While its official special designation is “Old Ironsides,” the 1st Armored Division has also come to be known as “America’s Tank Division” because of the role it has played in armored combat around the globe for neary 80 years. Stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas, the division comprises roughly 17,000 Soldiers and a wide range of mechanized equipment, including artillery, helicopters, Bradly Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Stryker Combat Vehicles and, of course, tanks.
The 1st Armored Division is a two-star Command (Major General). As a result of the Army’s move to make brigades rather than divisions the deployable units of maneuver, the division now consists of two Armored Brigade Combat Teams (combined arms units with Infantry, Cavalry, Armor, Field Artillery, Engineer, and Support units), an Infantry Brigade Combat Team (1st Stryker Brigade), an Artillery Brigade, a Combat Aviation Brigade, and a Sustainment Brigade, along with separate battalions and units.
No stranger to Southwest Asia—the Division played a major role in the rapid defeat of Saddam Hussein’s forces in 1991 and also contributed significantly in major battles such as Ramadi and Al Anbar during Operation Iraqi Freedom—the 1st Armored saw its 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team deployed to Kuwait in the fall of 2017, and earlier in the year about 400 of its personnel from its Headquarters were deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
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1st Armored Division Unit Crest (DUI)
1st Armored Division Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB)