Photo By Lt. Col. William Wratee | From four postwar classrooms to a theater-level force spanning two continents, the 7th...... read more read more
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KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Seventy years ago, the U.S. Army Reserve established its first permanent footprint in Europe. Four Reserve schools stood up in cities across postwar Europe on July 1, 1956, in response to the demands of the Cold War.
The story, however, begins earlier.
A decade before those schools opened, more than 200,000 Army Reserve Soldiers served in World War II. After the war, the U.S. Army authorized a formal training program for Reserve Soldiers who remained in theater through the European Command's Office of Plans, Operations and Training — a precursor to what would become U.S. Army Europe and Africa.
This year, the 7th Mission Support Command marks its 70th anniversary — a milestone that traces directly to those four schools and the Soldiers, civilians and families who built a command that has endured through more than seven decades of global change.
By 1956, roughly 700 officers and 150 enlisted Soldiers were living and serving across the European theater. As the numbers grew, the supporting structure did not. Many Soldiers lived outside Germany and France, relying on active-component units for training that was not always accessible. The Army Reserve needed an institutional solution of its own.
The answer came in December 1956 with the establishment of the U.S. Army Reserve School System in Europe. Four units were created — schools in Munich, Paris and Madrid, and a detachment in Frankfurt. Eleven satellite schools followed, covering seven specialties: Military Intelligence, Infantry, Civil Affairs, Armor, Engineers, Artillery and the Adjutant General Corps.
Weekend classes, evening sessions and two-week intensive phases turned a collection of Reserve Soldiers scattered across the theater into a coherent, trained force with a permanent institutional home in Europe.
What distinguished Army Reserve Soldiers in Europe was not only their military training. Years of living on the continent had produced fluency in local languages, familiarity with regional populations, and working relationships with foreign nationals that rotational forces could not replicate. Those qualities would prove consequential in the decades ahead.
Following the Vietnam War, the Army's Total Force Policy formalized the Reserve component's role as part of the operational force rather than a strategic reserve. By 1983, five new troop program units had been activated in Europe. Three years later, on the grounds of McGraw Kaserne in Munich, the 7th Army Reserve Command was established under the operational control of U.S. Army Europe.
The command's first major test came in 1990. When Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm demanded a response, five 7th Army Reserve Command units deployed to Southwest Asia in support of coalition operations. In the years that followed, Traveling Contact Teams moved across Eastern Europe in support of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, working alongside allied nations as the former Warsaw Pact countries transitioned toward NATO membership.
When U.S. and NATO forces deployed to enforce the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, all 23 subordinate units of the command eventually mobilized. Soldiers supported tactical operations centers, movement control teams, intelligence operations and medical support across the Balkans.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 19 of the command's 23 units deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, with Soldiers serving across 13 countries. The Army Chief of Staff Deployment Excellence Award recognized the command's mobilization performance and its expanded role supporting units from the continental United States.
In 2008, the command headquarters relocated to Kaiserslautern, Germany, and was reflagged as the 7th Civil Support Command. The redesignation reflected a shift in emphasis toward consequence management and civil affairs in support of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command.
That same year the command supported humanitarian assistance operations in Georgia following the Russia-Georgia conflict, delivering more than 1,250 short tons of supplies by air and sea. In 2012, a 40-Soldier task force participated in a NATO-led disaster relief operation in Montenegro following a severe blizzard. In 2014, Soldiers deployed to Dakar, Senegal, in support of Operation United Assistance, providing logistics support during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
On Oct. 1, 2015, the 7th Civil Support Command was redesignated the 7th Mission Support Command, aligning its name with sister commands in Puerto Rico and Hawaii as part of a global Army Reserve structure.
Today, the 7th MSC is headquartered at the Brigadier General Richard J. Dirgins Army Reserve Center on Daenner Kaserne in Kaiserslautern. It is the U.S. Army Reserve's only general officer-level command in Europe, providing command and control and Title 10 support to train and mobilize Army Reserve forces across Europe and Africa while conducting host nation coordination for the 21st Theater Sustainment Command on behalf of USAREUR-AF.
In 2025, more than 1,000 U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers were serving across Europe under the command, supported by more than 40 Department of the Army civilians and more than 1,400 family members. The command operates nine major subordinate units across four Army garrisons, with an area of responsibility spanning 104 countries across two continents.
The command supports deterrence exercises across Europe and Africa, facilitating the reception, staging and onward movement of multinational troops and equipment. It also manages a forward-positioned Army Reserve equipment site in Europe covering support maintenance, ordnance and petroleum transportation operations.
As the command marks its 70th anniversary, the 7th MSC has identified three priorities to guide its future: building readiness and driving experimentation at the theater level; accelerating integration of reserve capabilities with U.S. and NATO command partners; and developing the ability to transition from training to operations rapidly and at scale.
Those priorities are supported by four lines of effort — people, warfighting readiness, innovation, and coalition and partnership — focused on ensuring reserve forces are integrated into allied plans before operational demands require it.
What began as four Reserve schools in postwar Europe in 1956 has grown into a theater-level command operating across two continents. As the 7th Mission Support Command enters its next decade of service, its mission remains what it has always been: to ensure Army Reserve forces in Europe are Forward and Ready, Steady and Strong.
| Date Taken: | 03.18.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 03.20.2026 03:23 |
| Story ID: | 560829 |
| Location: | KAISERSLAUTERN, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, DE |
| Web Views: | 97 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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