The 1st Cavalry Division

The plaque gives Vietnam a single line. In November 1965 the division's first major operation, the Ia Drang campaign, earned it the first Presidential Unit Citation of that war. Most of the division came home to Fort Hood on April 29, 1971, though its 3rd Brigade stayed until June 1972. Its mounted tradition lives on in a ceremonial Horse Platoon formed in January 1972, later the Horse Cavalry Detachment, although the last working horse units gave up their mounts on February 28, 1943.

What the plaque says

The 1st Cavalry Division First in Manila -- First in Tokyo -- First in Pyongyang. The Fifth Cavalry Regiment, raised and posted in 1855 to Fort Belknap, Texas, is the oldest unit in the 1st Cavalry Division, United States Army. Next (1866) were the Seventh and Eighth regiments. The Eighth initially saw duty at Fort Concho, Texas. On Sept. 13, 1921, the division was constituted of these and one other regiment (later dropped) at Fort Bliss, Texas, to defend the United States-Mexico border. In 1933, the Twelfth Regiment, formed in 1901 at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, came into the division. Dismounted in 1943 and sent to the Pacific, the division captured the Admiralty Islands, joined the invasion of Leyte, and captured Manila on order of General Douglas MacArthur to act as his "First Team" . During United Nations action in Korea, the division swept over 100 miles in 11 hours to reach Osan and win victory. It was the first force to enter the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. On July 1, 1965, at Fort Benning, Ga., it was converted to an Airmobile Division -- the first in U.S. military history. It had a distinguished record in Viet Nam. Since 1971 it has been based at Fort Hood, in the state of its creation and earliest service. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mother Neff State Park — 22 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Hancock Springs Park — 25 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 25 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.

More markers nearby

• Lt. Gen. Andrew Davis Bruce — steps away
• Second Armored Division, U. S. Army — 1.4 mi
• Oveta Culp Hobby and the Women's Army Corps — 2.7 mi
• Santa Fe Depot — 2.9 mi