The 1st Cavalry Division
Killeen, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First in Manila -- First in Tokyo -- First in Pyongyang. The Fifth Cavalry Regiment, raised and posted in 1855 to Fort Belknap, Texas, is the oldest unit in the 1st Cavalry Division, United States Army. Next (1866) were the Seventh and Eighth regiments. The Eighth initially saw duty at Fort Concho, Texas. On Sept. 13, 1921, the division was constituted of these and one other regiment (later dropped) at Fort Bliss, Texas, to defend the United States-Mexico border. In 1933, the Twelfth Regiment, formed in 1901 at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, came into the division. Dismounted in 1943 and sent to the Pacific, the division captured the Admiralty Islands, joined the invasion of Leyte, and captured Manila on order of General Douglas MacArthur to act as his "First Team" . During United Nations action in Korea, the division swept over 100 miles in 11 hours to reach Osan and win victory. It was the first force to enter the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. On July 1, 1965, at Fort Benning, Ga., it was converted to an Airmobile Division -- the first in U.S. military history. It had a distinguished record in Viet Nam. Since 1971 it has been based at Fort Hood, in the state of its creation and earliest service. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The 1st Cavalry Division traces its lineage to the Fifth Cavalry Regiment, raised in 1855 at Fort Belknap, and was formally constituted at Fort Bliss in 1921 to guard the Mexican border. Dismounted and sent to the Pacific in World War II, it seized the Admiralty Islands and, on MacArthur's order as his 'First Team,' captured Manila. In Korea it raced to Osan and became the first force into Pyongyang; in 1965 it was reborn at Fort Benning as the Army's first airmobile division and went on to serve in Vietnam. Since 1971 it has been based at Fort Hood.
Why it matters
Few American units span so much of the nation's modern military history, and its deep Texas roots tie the state to more than a century of U.S. Army service.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The story of the 1st Cavalry Division begins on the Texas frontier of the 1850s. At that time the U.S. Army's main job in the West was patrolling vast distances from a string of isolated forts. Mounted regiments were the only practical way to cover that ground. Units raised in that era learned their trade on Texas plains, at posts like Fort Belknap and Fort Concho, whose names now belong to history.
By 1921, the horse cavalry was already an old institution in a changing Army. The First World War had shown what machine guns and modern artillery could do, but the long U.S.–Mexico border still seemed to call for mounted troops. The years of the Mexican Revolution had left that border tense. So the Army gathered its historic cavalry regiments into a new division at Fort Bliss, in El Paso, to guard it.
The Second World War ended the horse era for good. The division gave up its mounts in 1943 and fought the rest of the war as infantry in the Pacific. After that came Korea, the Cold War, and in the 1960s a new idea about how soldiers could move across a battlefield. The idea was the helicopter, and this division was chosen to prove it.
People & events
The division's oldest roots lie in the Fifth Cavalry Regiment, raised in 1855 and sent to Fort Belknap in north-central Texas. After the Civil War, the Seventh and Eighth regiments joined its lineage, and the Eighth served early on at Fort Concho, in what is now San Angelo. In 1921 these regiments were formally brought together at Fort Bliss as the 1st Cavalry Division. The Twelfth Regiment, formed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in 1901, joined in 1933. Nearly every thread of the division's early story runs through Texas.
World War II made its reputation. Dismounted and shipped to the Pacific, the division fought in the Admiralty Islands and in the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines. Then General Douglas MacArthur sent it to Manila as his "First Team," a nickname the division still proudly carries. Getting there first became part of the division's identity, and the marker's motto puts it plainly: first in Manila, first in Tokyo, first in Pyongyang.
In Korea the division lived up to that motto again. It swept more than a hundred miles in eleven hours to reach Osan, and it was the first force into the North Korean capital. Then in 1965, at Fort Benning, Georgia, it was transformed into the Army's first airmobile division, built around helicopters. It took that new concept to Vietnam, where it earned a distinguished record. In 1971 it came home to Texas, to the post near Killeen where it is still based.
Its place in the American story
Few units carry as much of American military history as this one. Its lineage connects the frontier Army of the 1850s to the jungle fighting of the Pacific, the seesaw campaigns of Korea and the helicopter war in Vietnam. The division's story is also the story of how the U.S. Army changed over more than a century.
The airmobile conversion of 1965 was a genuine turning point. The cavalry's old mission had always been speed, scouting and mobility, and the helicopter brought that mission into the modern age. Moving troops by air over terrain that slowed vehicles to a crawl changed how the Army thought about war. Much of later U.S. air-assault doctrine builds on the trail this division blazed, and that is why so many units still use the word "cavalry."
The Texas connection is just as striking. The division was created in Texas, its oldest regiments served at Texas frontier posts, and since 1971 it has been based at one of the largest military installations in the country. Few states can claim such a deep and continuous bond with a single Army formation, and that bond has shaped the economy and identity of Central Texas communities like Killeen.
If you visit
Killeen and the great Army post beside it are about as far from a sleepy frontier fort as you can get. This is a busy military community, and the division's presence is woven into daily life here. Look for the 1st Cavalry Division's famous patch around town: a big yellow shield crossed by a black diagonal bar, with a black horse's head. It is one of the most recognizable insignia in the Army.
As you read the marker, notice how much ground the story covers. The words on the plaque move from Fort Belknap and Fort Concho to Manila, Pyongyang and Vietnam, then back to Texas. It is a whole century of service in a single inscription.
For a Texas road trip with a military history theme, this marker makes a natural anchor. Many of the frontier fort sites tied to the division's early regiments are scattered across the state, and San Antonio's Fort Sam Houston and El Paso's Fort Bliss both appear in this story. Before you go, check what is open to civilians, because public access to active military installations is limited and can change.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Themes & tags
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