Courtesy Photo | Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation Joseph Taluto, a retired New York Army National...... read more read more
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WEST POINT, N.Y. – Veterans and descendants of the Army’s historic 42nd Infantry Division commemorated their 96th annual reunion here Aug. 15 with tributes to Soldiers past and present and to award education scholarships to Rainbow Soldier legacies.
The 2015 annual reunion for the Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation recognized a number of milestones, including the current centennial of the battles of World War I that led to the creation of the “Rainbow Division,” as the 42nd Infantry is known, to the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II to the 10th anniversary of the division headquarters combat service in Iraq in 2005.
“We gather again to remember the past service of our World War veterans who created the 42nd Infantry Division and established its legacy in the Army,” said Foundation Chairman and former division commander retired Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto. “At the same time, we welcome the modern-era veterans who wore the Rainbow patch in peace and in war, at ground zero in New York City and in the sands of Iraq.”
“We stand at a transition where our newest veterans now carry forward that tremendous history and legacy of the Rainbow Division,” he said.
The 42nd Infantry Division was created in 1917 when National Guard units from 26 states came together at Garden City, New York, to form a division and deploy quickly to France during World War I.
The division was given its nickname by then-Col. Douglas McArthur, who conceived of the idea. The 42nd Division, coming from a number of different states would stretch across the country “like a Rainbow."
The Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation traces its roots to the first veterans reunion of the 42nd Division, back to 1919, when MacArthur, the former division chief of staff, brigade commander and division commander from World War I, was elected first and enduring association chairman.
Reunions have been held annually in the summertime to commemorate the division’s first major battle in Champagne, France, in July 1918 while serving under General Henri Gouraud and the French 4th Army.
The summer gathering also recalls the division’s July 1943 reactivation at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, for service in World War II. The division fought in France and Germany, liberating the concentration camp at Dachau, taking Munich, and ending the war occupying part of Austria.
The division became part of the New York National Guard in 1947.
Taluto said that just as the World War I veterans who created the association passed the reigns to the World War II veterans back in the 1970s, current Rainbow veterans of the division will carry the legacy forward for future generations.
“We’ve had a busy year,” Taluto said. “We dedicated two new memorials for the Rainbow Division, one at Fort Drum, New York, and the other at Fort Dix, New Jersey, commemorating the division’s mobilization sites for Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
“These memorials join the other past sites that mark our World War I and World War II heritage,” he said.
The two memorials mark the 2005 mobilization of the division for combat as a division headquarters for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the first National Guard division to do so since the Korean War.
Again the division lived up to its Rainbow nickname: Army elements from the National Guard, Army Reserve, and active component from across 28 states, Puerto Rico and American Samoa came under the command of the division.
The division provided the command and control, logistics and operational base for four maneuver brigades operating in North Central Iraq. The division base received its combat brigades and formed Task Force Liberty, with the addition of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the Idaho Army National Guard's 116th Cavalry Brigade and the 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
The foundation today welcomes members from former peacetime or wartime service in the 42nd Infantry Division and those family members and descendants looking to honor the service of past Rainbow Soldiers.
Taluto recognized six past officers and volunteers of the foundation for their commitment to the Rainbow Division. Frances Hutnick was one of those family members honored for her long and faithful service to the foundation. She is one of the longest serving board members of the foundation.
“Thank you Frances, for all that you’ve done and all that you have meant to the Rainbow,” Taluto said.
The wartime wife of the division’s Steve Hutnick, she met most of the WWII veterans of the Rainbow Division as a teenager in her Austrian village of Stuhfelden in the summer of 1945.
“The Rainbow has been my family all my life,” Hutnick said.
Reunion events included a tour of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City, site of the division headquarters service as part of the state response to the attacks at the World Trade Center in 2001.
New York Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Harry Miller, the current division commander for the 42nd Infantry, provided keynote remarks on the state of the division today at the reunion dinner Aug. 15.
“Last year I stood before you and told you we had a busy year coming up with many events on our plate and I’m proud to say we’ve done them,” Miller said.
Miller described the support of the division headquarters as a higher command cell, or HICON, for both subordinate brigade training events of New Hampshire’s 197th Fires Brigade, 26th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade in Massachusetts and 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from New York while also supporting battle simulation training exercises for the National Guard’s 38th Infantry Division over the winter and 36th Infantry Division in June.
The division also provided a detachment for deployment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to serve as members of the headquarters element for Joint Task Force Guantanamo. The task force headquarters personnel provide administrative support to the joint task force.
The Soldiers deployed in March of this year and are doing a terrific job representing the 42nd Infantry Division, Miller said.
“There are eight National Guard divisions out there in the force,” Miller said, “and while I may have a slightly biased opinion, none are as ready and none are as prepared as the 42nd Infantry.”
The foundation also highlighted its annual reunion with a presentation of 13 educational scholarships. Presenting the scholarships was committee chairman retired Lt. Col. Michael Kelly, a Rainbow Division veteran of Iraq.
“Each year on college campuses, students begin again and our foundation is proud to support them in their efforts,” Kelly said leading up to the introduction of each student recipient. “This year, we have scholarships totaling some $22,000.”
“We look for an appreciation of the division’s historic past in an applicant’s essay, to see how the Rainbow Division has made its mark on future generations,” Kelly said.
“Whether in your personal, professional or family life, you are part of a team. Never shy away from personal sacrifice for the common good,” Kelly said.
Today, the National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division is aligned for training with some 14,000 Soldiers assigned to brigade elements in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New Hampshire. With support from the division headquarters and staff, nearly every associated element of the modern 42nd Infantry Division deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the past decade.
| Date Taken: | 08.15.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.19.2015 16:14 |
| Story ID: | 173625 |
| Location: | WEST POINT, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 140 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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