The 187th Infantry Brigade was an
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...
brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
B ...
of the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
.
It was first organized in November 1921 as one of the two brigades under the
United States Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a Military reserve force, reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed F ...
's
94th Division (forerunner of the 94th Army Reserve Command).
The brigade was disbanded in February 1942 when the 94th Division was converted from a two brigade, four regiment "
square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
" division to a three regiment "
triangular
A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC.
In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- collinea ...
" division.
Cold War
The 94th Division was disbanded in the early 1960s, as part of continuing Army Reserve force reductions.
Thus to add flexibility to the force, and to preserve a general officer billet, the 187th Infantry Brigade was reactivated in the Army Reserve as a separate brigade on 7 January 1963 with headquarters in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
. From that year to 1994 it was one of only four (later three) combat Infantry brigades in the Army Reserve. As a separate brigade, the 187th wore its own shoulder patch rather than the 94th Division patch its members had previously worn.
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
plans called for the brigade to deploy to
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
as part of the
Iceland Defense Force
The Iceland Defense Force ( is, Varnarlið Íslands; IDF) was a military command of the United States Armed Forces from 1951 to 2006. The IDF, created at the request of NATO, came into existence when the United States signed an agreement to p ...
if a confrontation between
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
occurred.
The brigade's headquarters was relocated on 25 October 1971 to
Wollaston, Massachusetts and on 13 July 1976 to
Fort Devens
Fort Devens is a United States Army Reserve military installation in the towns of Ayer and Shirley, in Middlesex County and Harvard in Worcester County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Due to extensive environmental contamination it was li ...
, Massachusetts.
Costas Caraganis was the commanding general in 1963.
Leo J. Golash was appointed commanding general in 1974.
*
Headquarters & Headquarters Company
* 3rd Battalion,
16th Infantry
* 3rd Battalion,
18th Infantry
*
3rd Battalion,
35th Infantry
*
5th Battalion,
5th Artillery
*
9th Battalion,
34th Armor
The 34th Armor Regiment is an armored regiment of the United States Army formed in 1941.
History
The 1st Battalion, 34th Armor was constituted in the Regular Army on 28 August 1941 as Company A, 34th Armor Regiment. The unit was activated short ...
(until 1968)
*
187th
Support Battalion
Support may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Supporting character
Business and finance
* Support (technical analysis)
* Child support
* Customer support
* Income Support
Construction
* Support (structure), or lateral support, a ...
(Company A became 987th Personnel Service Company in 1990)
*
756th
Engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
Company
*
Troop D,
5th Cavalry
On 14 April 1994 the 187th Infantry Brigade was inactivated as part of the Army-wide post-Cold War reductions.
[https://history.army.mil/html/books/060/60-14-1/index.html Maneuver and Firepower:
The Evolution of Divisions and Separate Brigades p341]
Reactivation
The 187th Infantry Brigade was reactivated as an
initial entry training
United States Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) is the recruit training program of the United States Army, for service in the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Reserve, or the Army National Guard.
Some trainees attend basic combat training along with their a ...
unit at the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence,
Fort Leonard Wood
Fort Leonard Wood is a U.S. Army training installation located in the Missouri Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of The City of St. Robert. The post was created in December 1940 and named in honor of General Leonard W ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
on 23 January 2007 from the 3rd Training Brigade and inactivated on 17 May 2007. The subordinate units were reassigned to the
3rd Chemical Brigade.
Its subordinate battalions were as follows:
*
Headquarters & Headquarters Company
*
2nd Battalion,
10th Infantry Regiment
*
3rd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment
*
1st Battalion,
48th Infantry Regiment
*
43rd Adjutant General Battalion
References
{{reflist
"The Brigade: A History, Its Organization and Employment in the US Army"
187
187
Military units and formations established in 1921