This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2011) |
The United States Army Regimental System (USARS) is an organizational and classification system used by the United States Army. It was established in 1981 to replace the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS) to provide each soldier with continuous identification with a single regiment, and to increase a soldier's probability of serving recurring assignments with their regiment. The USARS was intended to enhance combat effectiveness by providing the opportunity for a regimental affiliation, thus obtaining some of the benefits of the traditional regimental system.
This overview section duplicates the intended purpose of the article's lead section , which should provide an overview of the subject.(January 2023) |
USARS was developed to include all combat, combat support (CS), combat service support (CSS), special branches, and training battalions in the Regular Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve.
It was developed to offer the opportunity for long-term identification with a regiment or corps, provide the potential for recurring assignments within a regiment or corps, provide the opportunity to further emphasize the history, customs, and traditions of the regiment or corps, and provide regiments that are structured as one or more continental United States (CONUS) units of like type linked with one or more units of like type outside the continental United States (OCONUS), or one or more units of like type located exclusively in either CONUS or OCONUS, including one or more training battalions or tactical armored cavalry or ranger regiments.
USARS is also designed to provide for CS, CSS, and special branches to operate on a “whole branch” concept as a corps or special branch, carrying on the activities and traditions of a regiment, offer regimental affiliation to allow soldiers the opportunity for continuous identification with a combat arms regiment, a corps, or special branch throughout their careers. USARS provides (through regimental affiliation) different opportunities for soldiers, depending upon which combat arms regiment they choose to be affiliated with or whether they affiliate with a CS or CSS corps or special branch. In addition, the regimental affiliation process allows combat arms soldiers to select the regiment of choice (soldiers can change their affiliation at any time); provides that CS, CSS, and special branch soldiers will automatically be affiliated with their corps or special branch; specifies that all soldiers will belong to a regiment or corps; permits no limit to the number of soldiers who can be affiliated with a regiment or corps; and provides that DA civilians can automatically be affiliated with a regiment or corps by direction of the regiment or corps commander.
Combat arms is a rescinded doctrinal term, though colloquially it includes air defense artillery, armor, aviation, cyber, [1] [2] field artillery, infantry, and special forces regiments. Combat arms soldiers may affiliate with any of the combat arms regiments consistent with their primary military occupational specialty (PMOS), specialty code, special qualification identifiers (SQI), or additional skill identifiers (ASI). Soldiers will have greater opportunities to serve recurring assignments in their regiments if regiments are chosen that have battalions in both CONUS and OCONUS locations. Since there is no ceiling on the number of soldiers who can affiliate with a particular regiment, the potential for recurring assignments to regiments is diminished where the number of affiliated soldiers exceeds the requirements.
Quoting from Chapter 3–2, page 7 of Army Regulation 600-82, U.S. Army Regimental System (note: Currently the regulation for The U.S. Army Regimental System is Army Regulation 870-21):
a. USARS regiments offered to active Army and USAR soldiers for affiliation are listed [below].
- (1) All active Army soldiers are required to affiliate with a regiment. Although affiliation is mandatory, the choice of regiment is left up to the individual. Officers who are single-tracked in a Functional Area will affiliate with a regiment associated with their basic combat arms branch. Functional Area officers who have no basic branch will submit request for regimental affiliation using procedures outlined below. Regimental affiliation is based on the Army branch associated with a soldier’s PMOS or specialty. AR 670–1 contains a listing of all PMOS and corresponding branches for each. Army recruiters who have been assigned the SQI“4” will affiliate with a regiment associated with their PMOS. Recruiters or retention noncommissioned officers (NCOs) will be affiliated with The Adjutant General Corps. Regimental affiliation may be changed at any time; however, the regimental selection must be associated with the soldier’s PMOS or specialty.
- (2) All combat arms officers and soldiers will affiliate with a regiment upon arrival at their first unit of assignment. These Soldiers will be affiliated with their regiment of assignment unless they voluntarily select another. Combat arms officers and soldiers whose initial Army assignment is not to a regimental unit may defer selection until they are so assigned.
- (3) Enlisted soldiers may elect the Regiment of Choice Reenlistment Option under AR 601–280.
- (4) Soldiers who deliberately terminate airborne status after affiliating with an airborne regiment will change their affiliation to a non-airborne regiment at the time of their termination. Those who are terminated for medical reasons may retain their regimental affiliation with an airborne regiment if they desire; however, such affiliation will be ceremonial and will not affect subsequent assignments.
- (5) Regimental affiliation will be a primary assignment consideration for officers and enlisted soldiers. To the maximum extent possible, soldiers who are regimentally affiliated will be assigned to their regimental units. No assignment guarantees will be made, as Army requirements and soldier professional development needs must be met; however, it is incumbent upon commanders and the personnel community to make every effort to ensure that requisitions are submitted for and filled with affiliated regimental Soldiers and that soldiers are subsequently assigned within their regiments. (See AR 614–100, and AR 614–185 for officers, and AR 614–200 for enlisted soldiers).
b. Specific procedures for affiliation are below. These procedures permit affiliation and change of affiliation to be administered at the local Personnel Service Center (PSC) level.
c. Active Army soldiers who are accessioned into the USAR will retain their regimental affiliation unless they elect to change their affiliation, which may be done at any time.
Note: There are currently 178 USARS regiments, with only 47 consisting of units at multiple locations. Some of the regimental battalions are assigned to brigade combat teams in multiple divisions. Only 27 of these regiments meet the USARS "Conus/Oconus goal." Additionally, the term "Regiment" was not officially appended to a USARS regiment's official name/designation (and was not used under CARS) until 2005.
Though a combat arms branch, [1] [2] the Cyber branch was not established until 2014 and does not trace lineage to any Army regiments under the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS). The Cyber regimental plan is identical to that of combat support (CS), combat service support (CSS), and special branches.
1st Special Forces Command (Airborne)
The CS, CSS, and special branch regimental plans fully integrate into the USARS under the "whole branch" concept. It is the responsibility of all proponents to incorporate within their corps, the intent and spirit of the regimental system to provide soldiers the opportunity for affiliation.
While this initiative mandates a uniform approach to regimental affiliation throughout the Army, it is a system that has no tradition within the Army and duplicates the sense of affiliation that CS, CSS, and special branch soldiers already had for their branch (Ordnance, Signal Corps, etc.)
A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps.
The 2nd Infantry Division ("Indianhead") is a formation of the United States Army. Since the 1960s, its primary mission has been the pre-emptive defense of South Korea in the event of an invasion from North Korea. Approximately 17,000 soldiers serve in the 2nd Infantry Division, with 10,000 stationed in South Korea, accounting for about 35% of the United States Forces Korea personnel. Known as the 2nd Infantry Division-ROK/U.S. Combined Division (2ID/RUCD), the division is bolstered by rotational Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) from other U.S. Army divisions.
The 36th Infantry Division ("Arrowhead") also known as the "Panther Division", the "Lone Star Division", "The Texas Army", and the "T-patchers", is an infantry division of the U.S. Army and part of the Texas Army National Guard. The 36th Infantry Division was first organized during World War I (1914–1918) from units of the Texas and Oklahoma National Guards. After the war, the division was reformed as an all-Texas unit, and was called to service for World War II (1937–1945) on 25 November 1940, was deployed to the European Theater of Operations in April 1943, and returned to the Texas National Guard in December 1945.
The 4th Infantry Division is a division of the United States Army based at Fort Carson, Colorado. It is composed of a division headquarters battalion, three brigade combat teams, a combat aviation brigade, a division sustainment brigade, and a division artillery.
The 1st Cavalry Division is a combined arms division and is one of the most decorated combat divisions of the United States Army. It is based at Fort Cavazos, Texas. It was formed in 1921 and served during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, with the Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan as well as Operation Freedom's Sentinel and Operation Inherent Resolve. As of July 2023, the 1st Cavalry Division is subordinate to the III Armored Corps and is commanded by Major General Thomas M. Feltey.
The VII Army Corps of the United States Army was one of the two principal corps of the United States Army Europe during the Cold War. Activated in 1918 for World War I, it was reactivated for World War II and again during the Cold War. During both World War II and the Cold War it was subordinate to the Seventh Army, or USAREUR and was headquartered at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, West Germany, from 1951 until it was redeployed to the US after significant success in the Gulf War in 1991, then inactivated in 1992.
The brigade combat team (BCT) is the basic deployable unit of maneuver in the U.S. Army. A brigade combat team consists of one combat arms branch maneuver brigade, and its assigned support and fire units. A brigade is normally commanded by a colonel (O-6) although in some cases a brigadier general (O-7) may assume command. A brigade combat team contains combat support and combat service support units necessary to sustain its operations. BCTs contain organic artillery training and support, received from the parent division artillery (DIVARTY). There are three types of brigade combat teams: infantry, Stryker, and armored.
The 12th Cavalry is a cavalry regiment of the United States Army. It is currently stationed at Fort Cavazos.
The 9th Cavalry Regiment is a parent cavalry regiment of the United States Army. Historically, it was one of the Army's four segregated African-American regiments and was part of what was known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The regiment saw combat during the Indian and Spanish–American Wars. During Westward Expansion, the regiment provided escort for the early western settlers and maintained peace on the American frontier.
The United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) is the largest United States Army command. It provides land forces to the Department of Defense's (DOD) unified combatant commands. Headquartered at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, FORSCOM consists of more than 750,000 active Army, U.S. Army Reserve, and Army National Guard soldiers. It was created on 1 July 1973 from the former Continental Army Command, which in turn supplanted Army Field Forces and Army Ground Forces.
Reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) squadrons are a type of unit in the United States Army. These are cavalry squadrons, and act at the squadron (battalion) level as a reconnaissance unit for their parent brigade combat teams. These RSTA squadrons continue on the Recondo legacy of the Vietnam era Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRP), however, compared to the LRRPs they are often assigned additional non-reconnaissance responsibilities such as battlespace ownership.
Multi-National Corps – Iraq (MNC-I) was a formerly multinational, later U.S. only, army corps created on 15 May 2004, fighting the Iraq War. Its superior body, the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) had replaced Combined Joint Task Force 7 on May 15, 2004. The change was made due to "concerns that had existed for some period of time, that the Combined Joint Task Force 7 headquarters was not sufficient to handle the range of military operations in Iraq, including peace support, civil military operations, and at the same time conduct strategic engagement such as talking to the sheiks and talking to the political authorities."
Below is an estimated list of the major units deployed within the Multi-National Force – Iraq and other United States military units that were operating in Iraq under the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) in 2009, during the Iraq War.
The reorganization plan of the United States Army was implemented from 2006 to 2016 under the direction of the Brigade Modernization Command. This effort formally began in 2006 when General Peter Schoomaker was given the support to move the Army from its Cold War divisional orientation to a full-spectrum capability with fully manned, equipped and trained brigades; this effort was completed by the end of 2016. It has been the most comprehensive reorganization since World War II and included modular combat brigades, support brigades, and command headquarters, as well as rebalancing the active and reserve components.
The 17th Cavalry Regiment is a historical organization within the United States Army that began as a regiment of cavalry after the Pancho Villa Expedition. The unit was constituted on 1 July 1916 in the Regular Army as the 17th Cavalry at Fort Bliss, Texas and originally inactivated 26 September 1921 at the Presidio of Monterey, California. Formerly a part of the 1950s Combat Arms Regimental System, it was reorganized as a part of the U.S. Army Regimental System, an ongoing effort to maintain the lineage and history of the U.S. Army through its units. Today, the 17th Cavalry Regiment is found across the army within the combat aviation brigades, where the squadrons, now constituted as attack/recon helicopter squadrons, carry on the legacy of the 17th Cavalry Regiment.
In the United States (US) military, a beret flash is a shield-shaped embroidered cloth that is typically 2.25 in (5.72 cm) tall and 1.875 in (4.76 cm) wide with a semi–circular base that is attached to a stiffener backing of a military beret. These flashes—a British English word for a colorful cloth patch attached to military headgear—are worn over the left eye with the excess cloth of the beret shaped, folded, and pulled over the right ear giving it a distinctive appearance.
In 2009, the United States and NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coalition, along with Afghan National Army forces, continued military operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. 2009 marks the eighth year of the War in Afghanistan, which began late in 2001.