101st Combat Aviation Brigade (AUA) (WF J701)

270-956-3481

The 101st Combat Aviation Brigade dates to 1968, when the 101st Airborne transitioned from strictly paratrooper airborne to helicopter transported airborne, once again blazing the way in rapid response.

101st Sustainment Brigade (SUA) (WAB801)

270-798-2356

The 101st SB has the provides the supplies, services, and support by which the conduct of operations is achieved. Generally, if you need to eat it, fire it, load it, wear it, or use it for the mission, the SB has it.

159th Combat Aviation Brigade (AUA) (WJD501)

270-798-5692

160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (ABN)

270-798-1360

The 16th SOAR was established in 1980 at the request of President Carter, to provide rapid response stealth air transport of troops, following the unsuccessful attempt to rescue the Iran Hostages, who were eventually released through diplomacy. The 160th trained for their new, night flying mission by drawing the best of the day fliers, and activated in late 1980. The 16th first went into action for the 1983 Grenada operation, Operation Urgent Fury, and in the later ‘80s carrying Special Forces into action for Operation Just Cause. The 160th has only increased its value to the Army as technology has improved the ability of pilots to operate at night. In the 1991 the Night Stalkers flew into Kuwait, and then Iraq as part of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, and in 1993 suffered casualties in Somalia in the Black Hawk Down incident. The 160th has been repeatedly sent to Iraq and Afghanistan during recent conflicts and was the unit that rescued PFC Jessica Lynch in 2003, as well as other prisoners in several operations, air insertion and air resupply missions in several operations, and much more recently was the transport unit for Operation Neptune Spear, the difficult and critical mission to pin, capture, or kill (as it turned out) Osama Bin Laden. The 160th Night Stalkers continue to carry the special forces of the various branches.

19th Air Support Operations Squadron

(270) 956-1319

1st Brigade UA/327th Infantry (WAB401)

270-798-6019

What is now the 1st Brigade was once the 327th Infantry Regiment took gliders and beach landers to Utah Beach on D-Day to anchor the 101st’s defensive line during the Normandy Invasion. This was achieved in the face of strong German resistance in heavy cover, this section of Normandy being famous for its tall and thick hedgerows. The 327th joined their division in the offensive, and continued with Operation Market Garden, where the unit encircled a larger German force, pinning it. In the later German counter-offensive, the 327th Regiment was itself pinned at the strategic crossroads city of Bastogne, with the rest of the 101st. The 327th earned the nickname the Bastogne Bulldogs, having stood nose-to-nose with a German force 15 times larger, until relieved by elements of the Third Army. This battle was the inspiration of the 1949 movie Battleground. After the war the 327th was inactivated, reactivated, and eventually deployed to Vietnam, where like the other units of the 101st it became feared as one of the Rooster Men units, which the Viet Cong were unwilling to engage. In 1968 the 327th converted from glider deployment to helicopter airmobile transport, which it remains. In Operation Desert Storm the 327th seized forward operating positions with no losses. In Operation Enduring Freedom the 327th deployed to Iraq again, repeatedly.

2nd Brigade UA/502 Infantry (WAB501)

270-798-7177/2502

The 502nd was established as a reserve unit in the summer before the US entered World War II, before the activation of the 101st, to develop US paratrooper ability. Having achieved this, the 502nd and sister units were deployed, and participated in the pre-invasion drop for D-Day. The 502nd 1st Battalion landed on target and on time, the only unit of the 101st to do so, and efficiently achieved their objectives, taking a local village, capturing a nearby German barracks, and establishing a line of defense. The other two battalions were off target, but managed to organize enough to seize territory behind the German beach defenses. The 502nd continued to play important roles in the Battle of Carentan, Operation Market Garden, and the Siege of Bastogne. At Bastogne, the 502nd was part of a famous defense of the critical Bastogne crossroads, which was successfully held until the Third Army arrived to break the encircling Germans and help pull weight. Along with the other regiments of the 101st the 502nd was deactivated after the war, then reactivated as a regular Army unit in the late 1940s, then inactivated, and eventually the Army made up its mind and activated permanently. The 502 deployed to Vietnam in 1965, for a seven year tour, earning many personal and unit citations. From the 1970s through the 1990s the 502nd was deployed to several operations, and participated in Operation Desert Storm. In 2003 the 502nd was one of the first units deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom; the unit stayed in Iraq after conclusion of main combat operations, performing various peacekeeping and building functions. The Iraq deployment lasted until 2007, followed by a home tour. In 2010 the 502nd was deployed to Afghanistan as part of the Troop Surge and used to clear some of the remaining hostile territories.

3rd Brigade UA/187th Infantry (WAB601)

270-798-6018

The 187th Infantry Regiment was activated in 1943, trained as a glider regiment of the 11th Airborne Division, trained for both glider and parachute operations. The 187th was deployed in 1944 to the Leyte Campaign in the Philippines, then the Luzon Campaign, both hard-won fights. In later 1945 the 187th was reorganized and reinforced in preparation for the planned invasion of Japan. When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945 the 187th parachuted into Japan, near Tokyo, and spend the next few years occupying parts of Honshu and Hokkaido. This is when the 187st were first called Rakkasans, by an interpreter who did not know what to call parachutists - he used “Falling Umbrella Men” to a group of Japanese dignitaries, which spread around and was permanently attached to the unit. The location of the 187th made it perfectly placed to respond to the rapidly developing Korean War, and in 1950 the Rakkasans were deployed to relieve a US Marine Corps regiment, dropping twice in the Korean War, and fighting in several of the fiercest battles of the war and suppressing a POW revolt. In 1955 the 187th returned to the US, to Fort Campbell, and the next year was assigned to be the experienced core of the 101st Airborne, which had just been reactivated after a ten year inactive period. The Rakkasans deployed to Vietnam in 1967, where it earned a large number of personal and unit citations, including two Presidential Unit Citations, two Valorous Unit Awards, and a Medal of Honor for Captain Paul W. Bucha, Company D commander, who crawled through heavy fire to single handedly destroy an enemy bunker with grenades, in order to relieve a pinned down element of his own men. The 187th returned to Fort Campbell in the early 1970s and reconstituted. In the 1990s the 187th were deployed to Operation Desert Storm, conducting an air assault deep into Ira. In the Global War on Terror, the Rakkasans deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and Iraq in 2003, and returned to both repeatedly.

4th Brigade UA/506 Infantry (WJJP01)

270-956-4883

The 4th BCT is historically the 506th Infantry Regiment, originally established in 1942, at Camp Toccoa, near Currahee Mountain, Georgia. The Currahees made a mark while still in training: the unit commander, Colonel Sink, had read that the Japanese had recently broken the world march distance record, and decided that the Currahees could do better. Accordingly, the 506th marched from training at Camp Toccoa to Fort Benning, 137 miles in 33.5 hours of marching (75 hours overall), with only 12 of 556 failing to finish. The 506th jumped behind German lines as part of the D-Day assault, and were scattered on landing. Despite this, the unit organized and destroyed key enemy defenses, notably the assault on Brecourt Manor, where the unit was ordered off the cuff with no information to suppress an artillery position targeting Utah Beach. From the assault, vital up-to-date information on a network of defenses was discovered and successfully forwarded to command, through hostile enemy territory. For his actions in this assault, 1st Lt. Richard Winters was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, three of the men under his command the Silver Star, and ten the Bronze Star, with four Purple Hearts earned. After 33 days of combat the 506th was withdrawn to rest and re-equip pending deployment in Operation Market Garden, with the Currahees successfully taking four of five targeting bridges, preserving them for the oncoming armor corps to cross. Shortly after, while recuperating, the 101st was ordered to defend the strategic city of Bastogne, which led to the entire division being surrounded, and the 506th held a defensive line against Panzers and Volksgrenadiers, taking out 30 tanks and inflicting roughly it’s own weight in casualties, suffering less than half that in wounded. Later in the war the 506th helped liberate the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s personal retreat. The 506th was inactivated after the war, and went through several activation-inactivation cycles before being activated and deployed to Vietnam, where the Currahees fought in several of the most famous battles of that war, including Hamburger Hill, the Tet Offensive, and FSB Ripcord. In the 21st Century, the 506th was deployed twice to Iraq and later twice to Afghanistan, bolstering US efforts. The 506th is one of the most famous US Army units, having been portrayed in one form or another in several films and TV series about World War II and Vietnam, especially Band of Brothers, and Saving Private Ryan.

52nd Ordnance Group

5th Special Forces Group (Airborne)

270-798-4445

The 5th Special Forces were established in 1960 by President Kennedy to counter insurgent forces in Vietnam. The 5th was trained to flexibly fight under the most difficult conditions, following experiences in World War II and Korea indicating that there were simply some fights line units were not able to handle. THe 5th conducted various operations in Vietnam, earning a disproportionately large number of campaign ribbons, Medals of Honor, Distinguished Service Crosses, Silver Stars, and other citations, and was one of the last units to leave Vietnam. In the 1980s the 5th SFG conducted mine education training for Afghanistan civilians, and in the 1990s performed critical missions in Iraq during the several operations of the Gulf War, and continued through the end of the century. In 2001 the 5th was one of the first units deployed to Afghanistan, where they have repeatedly conducted operations, and was later deployed to Iraq. Much of the history of the 5th SFG is classified.

86th Combat Support Hospital

270-798-7552

The 86th Combat Support Hospital is the central medical resource for Fort Campbell personnel, human and animal. Support units include the 61st Preventive Medicine Detachment, 72nd Veterinary Detachment, 212th Combat Stress Control, 501st Area Support Medical Company, and 772nd Forward Surgical Team.

902d Counterintelligence Field Office

931-251-0508

Detachment 4, 18th Weather Squadron

HHB 101 Airborne Division (UEX) (WAB101)

270-798-5029

The 101st Division was established in late 1918, shortly before the end of World War I, and was soon demobilized without being deployed. The unit was reorganized in the Reserves. Not until World War II would the 101st be reactivated, August 1942, this time with a strange new mission: airborne assault. The idea of dropping soldiers by parachute to attack enemy positions was generally regarded as far-out Buck Rogers stuff in the 1930s, but with experiments and testing, and building on successes, the US Army made parachuting a practical military application. The 101st “Screaming Eagles” trained under hard instructors before being deployed to pre-positions in England. In June 1944 the 101st was dropped the night before the Operation Torch D-Day invasion of Normandy, to seize an airhead, disrupt roads, destroy bridges, attack German troops, and generally cause havoc. Conditions were not favorable, and landings were disorganized, but the 101st accomplished its mission, linked up with the 81st Airborne, and established a defensive line. The 101st dropped as part of Operation Market Garden, where planners slightly overestimated the gains to be had. The 101st also stood firm at the siege of Bastogne, during a German counter-offensive at Ardennes. The 101st held a strategic crossroads city, Bastogne, in a wooded area against a vastly superior number (5 to 1), under harsh winter conditions, with limited cold weather gear, ammunition, food, and other supplies, and without most of its senior leadership, for a full week, December 20-27 1944. This is where the American commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe declined the German offer to accept the 101st’s surrender, ‘Nuts!’ The 101st was eventually joined in this position by General Patton’s Third Army, which had advanced under the misunderstanding that the Screaming Eagles required rescue, and broken through the German encircling forces. With the Third Army in support, the 101st resumed offensive operations. By summer of 1945 the 101st had seized Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s personal retreat, and the expectation of joining the assault on Japan, but the Japanese surrender brought the war to a final close. During all of the war, the 101st was an activated reserve unit; not until in 1948 was the 101st assigned to the regular Army. It was shortly after inactivated. In 1950 the 101st was reactivated as a training unit, and deactivated in 1953, reactivated again and transferred to Fort Campbell. In 1957 the 101st was ordered by President Eisenhower to guard the Little Rock Nine, who had been denied the right to attend their local high school, on account of their race, despite a Supreme Court ruling. This mission continued for only a few months before being relieved by an activated Arkansas National Guard unit. In 1958 the 101st Airborne and the 81st Airborne formed the core of the new US Strategic Army Corps, which became the 1960s equivalent of a global strike command. The 101st was deployed to Vietnam in 1965, where they remained until 1970, and became well known as the Rooster Men (the Vietnamese not knowing the unit patch was a bald eagle); the enemy was known to avoid engaging units with a ‘rooster head.’ The 101st fought in the Gulf War, capturing hundreds of surrendering Iraqis with no losses. The 101st returned to Iraq and fought in Afghanistan in the War on Terror.

U.S Army Dental Activity

270-798-8751

Veterinary Command

270-956-2861

Warrior Transition Battalion

270-412-6540