1st Cavalry Division (United States)

Also known as: First Team — the standing nickname · "America's First Team!" — the motto styling · First Cavalry Division — the spelled-out styling · 1st Cav — the service shorthand

Places

Definition

1st Cavalry Division is a division of the United States Army — constituted in the Regular Army on August 20, 1921 under the Army’s first permanent cavalry-division organization, headquarters activated September 13, 1921 at Fort Bliss, Texas — whose World War II conversion from horse to dismounted, amphibious infantry made it one of the two assault divisions of the Leyte landing and the spearhead that reached Manila first in February 1945. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division) It went ashore on October 20, 1944 as X Corps’ right-flank formation between Tacloban airfield and the Palo River, landed again in the Lingayen area on January 27, 1945, and “fought its way as a ‘flying column’ to Manila by 3 February 1945”: its 8th Cavalry squadron was the first American unit into the city, its tanks broke into the University of Santo Tomas internment camp that evening — freeing nearly 4,000 internees, the “Angels of Bataan and Corregidor” nurses among them — and other elements “quickly captured Malacanang Palace.” (Wikipedia — Battle of Leyte, Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division, CMH — The Approach March, Wikipedia — Battle of Manila)

The liberation became the occupation: the division left Luzon on August 25, 1945, reached Yokohama on September 2, and entered Tokyo on September 8 — “the first United States division to enter the Japanese capital” — serving five years in the capital region before Korea recalled it in 1950 and Vietnam took it in 1965 as the first full Army division of that war. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division, Wikipedia — Occupation of Japan) Nicknamed the “First Team,” with motto “America’s First Team!” and march “Garryowen,” it carries the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for its 1944–1945 service and stands today as a heavy formation of III Armored Corps at Fort Hood, Texas. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	1st Cavalry Division (United States)
Wikidata	1st Cavalry Division (Q2338) — “active United States Army formation”; enwiki sitelink to this article title (verified this session)
DBpedia	1st_Cavalry_Division_(United_States) — label “1st Cavalry Division (United States)”, MilitaryUnit/Organisation; sameAs VIAF 247375732 (verified this session)
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	cavalry — noun, the mounted arm the division’s name preserves (headword verified this session) (Wiktionary — cavalry)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	United States. Army. Cavalry Division, 1st — name authority n82066576 (verified this session via id.loc.gov)
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	1st Cavalry Division First Team Leyte 1944 flying column Manila February 3 1945 Santo Tomas Malacanang Tokyo occupation Unsan Vietnam Ia Drang Philippine Presidential Unit Citation
ConceptNet	N/A — ConceptNet API unreachable this session (HTTP 502)
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

First Team — the standing nickname
“America’s First Team!” — the motto styling
First Cavalry Division — the spelled-out styling
1st Cav — the service shorthand

Examples and Analogies

The horse division that remade itself for amphibious war: a square division of 7,463 officers and men with cavalry regiments on the southwestern border, it “permanently retired their horses and converted to infantry formations on 28 February 1943,” trained at Strathpine, Queensland, and opened its war at Los Negros in the Admiralties on February 29, 1944. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)
The flying column, built to a formula: for the dash south Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudge organized each Flying Column so that it “included a cavalry squadron, a medium tank company, a 105-mm. howitzer battery” with total vehicular lift, the groupment under Brig. Gen. William C. Chase — the task organization, answering MacArthur’s order “Get to Manila! Free the internees at Santo Tomas,” that put the 8th Cavalry inside Manila beside “almost 4,000 American and Allied civilian internees” on the evening of February 3. (CMH — The Approach March, Wikipedia — Battle of Manila)
Verified division data:
Admiralties: Los Negros landing February 29, 1944; Momote airstrip secured; garrison surrounded by end of March (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)
Leyte: X Corps’ right, October 20, 1944; Tacloban taken October 21; Carigara November 2; link-up with the Breakneck Ridge force December 19; west coast reached by January 1, 1945 (Wikipedia — Battle of Leyte, Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)
Luzon: Lingayen area January 27, 1945; flying column to Manila February 3; Malacañang seized February 3; Santo Tomas breached 9 PM by the 44th Tank Battalion’s “Battlin’ Basic”; Wawa Dam relief March 12; sweep into Batangas and Bicol with guerrillas, zone resistance declared ended July 1, 1945; World War II casualties 4,055 — 734 killed, 3,311 wounded, 9 missing, 1 prisoner (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division, Wikipedia — Battle of Manila)
Occupation, Korea, Vietnam: Yokohama September 2, 1945; Tokyo September 8 — first United States division to enter the Japanese capital; five years of duty; Pohang July 18, 1950, Pyongyang October 19, Unsan November 1–2, 1950, where the 8th Cavalry’s 3rd Battalion “soon ceased to exist as an organized force”; colors to Vietnam July 3, 1965 — Ia Drang, Tet, the Pegasus relief of Khe Sanh, Cambodia — with 5,444 killed and 26,592 wounded, the worst ledger of any Army division (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division, Wikipedia — Occupation of Japan)

Usage Scenarios

1. Studying the Liberation of Manila

Order-of-battle work on the February 3 – March 3, 1945 battle begins with the division — the flying column’s arrival, the first unit into the city, Santo Tomas and Malacañang on February 3, and the month-long battle against Rear Adm. Sanji Iwabuchi’s 12,500-man Manila Naval Defense Force that ended with at least 100,000 civilians dead. (Wikipedia — Battle of Manila, CMH — The Approach March)

2. Tracing the Leyte-to-Luzon Sequence

The division fought both Philippine landings of the Sixth Army’s main effort — X Corps’ right at Leyte on October 20, 1944 with the Tacloban prize and the Ormoc Valley drive, then the Lingayen-to-Manila race of January–February 1945 within the roughly 175,000-man beachhead of January 9. (Wikipedia — Battle of Leyte, Wikipedia — Battle of Luzon)

3. Following the Liberation-to-Occupation Sequence

The division that freed Santo Tomas crossed to a surrendered Japan within a month — Yokohama September 2, Tokyo September 8 — and stood five years in the capital region, the seam this wiki’s Occupation of Japan entry documents. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division, Wikipedia — Occupation of Japan)

4. Philippine Military Heritage and Commemoration

Commemorative practice keeps the Philippine record alive — the Santo Tomas liberation anniversary, the “Angels of Bataan and Corregidor,” Malacañang’s February 3 seizure — and the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation stands first among the division’s allied decorations. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division, Wikipedia — Battle of Manila)

Strategies

Convert before the theater demands it: the February 28, 1943 dismounting and Strathpine training rebuilt a border horse division as dismounted infantry in time for the Admiralties. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)
Task-organize for tempo: Mudge’s flying-column formula moved fighting troops at “speeds up to fifty miles an hour,” converting cavalry mobility into operational reach. (CMH — The Approach March)
Aim the column at the hostages: the mission fixed the internee camp, not the enemy army, as the objective — rescue as maneuver. (Wikipedia — Battle of Manila)
Let guerrillas extend the sweep: in Batangas and Bicol after March 1945 the division advanced with Filipino guerrillas until its zone’s resistance was declared ended. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)

Security and Safety Measures

Bridge security on the axis of advance: the Tullahan stone-arch bridge was saved on February 3 only because Lt. (jg) James P. Sutton dashed onto the span to cut a burning fuze — saving at least twenty-four hours — and Japanese raiders destroyed it the following night, isolating Chase’s force for two days. (CMH — The Approach March)
Internee protection before the city fight: nearly 4,000 internees were freed on February 3, before the urban battle; 466 of the camp’s 4,255 prisoners had already died in captivity — the cost the dash’s speed was meant to stop compounding. (CMH — The Approach March, Wikipedia — Battle of Manila)
For researchers: keep the division’s lives distinct — the 1921–1943 horse division, the dismounted Pacific division, the occupation-and-Korea division, the Vietnam-era division, and today’s armored division at Fort Hood all wear one name. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)

Historical Context

The interwar Army’s cavalry settlement created the division: the 1921 table of organization fixed a permanent square cavalry division, and the First’s headquarters activated at Fort Bliss that September with regiments along the Mexican border — the post-Villa frontier its first beat. The maneuvers of 1940–42 closed the horse era; the division dismounted on February 28, 1943, and trained in Australia for the war its new organization required. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)

Its war ran from the Admiralties through the Philippine record this wiki’s cluster carries: Los Negros in February 1944; Leyte on October 20 beside the 24th Infantry Division in Sibert’s X Corps, Tacloban the next day, the Ormoc Valley drive and the December 19 link-up; then Lingayen on January 27, 1945 and the flying column that put the 8th Cavalry inside Manila on February 3, freed Santo Tomas at 9 PM, and seized Malacañang the same day — 4,055 battle casualties in all before the division left Luzon on August 25 and entered Tokyo on September 8 as the first American division there. Korea and Vietnam then reset the record: Unsan’s shock in November 1950, seven years in Vietnam from 1965 at the cost of 5,444 dead — the Army divisions’ heaviest — and the Gulf War, Balkans, and Iraq and Afghanistan tours that brought the “First Team” to its present armored form at Fort Hood. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division, Wikipedia — Battle of Leyte, CMH — The Approach March, Wikipedia — Battle of Manila)

Challenges and Controversies

The Dash and the City’s Fate

MacArthur’s order to race for Manila bought the internees’ rescue on February 3 but delivered the attackers into a city Iwabuchi had refused to evacuate — the battle killed at least 100,000 civilians against 1,010 Americans killed and 5,565 wounded, the arithmetic over which the dash’s speed is still judged. (Wikipedia — Battle of Manila)

Unsan

The Korea ledger carries the Chinese intervention’s shock: on November 1–2, 1950 the 8th Cavalry was overrun and its 3rd Battalion “soon ceased to exist as an organized force.” (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)

Vietnam’s Ledger

The Vietnam record — 5,444 killed and 26,592 wounded, the worst of any Army division — remains the standing counterweight to the First Team’s self-image, the price of seven years’ continuous combat. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)

A Cavalry Name Without Horses

Since 1943 the division has fought dismounted, yet it has kept the cavalry name and “Garryowen” through its armored present — a continuity that periodically renews argument over what the cavalry identity now means. (Wikipedia — 1st Cavalry Division)