The 50th Armored Division was formed in 1946 as the result of a postwar policy of the War Department aimed at creating the appropriate balance of Regular Army, National Guard, and Reserve units to create a balanced force for both war and peacetime. Part of this reorganization led to the creation of two Armored Divisions within the National Guard—the first time it had ever been allotted such units. One was the 49th Armored Division in the Texas National Guard; the second was the 50th Armored Division in the New Jersey Guard.
With the establishment of the new division in the New Jersey National Guard, the 44th Infantry Division, the “Jersey Blues,” was inactivated, but the 50th Armored Division inherited not only the nickname but also the history and lineage of the 44th’s organic units. The Division was augmented with the addition of the 27th Armored Brigade in 1968, losing its designation as the Jersey Blues in the process because it was now a bi-state National Guard Division for New Jersey and Vermont.
Though elements of the Division took part in exercises held in Germany during the Cold War years, the Division was never called into Federal Service before it was inactivated on 1 September 1993 along with the 26th Infantry Division from Massachusetts, both of which had experienced chronic recruitment problems for over twenty years.