The 51st Infantry Division was an infantry division of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

, composed of units from the

Florida National Guard The Florida National Guard is the National Guard force of the state of Florida. It comprises the Florida Army National Guard and the Florida Air National Guard. The United States Constitution charges the National Guard with dual federal and st ...

and the

South Carolina National Guard The South Carolina National Guard consists of the South Carolina Army National Guard and the South Carolina Air National Guardbr> American law specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal and state missions. In fact, the National Guar ...

History

Original Organization Date: 11 September 1946 with headquarters at Tampa, Florida. In the post-World War II restructuring of the National Guard a number of new divisions were organized. Among these was the 51st Infantry Division, composed of National Guardsmen from Florida and South Carolina.

Initial organization

As of September 1946, the 51st Division included: A reorganization of the Army National Guard took place following World War II. As part of this effort, the new 51st Infantry Division was allocated to the states of Florida and South Carolina. The division was activated on 5 July 1946 as a standard triangular division. Old and new units were assigned and activated during 1946 and 1947. In 1949, the 107th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion and 263rd Tank Battalion were assigned to the division. The Division remained in a normal National Guard training status, being reorganized periodically as the Army applied lessons learned in World War II and the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. The 51st Infantry Division never served on active federal duty. In 1959, the division was reorganized as a pentomic division. As the result of another major reorganization of the National Guard, the division was inactivated on 1 April 1963. Subordinate units were reorganized and reassigned. Division Headquarters and Headquarters Company was redesignated as Headquarters, 51st Command Headquarters (Divisional), South Carolina National Guard.

References

051 Military units and formations established in 1946 Military units and formations disestablished in 1963 Divisions of the United States Army National Guard {{US-mil-unit-stub