|
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - In its 50-year history, soldiers
from the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Division broke through Nazi
defenses, guarded the German border against Communists, and helped
oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait.
Now the proud fighting force is shutting down, put out of
business by the end of the Cold War.
"I've never served with a better unit," Chief Warrant
Officer 4 Harold Rickards, a senior division veteran, said of
the "Spearhead." a nickname that symbolized the use
of the 3rd Armored to pierce enemy lines during World War II.
Next Friday, the unit's flag will be lowered for the last
time at its headquarters in Frankfurt. Army Chief of Staff Gen.
Gordon Sullivan will attend the ceremony.
The division's closing is part of a reduction of U.S. Army
forces in Europe to fewer than 150,000 from more than 210,000.
For the 3rd Armored Division, the withdrawal marks the end
of an 18,000-strong unit.
"This is my third tour with the 3rd AD. This is my alma
mater division," said Rickards of Wichita, Kan., who spent
12 of his 23 years in the Army with the 3rd Armored.
Spec. 4 Shaunte Staten-Johnson, 21, of Annapolis, Md., who
served in the Gulf War, called the division her family. "When
you went to the war, the others were the only family you had.
Your mother's not there, your father's not there. You have to
depend on them," she said.
Fathers and sons have served together in the 3rd Armored,
including Maj. Gen. Paul Funk, the division's commander during
the Gulf War, and his 29-year-old son, Capt. Paul Funk Jr.
"Spearhead's soldiers fought with the heart, tenacity
and fearlessness of a Montana grizzly bear, the guts of an Army
mule and the compassion of Bambi's mother," the elder Funk
wrote to troops that fought in the Gulf War.
"I am sad to see this great division go away," the
younger Funk said. "To have commanded in combat with my
father produces tremendous amounts of pride. I can look at the
patch on my right shoulder and have not only memories of a great
unit but very personal family memories as well."
The unit was formed in April 1941 at Camp Beauregard, La.,
then three months later moved to Fort Polk, La. In September
1943, the division went to England for training. Then in June
1944, 3rd Armored Division units began landing at Omaha Beach
near Islgny, France.
Division casualties during World War n were 2,214 killed,
7,451 wounded, and 706 missing in action.
No records exist on how many enemy soldiers were killed, said
unit historian Dan Peterson. But he pointed out that 6,751 enemy
vehicles were captured and 76,720 prisoners of war were taken,"
nearly five times the then-total strength of the division.
At Mons, Belgium, on Sept. 3, 1944, about 30,000 German troops
attempting to retreat were cut off by the division, with nearly
10,000 taken prisoner. That depleted troops from the Siegfried
Line, a line of cement barriers set up to stop tanks at Germany's
western border.
The division crossed into Germany from Belgium on Sept. 13,
becoming the first U.S. unit to capture a German town, Roetgen.
In the 100-hour Gulf War, the unit took more than 2,400 Iraqi
prisoners, with 15 division troops killed between December 1990
and late February 1991, unit figures show.
|