The 194th Armored Brigade is a separate brigade of the US Army. All armor, cavalry, and armor and cavalry mechanic soldiers, and Marines in equivalent specialties, are trained by the 194th under the armor component of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning), Georgia, where the 194th has been garrisoned since 2012.
History
In 1962, the 194th Armored Brigade was created and assigned to the US Army's Combat Developments Command to test new materiel at Fort Ord, California.[1] It assumed the mission of the tank battalion of the 5th Infantry Division previously there.[2] The next change occurred in the mid-1960s amid Army-wide reductions to make resources available for the Vietnam War. In a personnel-saving action, the Combat Developments Command's 194th Armored Brigade at Fort Ord was replaced by a battalion-size combat team and reorganized at Fort Knox to support the Armor School in place of the 16th Armored Group. Under the new configuration, the brigade included one mechanized infantry and two armored battalions.[3] The brigade was cannibalized to fill out CONUS-based III Corps units deploying to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
The brigade downsized to primarily the 19th Engineer Battalion and Task Force 1st Battalion, 10th Cavalry. The task force consisted of a headquarters company that included Cav Scouts (hmmv and silenced motorcycle) medics and indirect fire infantry (mechanized mortars/M106), three armored companies (M1A2, then M1A3 Abrams), two infantry companies (mechanized) and one field artillery battery (Battery A, 77th Field Artillery - M109 SP 155mm) and a squadron of Apaches.
The brigade was reduced to a separate battalion task force in 1993, the 2d Battalion, 33d Armor, of which at least three companies were tank and one was mechanized infantry, with sources also mentioning artillery and Bradley M-3 scout companies.[5]
2–33 AR Task Force was finally disbanded in mid-late 1994.
Current configuration
The 194th Armored Brigade designation has been restored to active duty. It assumed command of the 1st Armored Training Brigade at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and is now charged with the responsibility of One Station Unit Training (OSUT), which trains tankers and cavalry scouts. The brigade includes the 30th Adjutant General Battalion, which primarily conducts reception operations for soldiers going to Advanced Individual Training, Basic Training and One Station Unit Training.
The 194th Armored Brigade was reactivated at Fort Benning, now Fort Moore, Georgia where it serves as One Station Unit Training. It consists of:
Constituted 24 June 1921 in the Organized Reserves as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 194th Infantry Brigade, and assigned to the 97th Infantry Division
Redesignated 23 March 1925 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 194th Brigade
Redesignated 24 August 1936 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 194th Infantry Brigade
Converted and redesignated 12 February 1942 as the 3d Platoon, 97th Reconnaissance Troop, 97th Division (Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 193d Infantry Brigade, concurrently converted and redesignated as the 97th Reconnaissance Troop, [less 3d Platoon], 97th Division)
Troop ordered into active military service 25 February 1943 and reorganized at Camp Swift, Texas, as the 97th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, an element of the 97th Infantry Division
Reorganized and redesignated 1 August 1943 as the 97th Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
Reorganized and redesignated 15 October 1945 as the 97th Mechanized Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop
Inactivated 31 March 1946 in Japan
(Organized Reserves redesignated 25 March 1948 as the Organized Reserve Corps; redesignated 9 July 1952 as the Army Reserve)
3d Platoon, 97th Mechanized Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop converted and redesignated 15 July 1962 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 194th Infantry Brigade, and relieved from assignment to the 97th Infantry Division; concurrently withdrawn from the Army Reserve and allotted to the Regular Army (remainder of troop concurrently converted and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 193d Infantry Brigade—hereafter separate lineage)
Converted and redesignated 1 October 1962 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 194th Armored Brigade
Activated 21 December 1962 at Fort Ord, California
_Organization_1989.png)
