4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office
4th Infantry Division troops leave landing crafts onto Utah Beach, France, June 6, 1944. (Photo courtesy 4th Infantry Division Museum)
The 4th Infantry Division prepares trained and ready expeditionary forces for deployment in support of combatant commander requirements; provides first-class support to Soldiers, Airmen, civilians and Families; and enables unified action with community, state and interagency partners to accomplish all assigned missions.
The division’s historical nickname, the “Ivy” Division, originates with the design of its shoulder patch, four green ivy leaves joined at the stem and opening at the four corners. Ivy leaves were symbolic of tenacity and fidelity and were the basis of the division motto, “Steadfast and Loyal.” The word “Ivy” was also a play on the Roman numeral four, “IV.” In recent decades with deployments to Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the 4th Inf. Div. became known as the “Iron Horse” Division.
The 4th Inf. Div. has earned 22 campaign streamers for participation in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and since World War I, 21 Soldiers were awarded the nation’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor. Staff Sgt. Clinton L. Romesha and Staff Sgt. Ty Michael Carter are two recent Soldiers to receive the nation’s highest military award for extraordinary gallantry and selfless actions during the Battle of Kamdesh at
Combat Outpost Keating, Afghanistan, Oct. 3, 2009. Capt. Florent A. Groberg was the latest Iron Horse Soldier to receive the Medal of Honor from the president, Nov. 12, 2015. Groberg, formerly of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, is the third Fort Carson Soldier from the unit to receive the Medal of Honor.
A few seconds after assembling the gun, a crew trains with a machine gun Feb. 1, 1919. (Photo courtesy 4th Infantry Division Museum)
The 4th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, was constituted Nov. 19, 1917, and activated Dec. 10, 1917, at Camp Greene, North Carolina. By June 1918, the entire division had arrived in France, and before entering combat in July for the Aisne-Marne Offensive, the 4th fought with distinction across France and received great praise for its heroic efforts during St. Mariel and the Muese-Argonne campaigns. With the Armistice signed on Nov. 11, the division moved to serve both the French and British sectors as well as all Corps in the American sector and was the first to crack the Hindenburg Line.
The 4th Inf. Div. was reactivated in June 1940 and began training immediately for war. Sent to England in January 1944 for amphibious training prior to D-Day, the Ivy Division was first ashore, landing at Utah Beach June 6, 1944. After a successful landing and breakout from Normandy, the 4th pushed into France and liberated Paris. The division then moved to Luxembourg where its Soldiers became the first U.S. troops to breach the
Siegfried Line and enter Germany. The 4th moved north to face the enemy in the bloody Hurtgen Forest and after weeks of brutal combat returned to Luxembourg for action in the Battle of the Bulge. The 4th halted the enemy advance in December, gained the offensive and attacked across the Rhine River and into eastern Germany during the spring of 1945.
The Fighting Fourth was again called into action in the fall of 1965 and sent to Vietnam. The division was given a large area of the
Central Highlands to control and a base camp was soon established at Pleiku. During the next four years, the 4th engaged the enemy in brutal combat, conducting search and destroy missions and constant patrols to defend its assigned territory. The 4th eliminated enemy incursions moving from the Ho Chi Minh Trail thru Cambodia and Laos. When the division departed Vietnam in late 1970, it had earned
11 campaign streamers and 12 Soldiers had earned the Medal of Honor.
A Soldier of the 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, leads his unit across a stream in Long An Province. The 9th Inf. Div. worked very closely with 4th Inf. Div. during Vietnam. July 1967. (Photo courtesy 4th Infantry Division Museum)
Ivy Soldiers returned to combat in 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and would deploy multiple times during the next eight years. After arriving in April 2003, the division established Task Force Iron Horse at Tikrit and engaged the enemy north of Baghdad. In
December 2003, the 4th, along with special operations forces, captured Saddam Hussein.
The 4th Inf. Div. Headquarters returned in both 2005 and 2007 to command Multi-National Division-Baghdad and the division’s brigade combat teams also made multiple deployments in support of the war. During their service in Iraq, Iron Horse Soldiers would balance aggressive operations to eliminate threats with massive rebuilding projects and sophisticated training programs.
The al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, resulted in a swift and unified action to destroy those responsible. The U.S. Army invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to search for and destroy al-Qaida, its sympathizers and its leader, Osama Bin Laden. The action became known as Operation Enduring Freedom and focused on eliminating the Taliban organization that supported al-Qaida and practiced domestic terrorism against the people of Afghanistan. As the war evolved, U.S. and NATO forces increased in number to also provide necessary security training and infrastructure development for a free and democratic Afghanistan.
The Iron Horse Division cased its colors again, June 24, 2013, symbolizing the beginning of the Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion’s one-year deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The division deployed part of its headquarters to support NATO’s International Security Assistance Force Regional Command-South in its mission to support and enable Afghanistan’s National Security Forces to conduct security operations and create the necessary conditions to promote economic development and governance in the Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan and Daykundi provinces.
After returning from its deployment to Regional Command-South, Afghanistan, the 4th Inf. Div. received the Army’s Regionally Allocated Forces mission in Europe. Arriving in Europe Feb. 13, 2015, the 4th Inf. Div. Mission Command Element serves as an intermediate headquarters for U.S. Army Europe, operating in support of Atlantic
Resolve. The 4th Inf. Div. headquarters is the first division-level headquarters to deploy to Europe as part of the regionally allocated forces concept. The MCE is a headquarters element tailored to provide mission command for all U.S. ground forces participating in Atlantic Resolve. The MCE oversees continuous, enhanced multinational training and security cooperation activities with allies and partners in Eastern Europe, to include countries of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Germany.