With the inactivation of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at a ceremony in Schweinfurt, Germany, on Monday, the proud history of the "Big Red One" in Europe came to an end. The division fought in both World Wars, and participated in the peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo. The 2nd BCT "Blue Spaders" deployed twice to Operation Iraqi Freedom. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
With the inactivation of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at a ceremony in Schweinfurt, Germany, on Monday, the proud history of the "Big Red One" in Europe came to an end. The division fought in both World Wars, and participated in the peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo. The 2nd BCT "Blue Spaders" deployed twice to Operation Iraqi Freedom. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Soldiers of the newly activated 172nd Infantry Brigade stand in formation during the unit's activation ceremony in Schweinfurt, Germany, on Monday. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Col. Jeffrey Sinclair, left, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division and Command Sgt. Maj. Steven McClaflin roll up the unit's colors, as it was replaced by the newly reactivated 172nd Infantry Brigade. With the return of the brigade's colors to the U.S., the long history of the 1st Infantry Division in Europe comes to an end. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
The insignia of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division comes down, revealing the insignia of the newly reactivated 172nd Infantry Brigade, as soldiers switch patches at a ceremony in Schweinfurt, Germany, on Monday. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
SCHWEINFURT, Germany — Less than five months after finishing its second tour of duty in Iraq, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, cased its colors Monday at Conn Barracks, its home for the last dozen years.
But the brigade’s soldiers aren’t going far.
Unlike the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, which inactivated last year and subsequently moved to the United States, the 2nd Brigade simply reflagged, swapping out the battle-worn colors of the Big Red One for the lesser-known patch of the 172nd Infantry Brigade.
The brigade will continue its move to Grafenwöhr under its new name.
It was, for some, an emotional change. After some 27 months of combat in Iraq, during which scores of soldiers were killed, many would have preferred just to have kept the Big Red One patch on their left shoulder.
The 2nd Brigade “represents blood, sweat the loss of our friends” and an emotional center of gravity, Col. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, the brigade’s commander, said in remarks during the ceremony inactivating the 2nd BCT and activating the 172nd. The 172nd colors, he said, also represent much the same thing.
The 172nd inactivated more than a year ago in Alaska just after completing a 16-month Iraq tour. The tour of the 172nd was infamously extended after some of the unit’s soldiers had already touched down at their home base of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, and they were forced to return for four more months of action.
Few within the former 2nd BCT know much of the 172nd Infantry’s history, though the two units were created within three months of each other in 1917 in the heat of World War 1.
“That’s one thing I was thinking about today; I’m going to definitely have to find out some more,” about the 172nd, said Spc. Jason Harmon, a member of the new 172nd Headquarters and Headquarters Company who deployed twice with Dagger Brigade.
“It’s emotional because we lost quite a few people that I knew down there, and I’ve been here six years, the whole time with this unit,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Jackson, previously a member of the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment. Now he’s a member of the 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, and he’s going to be with the unit for three more years, he said.
“I’ll learn everything and be just as loyal to this unit as we were to the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division,” he said.
