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Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:30 pm
by redleg
Thanks for the great info Cav Dog! For some reason I never considered landing and dismounting. I think I will have to ad some micro-dismounting to my ACR bag of tricks!

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 4:31 am
by panzergator
Kinda makes ya think that, when they bring back REAL armored cav, they should bring back the Blues.

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 7:01 am
by chrisswim
I meet with a US Army Capt, in 191st Airborne, whose mission is … Cav role. He was in 173rd at Benning. He was going to Germany soon.

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 8:25 am
by Roger H
173rd is in Italy, not Benning

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 1:03 am
by Cav Dog
panzergator wrote:
Wed Sep 08, 2021 4:31 am
Kinda makes ya think that, when they bring back REAL armored cav, they should bring back the Blues.
Yeah it almost seems like the manuals were not updated to reflect the absence of the Blues platoon because they historically had the dismounted recon missions.

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 1:04 am
by mike robel
Occassionally, Scouts from the 11th ATK Troop would hover very close to my vehicles as they got ready to move forward from us. Sometimes, the tank was higher than they were and it was odd to look down on their rotors. Never saw them dismount though. (The 11th formed an Attack Company with AH-1S and OH-58A and a Support Troop (Air) with UH-1s. On two occasions, my cavalry platoon was inserted on border missions by air mobile assault rather than using our tanks.

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 8:59 pm
by redleg
This is great info on the cavalry guys! Thanks! I have to admit, at first I thought you were talking about dress blues and I was confused! LOL

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 3:18 am
by panzergator
Both ground and air cavalry platoons used to have an infantry squad. They disappeared around 1974, I think. I remember it happened not long after I entered active duty.

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 4:46 am
by redleg
I need some help from the CAV guys: For an ACR, what do the guidons look like for the engineer, chemical, and MI companies? And for the ADA battery too. Did they have the white and red cavalry guidons like the how batteries, or did they go with their branch colors?

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:00 pm
by Cav Dog
Hi Redleg,

Good question...

The only time I would have seen all the guidons was during a regimental run, and being in 4th squadron, we we so far back in the formation that the units not organic to us would finish the run before we even got started.

That being said, check out this recent pic of a coc for 11th ACR:

https://www.army.mil/article/170717/the ... of_command

Clearly shows the armor companies with yellow guidons.

I don't recall that being the case in 3rd ACR but that was a quarter century ago!

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:22 pm
by redleg
Thanks for the link Cav Dog! Yeah It's been 20 years since I was at Fort Carson, but I remember that the tank companies and howitzer batteries had the red and white cavalry guidons. I've been looking for pics online of the regiment HQ building that had all of the regiment, squadron, and troop guidons on display, but I can't find any.

Is it my imagination, or in the 11th ACR pictures are they wearing brown Stetsons? It's weird to see tan tanker boots too. I guess now I qualify as an "old timer" and I can complain about all the new stuff!

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 11:57 pm
by Mike ENG
Redleg you are not mistaken the 11th ACR wears a brown campaign hat. When I was in the 11th ACR I learned we wore the brown campaign hat instead of the traditional black Stetson because the 11th ACR was not founded until 1901 and never wore the Stetson only the campaign hat. That said the policy in 2009 to 2011 was that Officers had to wear the campaign hat but the enlisted could choose to wear either the Stetson or the campaign hat. This was to encourage the enlisted personnel to purchase and wear one since they could wear a Stetson in a future assignment in another cavalry unit. This reduced the expense to the enlisted Soldier. That said most of the SFC and above bought a campaign hat so that they matched their platoon leaders and company commanders.

As for the guidons I know my Engineer guidon was red with a white castle and 58th on it. I believe all of the companies that were not designated a cavalry troop had guidons that match up to their branch.

Image

I am only speaking from my experience in the 11th ACR. Others may have had a different experience or were in another ACR that did things differently.

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2022 4:41 am
by redleg
Thanks for all that info, Mike - I appreciate the insight! That's why this forum is awesome!

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:02 pm
by Cav Dog
What is the Army coming to? In the coc pic I sent, look at the mix of camo in that formation. The RSM has to be pitching a fit. At least in Mike's pic they are all in the same uniform.

I remember when 3rd ACR deployed to Desert Shield, the bulk of the war stocks of chocolate chip BDUs went to units already in theater so there weren't enough sets to go around. Our S4 issued most of the chocolate chips to the ground crews figuring the aircrews would wear flight suits once in theater. consequentially when it came time to load up on the charter, a lot of aircrew were in woodland camo. The RSM lost it and lit up the S4. The S4 explained his logic and the RSM went about as red in the face as i've ever seen and screamed, "What you f*****s think you are in the GD Air Force?"

The S4 told him that there was a pallet with more desert BDUs waiting in the cargo area that he was going to issue when we were theater. The RSM did an about face and went over to the pallet holding area and started ripping into the boxes and throwing desert BDUs into piles on the floor. He yelled for everybody in woodland camo to find their size and get changed now. I looked at our CO and he just shrugged and waved us over,

I went back to my cot and stripped off my woodland camo and as stood up to put on my newly issued choco chip BDU trousers, who else but the RSM is in my face saying "I've got female troopers here and what did I think I was doing standing around in my underwear?" I said "Sergeant Major, We're getting ready to go to war and a lot of worse things could happen to them than seeing me in my skivvies." He went red in the face again. He was so mad he couldn't think of anything to say and stormed off.

Re: Armored Cavalry Regiments

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:15 am
by redleg
LOL that's pretty funny! At least you can't walk across his grass in the desert!

Have you ever seen the Generation Kill mini series? I don't remember him talking that much about it in the book, but in the series they have the SGM going nutty over moustache standards and it's pretty funny.