to the World War II one, itself senior to TOE Croix. The Croix can be awarded to military units, as a manifestation of a collective Mention in Despatches, it is displayed on the unit's flag. A unit a regiment or a battalion, is always mentioned at the army level; the Croix is a Croix de Guerre with palm. Other communities, such as cities or companies can be awarded the Croix; when a unit is mentioned twice, it is awarded the fourragère of the Croix de Guerre. This fourragère is worn by all men in the unit, but it can be worn on a personal basis: those permanently assigned to a unit, at the time of the mentions, were entitled to wear the fourragère for the remainder of service in the military. Temporary personnel, or those who had joined a unit after the actions, mentioned, were authorized to wear the award while a member of the unit but would surrender the decoration upon transfer.
This temporary wearing of the fourragère only applied to the French version of the Croix de Guerre. The 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment of the British Army along with 5bty RA was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with palm for its gallant defence of Bois des Buttes on 27 May 1918, the first day of the Third Battle of the Aisne In the United States military, the Croix de Guerre was accepted as a foreign decoration, it remains one of the more difficult foreign awards to verify entitlement. The Croix de Guerre unit and individual award were presented with original orders only and entered into a permanent service record; the 1973 National Archives Fire destroyed most of the World War II personnel records which are needed to verify a veteran's entitlement to the Croix de Guerre award. However, foreign unit award entitlements can be checked and verified through official unit history records. Veterans must provide proof of service in the unit cited at the time of action in order to be entitled to the award.
Individual foreign awards can be checked through foreign government military records. Regarding the United States in WWI, on April 10, 12, 13, 1918, the lines being held by the troops of the 104th Infantry Regiment, of the 26th "Yankee" Division, in Bois Brûlé, near Apremont in the Ardennes, were bombarded and attacked by the German
47th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The 47th Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Army. Constituted in 1917 at Camp Syracuse, New York, the regiment fought in The Great War, was inactivated in 1921. Reactivated in 1940, the regiment fought during World War II in North Africa and Western Europe was inactivated in 1946. During the Cold War, the regiment saw multiple activations and inactivations, with service both in the Regular Army and the Army Reserve, it was reactivated as a training regiment, as of 1999, it has been assigned to Fort Benning. The 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment is stationed at Fort Benning; the Battalion falls under the 194th Armored Brigade, MCoE TRADOC. On 8 April 2013 an inactivation ceremony was held for the 3d Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, resulting in a reduction of 44 soldier and 27 civilian positions. On 4 March 2019 the regiment was re-activated in the 198th Infantry Brigade for infantry one station unit training; the regiment was formed from cadre from the 9th Infantry Regiment.
Assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, it fought in Europe during The Great War. In early August 1918, the regiment fought near Bazoches-sur-Vesles during the Second Battle of the Marne. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the regiment was commanded by Major James Stevens, it ended the war near Fays and served in the Army of Occupation near Coblenz until July 1919. Just prior to World War II, the regiment was garrisoned at Fort Bragg, was commanded by Colonel Patch. During World War II, the regiment was assigned to the 9th Infantry Division; the regiment was took part in Operation Blackstone in North Africa, where it fought against Vichy French forces during an amphibious landing. At the time of the regiment was commanded by Colonel Randle. Following its actions during Operation Torch, of which Blackstone was a part of, the regiment took part in divisional duties of monitor Spanish Morocco, which lasted into early 1943. Still in North Africa, along with the rest of the 9th Division, the regiment fought in the Battle of El Guettar, which resulted in a significant number of casualties.
Following El Guettar, the regiment moved north, fought in the Battle of Sedjenane, soldiers of the regiment's 2nd Battalion, were the first Allied soldiers in Bizerte. After Colonel Patch was promoted and parted ways with the regiment, Colonel Smythe was the regiment's commander. Along with the rest of the 9th Infantry Division, the regiment was sent to Sicily, in 1943. Remaining in Sicily after the Axis forces retreated, the regiment got orders to move in November 1943, making its way to England; the division was garrisoned around Winchester. The regiment was garrisoned around Alresford. On 10 June, 4 days after D-Day, the 9th Infantry Division landed onto Utah Beach, assigned to VII Corps it was to assigned to be part of the liberation of the Cotentin Peninsula, being the division that sealed off the peninsula from receiving additional German reinforcements. Medical supplies for the regiment were lost from its movement from England onto Normandy, but were replaced, to include use of captured German vehicles for by the regiment's medical detachment.
With the entire regiment having landed by 14 June, the regiment began its combat in France on the 15th, fighting alongside regiments of the 82nd Airborne Division, attacking along a path, near, or included, Hautteville-Bocage, Ste. Colombe. Relieved by the 357th Infantry Regiment along the English Channel, facing Jersey, the regiment moved to Saint-Jacques-de-Néhou where it began its push northward to Vasteville, via Bricquebec. On 22 June, the attack on Cherbourg began, with the regiment errantly being attacked by aircraft of the IX Bomber Command, the 39th Infantry Regiment following behind its advancement; the regiment continued to fight in the western portion of Cherbourg, by the 26th it captured German General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben and Admiral Walter Hennecke, the city fell to the Allies by the next day. By 10 J
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
25th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The Twenty-fifth United States Infantry Regiment was one of the racially segregated units of the United States Army known as Buffalo Soldiers. The 25th served from 1866 to 1957, seeing action in the American Indian Wars, Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War and World War II. There was a 25th Infantry Regiment, raised in 1812, that served on the Lake Champlain front and the Niagara Frontier in the War of 1812. In 1815, during a postwar reduction in force, it was consolidated with four other regiments to form the 6th Infantry Regiment. Beginning in January 1864, the 25th United States Colored Infantry was recruited and trained at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; this regiment mustered out of service on December 6, 1865. On 28 July 1866 the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, raised in 1861 for service in the American Civil War, was separated and designated the 25th Infantry Regiment. In 1869, it was consolidated back into the 18th. After the Civil War, the regular army was expanded to 45 infantry regiments from its wartime strength of 19.
The act of Congress that authorized this included the creation of four regiments of "Colored Troops", racially segregated units with white officers and African-American enlisted men. The army had raised a number of volunteer United States Colored Troops regiments during the war; the new regiments were the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Infantry Regiments, they set about recruiting from USCT veterans. By an act of 3 March 1869, Congress reduced the 45 regiments to 25, the four colored regiments to two; the 39th and 40th Regiments were renumbered as the 25th Infantry Regiment. In April the 25th established its first headquarters at Jackson Barracks, under command of Colonel Joseph A. Mower. In May 1870 the regiment was ordered to Texas. After a short period there, its companies were distributed across a number of small west Texas posts, including Forts Bliss, Clark and Stockton; the 25th was posted along the Mexican border in Texas and New Mexico for the next ten years, providing border security, building roads and telegraph lines, on occasion participating in operations against Indian bands.
In 1878, a detachment entered Mexico on a punitive expedition. In 1880 the 25th was transferred to the northern Great Plains, operating in Dakota Territory and Minnesota. Elements of the 25th took part in the last major Indian campaign, the Pine Ridge Campaign of 1890–91. Several companies of the 25th were deployed to break the Northern Pacific Railroad strike of 1894. In 1896 Lieutenant James A. Moss formed a volunteer corps of bicycle troops to study the effectiveness of the concept in the mountainous terrain of the Rockies. Eight soldiers and Moss made practice runs to Glacier and the Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1896. In 1897, Moss, a surgeon, a reporter and 20 enlisted men made a 41-day, 1,900-mile ride from Fort Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. All four colored regiments were transferred to Florida in the spring of 1898 in preparation for the war with Spain, they were assigned to Major General William R. Shafter's V Corps, which moved to Cuba to capture the major eastern city, Santiago de Cuba.
The 25th participated in the 1 July 1898 assault on El Caney, commanded by Brigadier General Henry W. Lawton. Men from the 25th were among the first to reach the summit. Private T. C. Butler of H Company was first into the blockhouse at the summit, capturing the Spanish flag. An officer of the 12th Infantry ordered Butler to turn over the flag, the 12th claimed credit for the capture. Lieutenant Colonel A. S. Daggett, commanding the 25th, filed an official protest over the incident. On 14 July, when the Spanish surrendered the city, the 25th had advanced closer to Santiago than any other unit. In 1899 the 25th returned from Cuba to posts in the southern Rockies. Late in the year they shipped out to the Philippine Islands to participate in operations against the Philippine nationalist movement of Emilio Aguinaldo, they returned to the U. S. in 1902. In 1906 a company of the 25th Infantry was dishonorably discharged without a trial on grounds of having shot at whites in Brownsville, Texas. In 1972 the accused were found to be innocent of the charges and the 1906 order was reversed.
In the summer of 1910, the newly created United States Forest Service was fighting hundreds of fires across northern Idaho, Western Montana and eastern Washington. Drought conditions, high winds, high temperatures and lightning had created hundreds of forest fires. Dispatched by the Army to assist in the firefighting efforts, members of Company G, 25th Infantry Regiment, stationed at Fort George Wright in Spokane, Washington were sent to Avery, Idaho. Arriving on 17 August 1910, the soldiers worked on the fire threatening the town over the next four days. On 21 August the forest fire, pushed by strong winds and joining other fires, forced the evacuation of Avery, the Soldiers of the 25th Infantry Regiment were instrumental in the safe evacuation of hundreds of townsfolk. By the time the fire ended a few days over three million acres had been burned. After the fire the soldiers assisted with the cleanup and in the search and recovery of the many that were killed during the fire. In the PBS documentary titled "The Big Burn", historians credit the Buffalo Soldiers with saving the town of Avery by building a "back" fire that collided and consumed the "front" fire until there was no fire.
Their "wit" saved the town from utter destruction. During World War I, the 25th was assigned to garrison duty at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii and did not see combat. In World War II the 25th Infantry Regiment was an organic element of the 93rd Infantry Division and served in the Pacific Theater of Operations; the regiment departed San Fran
United States
United States Army
