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FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – The words of Maj. Gen. William C. Lee, the first commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, have attained a near-mythical status amongst the Screaming Eagles. Oft quoted is his assertion that “The 101st has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny.” Much is made of the second clause; the ”Rendezvous with Destiny” the Division has faced and continues to stare down. The first half, however, borrowing from another famous William (Shakespeare), therein lies the rub, for a unit with no history happens to have one the most storied pasts in the Army.
Activated from the Army Reserve on Aug. 16, 1942, the Division was founded in times of tumult. Its reason for being was to help win the war that the US entered only six short months prior. In its destined goal, the unit would train for nearly two years in the cutting-edge tactics that would bust open Nazi occupation. They were to be an airborne unit. This fact caused Lee to remark that the eagle was a “fitting emblem” given the Division's intended means of attack. The eagle, a representation of “Old Abe” who was the unit mascot for the 8th Wisconsin Volunteers Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, was fitting in another way. It was a borrowed piece of history on which a unit that had none could build.
The 101st would distinguish itself during World War II from D-Day to V-E Day. Whether at the Battle of the Bulge or the Siege of Bastogne, a Screaming Eagle Soldier would be there. For the duration of the war, you could count on a young man with a card suit on his helmet to fight for a free Europe. As those Soldiers marched across the continent they forged a legacy worth recounting, one of paratroopers, liberators and victors.
Lee prophesied the unit would “habitually go into action when the need is immediate and extreme.” He would continue to be proven right. The Division would make history again in 1957 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the unit to assist with integration by escorting the “Little Rock Nine” to school. In 1965, they would be called upon to fight once again like their predecessors in Europe when the unit entered Vietnam.
The Division fought in every corner of the country becoming known as the feared “Chicken Men” by the Viet Cong. Out of the 246 Medals of Honor presented for actions during the war, nearly 7% would be earned by Screaming Eagles. From there, they would expand the emerging concept of Air Mobility, and not long after, they would earn the distinction they bear today – Air Assault.
They would be granted the opportunity to test this new capability in the Gulf War. The unit placed Soldiers 155 miles behind Iraqi lines, marking the deepest Air Assault operation before or since. The unit provided overwhelming support contributing greatly to the dominant coalition victory.
Following the advent of the Global War on Terror, the Army’s only Air Assault Division would continue to deploy and fight the nation's battles for almost two decades. The Division acts as the hub of emerging technology and the Army’s ”Transformation in Contact” in the modern era’s warfighter. Today, the Soldiers of the 101st still stand like their forefathers as the tip of the spear, the next evolution of vertical envelopment and exemplars of the American warrior. Despite the humble foundations of the historyless organization, the Division continues to blaze a path of heroics into the annuls of warfighting past.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.17.2025 10:40 |
| Story ID: | 500556 |
| Location: | FORT CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 22 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A Historic Unit With No History, by SSG Kaden Pitt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
