Airborne Guard: the 71st Airborne Brigade

[Matt Wiser]

A postwar ARNG unit: the 71st Airborne Brigade (MO NG):


The 71st Airborne Brigade (NG)


After the Third World War and immediate postwar reconstruction, the Army and the National Guard Bureau began to assess the Guard's force structure in the postwar world. A number of Guard brigades prewar had expanded to divisions during the war, and were retained as such after the war, and a number of new brigades added, with a much-increased level of enlistment in the Guard allowing for an expansion of the force structure.

As part of the expansion, two brigades were added to the Guard, the 36th Airborne Brigade (Air Assault) in Texas, and the 71st Airborne Brigade. Though headquarted at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, the Brigade's component units were scattered all over the Lower 48, and even battalions had companies in other states.

Though the Brigade was available for the Baja War in 2010, the Brigade as a whole was not mobilized for the campaign, but individual units at battalion level and below did serve, and the Brigade was mobilized in 2014 for a year-long tour in the Northern Mexico Security Zone.


The 71st consists of the following:

1-184 Infantry (Airborne): CA NG for Battalion HQ along with A and B Companies; A Company is in Redding, B Company in Taft. C Company is AZ NG at Sierra Vista with D (Heavy Weapons) Company being UT NG at St. George.

1-180 Infantry (Airborne); OK NG for Battalion HQ and A Company at Muskogee and Ponca City, respectively. B Company is at Las Cruces, NM, with C Company in Sherman, TX. D Company (Heavy Weapons) is Rochester, MN.

1-110 Infantry (Airborne): PA NG for Battalion HQ and A Company at Fort Indiantown Gap, PA; B Company is at Auburn, ME. C Company is located at Pensacola, FL, and D Company (Heavy Weapons) at Bloomington, IN.

2-101 Field Artillery (Airborne): MA NG for Battalion HQ and A Battery at Camp Edwards. B Battery is SD NG at Rapid City, and C Battery is NV NG at Henderson. The battalion is equipped with M-119 105-mm howitzers.

E Company, 803rd Armor (Airborne): WA NG at Yakima. The company is equipped with the M-8 Buford AGS.

2nd Squadron, 230th Cavalry: MS NG at Camp Shelby with HQ and A Troop (Air); B Troop (Air) is at La Crosse, WS. C Troop is at Brunswick, GA, and D Troop at Martinsburg, WV. The Air Cavalry is equipped with the AH-64D Apache, with the two ground troops equipped with the LAV-25.

240th Engineer Battalion (Airborne): VA NG with HQ at Fort Pickett. A Company is at Marquette, MI, while B Company is at Florence, SC. C Company is at Anniston, AL, and D Company at Monroe, LA.

659th Brigade Support Battalion (Airborne): CO NG, HQ at Fort Carson. A Company at Ontario, OR, with B Company at Marion, OH. C Company is at Billings, MT, and D Company is at Georgetown, DE.

Declared combat-ready in May, 2006, the Brigade as a whole was not mobilized for the 2010 Baja War as a whole, but elements of the Brigade did serve: C/1-184 did go into Mexico attached to the 14th ACR, while B/1-180 went with the 1st Armored Division's 2nd Brigade. The Brigade did serve as a whole in the Northern Mexico Security Zone in 2014, and has also served under state control during a number of natural disasters.

[Johnnie Lyle]

That’s going to make training very interesting and more expensive than a traditional NG battalion.

[Poohbah]

That’s going to make training very interesting and more expensive than a traditional NG battalion.

Yup. Just staying current on jumps is hard enough by yourself, but when you're part of a unit that jumps, you need to jump as an entire unit so everyone sees how their piece of the puzzle helps make up the big pretty picture.

[Wolfman]

That’s going to make training very interesting and more expensive than a traditional NG battalion.

Yup. Just staying current on jumps is hard enough by yourself, but when you're part of a unit that jumps, you need to jump as an entire unit so everyone sees how their piece of the puzzle helps make up the big pretty picture.

The rumor floating around the Corps is that that brigade might be moved to the Army Reserve…

[Poohbah]

That’s going to make training very interesting and more expensive than a traditional NG battalion.

Yup. Just staying current on jumps is hard enough by yourself, but when you're part of a unit that jumps, you need to jump as an entire unit so everyone sees how their piece of the puzzle helps make up the big pretty picture.

The rumor floating around the Corps is that that brigade might be moved to the Army Reserve…

On the one hand, it would probably make things a LOT easier for manpower and force shaping (as it is, there is an element of "choose your state, choose your fate" in personnel management for the 71st--anyone wanting to go Airborne Guard is going to be limited by the MOS billets assigned to their domiciled state). On the other hand . . . there's a LOT of pride in having an airborne unit in your state's Guard component, and competition for open billets is keen. Moreso than a Reserve airborne brigade could do, the Guard airborne units are an elite, they can (and ruthlessly do) set the bar extremely high for anyone seeking to join--but they never want for applicants.

[Eaglenine2]

Question why did the Brigade not have a TX Guard battalion from the 143rd?

[Matt Wiser]

The 143rd has units with both the 49th Armored Division and the 36th Airborne Brigade (Air Assault).