US Army Training Center - Yearbook (Fort Carson, CO)

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i 662' L - 6014 giefcf rqaliffeaq Eailaldan ,-4'--'ik Major Major XVILLIAM -I. LUECK FORREST A. WALKER Battalion Clmnmander Executive Officer 'f luui Captain Captain Captain lst Lieutenant ROBERT ll. GULLEY CLAUDE H. PLEXICO MORGAN L. YVALLER ANTHONY BONAVIRE Adj. and S-2 S-4 S-3 Asst. S-3 -6 lst Lieutenant lst Lieutenant Mfsgf. Sgt. DONALD IDANFORTH RALPH E. HICKEY JACK MeCARTER BEAZELL Liaison Oiheer Liaison Oflieer Sgt. Major Training Aids NCO

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60M aielcf fzfillmy Eaifllafian i A Division first was racked up hy the 60th Field Artillery Battalion one day after Operation Torch, the inyasion of North Africa, was under way. This was accom- plished when battalion guns assigned to the 60th RCT's 3rd Battalion dueled with Vichy French artillery and con- sequently became the first 9th Division unit to make a river crossing in YVYV II. Allied Forces had high, hopes of .stopping Rommelfv Afrika Korps at the Kasserine Pass and prevent him from capturing Telzessa, the main Allied supply center in T11- nisia. But, to do this, artillery support was necessary. Nearly 800 miles away the 60th FA and 9th Diyarty received the order to proceed to Tebessa. Despite had weather and rough terrain they arrived in time. The Cer- mans were already infiltrating the pass when they arriyed. WVith hardly enough time to dig in. the tillth FA opened fire. Firing at almost flat trajectory. the artillery completely crushed the German attack. The Afrika liorps was through as an ellecliye fighting unit. In Sicily the 60th FA saved the lst Battalion of the tiflth RCT when they were pinned down near Nlonte Camo- lato. Although they could see nothing ol' the entrenched Germans, the artillery layed down a barrage that prey enled the enemy from moving. Finally, with the air of a spotter in a small plane, the tillth silenced enemy guns. At Ihr' famed hatllr' of Reniagen. the 60111 Fl lIOIllllll'll enemy installations located on ilu' lieiglils ozierloolcing the Llllll'lIll0l'H Ifriflge.

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Colonel James F. Pearsall Commanding Officer Preparedness has always been a byword in the 47th Infantry, which today-as it has since its organization on June 1, 1917-stands ready to defend our nation's freedom. V Less than a year after their organization, the Raiders received final training under the battle-hardened vete- rans of the British 16th Infantry Division at Samar, France. Training was conducted within six miles of the front. Soon afterwards the 47th was ordered to capture the town of Sergy. Raiders infiltrated and cracked German lines on high ground overlooking the town, and from there launched an attack that gave the unit its first combat victory. Following action at St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne, the 47th Infantry was deactivated September 21, 1921. Its battle streamers numbered five at the time, On August 1, 1940, the Raiders were reactivated. They first saw action in VVorld War II as they hit the beaches at Safi, Morrocco, in early November 1942. Twelve hours later they were in complete control of the town. Sweeping across Africa, the 47th drove through such towns as El Hamra, El Guettar, Jefna, and finally Bi- zerte, where the Axis powers were finally pushed out of Africa. Palermo, Sicily, was the scene of the next Raider land- ing on August 1, 1943. The regiment crushed Cesaro and Casto di Bolo before the Sicilian campaign was finally declared over August 26, 1943. On D-Day plus four the Raiders landed on Utah Beach, France. By the 16th the men had pushed their way to St. Colombe. The next day found the 47th cutting 4701 Infantry 3. Robert M. Beechinor, jr. Executive Officer the road near St. Lo'Ourville, thus blocking the last escape route of the Germans and severing the Cotentin Peninsula, History was made on June 25, 1944, when th-e 2d Battalion entered the city of Cherbourg at 1255 hours, becoming the first Allied troops to enter that city. With the breakthrough at St. Lo, the rush was on. By August 1944, the Raiders forded the Seine River and headed for the Vesle River. just 26 years and one day before the regiment had crossed the river at the same spot during World War I. After aiding in the liberation of Belgium, the Raiders crashed through the Siegfried Line, cracking the line .at 0830 hours September 14, 1944. The dying efforts of the Wehrmacht, the Von Rundstedt counter-offensive, hit the 47th with full force, but the Raiders beat off the Ger- mans and held their positions at Monschau. The regiment made history again at the epic battle of the Ludendorff Bridge on the Rhine. It became the first military unit to cross the Rhine since the Napoleonic Wars, but it paid dearly for its distinction with stagger- ing losses. But a bridgehead was established and it was only a matter of time before the Reich collapsed. Elements of the 47th Infantry and the Russian, 337th Rifle Regiment met in victory in the final days of the war, Hitler's Third Reich was whipped and among its conquerers were the 47th Infantry Raiders. Operation Gyroscope brought the 47th to Fort Carson, Colorado where it started its present program of training personnel for fillers to be assigned as replacements in tactical units.