Like so many units in the Army Reserve, the 84th Training Command can trace its origins to 5 August 1917 and the constitution of the 84th Division in the National Army; it was subsequently organized at Camp Zachary Taylor in Kentucky on 25 August 1917. Though deployed to France during World War I and awarded a WWI streamer, it is bereft of specific campaigns because the Division was poised to train newly arriving U.S. troops and did not see combat action. During World War II, it was redesignated as the 84th Infantry Division and was awarded streamers for participation three campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe.
Briefly designated as the 84th Airborne Division in the Army Reserve (1946 to 1952), it was then given its WWII designation as an Infantry Division until 1959, when it became the 84th Division (Training). It has been a Training unit of one type or another ever since then, becoming the 84th Division (Institutional Training) in 1994 before being transformed into 84th U.S. Army Reserve Readiness Training Command in 2004. It was redesignated the 84th Training Command (Leader Readiness) in 2007 and two years later its mission was changed to Unit Readiness. The unit received its current designation in 2010 and is headquartered at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Related Items84th Training Command Unit Crest (DUI)Regardless of designation, however, all these units have shared the “Railsplitter” nickname and sported the same unit patch that served as the 80th Division Shoulder Sleeve Insignia—a white axe planted in a rail on a red background. The imagery was chosen because President Abraham Lincoln, the “Railsplitter,” is associated in some way with the states from which the troops were drawn (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky) and where legend has it the President-to-be split rails as a youth
.