42nd Infantry Division History | Bibliography / Patch History
The 42nd Infantry (Rainbow) Division's history began with America's entry into World War One. Amidst the rush by America to mobilize, individual states competed for the honor to be the first to send their National Guard units to fight in the trenches of Europe. To check the negative implications of this competition and to minimize the impact the mobilization would have upon any one state, the War Department created a division composed of hand-picked National Guard units from 26 states and the District of Colombia. As a result of this unified effort, the 42nd Infantry Division was born August 5th, 1917, at Camp Mills on Long Island, New York.
Colonel Douglas MacArthur, who was instrumental in forming the division as Chief of Staff and one of its early commanders in World War One said shortly after mobilization, "The 42nd Division stretches like a Rainbow from one end of America to the other." Reporters liked the reference and the division nickname was born.
The 42nd Division arrived in France in November 1917 and entered the front line in March 1918, where it remained in almost constant contact with the enemy for 174 days. During its time in France, the 42nd Division participated in six major campaigns and incurred one out of every sixteen casualties suffered by the American Army during the war. The 42nd Division's WWI service officially came to an end in May of 1919.
The 42nd Division was reactivated with the onset of America's participation in the Second World War. At the July 14,1943 reactivation ceremony, the division commander, Brigadier General Harry Collins echoed General MacArthur's sentiments regarding the 42nd Division's unique status when he commented "The Rainbow Division represents the people of our country."
The 42nd landed in France in December 1944 and advanced through France as part of the 7th Army, entering Germany in March 1945. It was during the division's rapid advance through Germany in April 1945 that they liberated some 33,000 survivors of the infamous Dachau concentration camp.
By the end of the war, the 42nd Division had established an enviable record. It was first in its corps to enter Germany, first to penetrate the Seigfried line and first to enter Munich. Rainbow Soldiers seized over 6,000 square miles of Nazi held territory during their advance across Europe. The division ended the war serving as an occupation force in Austria and inactivated in June of 1946.
The 42nd returned in 1947 as a National Guard Division for New York, the state of its birth. During the Cold War years, the division assisted communities during numerous emergencies while actively training for its wartime mission. In March 1970 the division federalized during the national postal strike and later provided relief to New Yorkers in the aftermath of Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Rainbow Soldiers took over the New York prison system in 1979 during a corrections officers’ strike. In December 1989, the Rainbow Division headquarters moved from New York City to Troy, New York, where it remains today.
In 1991, hundreds of Rainbow Soldiers volunteered and served during the Gulf War. In addition, the division provided an opposing force at the Army's National Training Center to better prepare units for deployment overseas. The division Soldiers performed so well they received the Army's prestigious Hanby Trophy, the first National Guard unit to ever do so.
The 42nd Division returned to its roots as a truly diversified division in 1993 when it consolidated with elements of the 26th and 50th divisions to form one National Guard Division. The division now has units in nine different states, including New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Florida, Michigan and Illinois.
Division Soldiers have repeatedly responded to local needs during emergencies with more state active duty missions in the 1990s than ever before in the Rainbow's history. The division participated in the northeastern states’ disaster response for blizzards and floods in 1996, fires in 1997, the devastating ice storm and New York’s tornado recovery in 1998, and the Y2K contingency and snowstorm and hurricane responses in 1999 and 2000.
Following the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, Rainbow battalions from New York City armories, the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, 1st Battalion, 101st Cavalry, the 642nd Division Aviation Support Battalion and the 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery Regiment provided immediate emergency response. Thousands of Rainbow Soldiers from the remainder of the division’s New York Army National Guard and the division headquarters sustained security and recovery operations in Manhattan as part of Joint Task Force 42. The security augmentation operations for hundreds of Rainbow Soldiers continue to this day.
Other Rainbow Soldiers federally mobilized for the nation’s Global War on Terror with troops deployed to Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, providing homeland security missions for Operation Noble Eagle from 2001 through 2003 and deploying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004 where the Rainbow Division will lead elements of the Multinational Corps – Iraq in providing stability and support to the emerging Iraqi democratic government. Today, the Soldiers who wear the famous 42nd Infantry patch continue the Division's long-standing tradition of service to nation, state, and community.
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