The 87th Infantry Division ("Golden Acorn") was a unit of the United States Army in World War I and World War II. After World War II, the 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop became the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, which made the only combat jump in Vietnam and in Iraq. As of 22 September 2021, the rest of the division now exists as a training formation as part of the 84th Training Command as the 87th Training Division.

World War I

The 87th Division was a National Army division, organized as a square division and made up of draftees from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. It was activated at Camp Pike, Arkansas, on 25 August 1917, nearly five months after the American entry into World War I.

Like many units, the 87th Division was used to furnish personnel for other units scheduled for earlier overseas departure. Before November, most of the enlisted men were transferred to other units (2,400 to the 81st Division, 3,000 to the 31st Division, and 8,000 to the 39th Division).

The division was reconstituted from draftees drawn from the Midwest. Between January and June 1918, 40,000 men arrived at Camp Pike, but 30,000 left. The 87th Division lost more than 20,000 men, and numbered just 15,000 men in June 1918.

It was again reconstituted, with draftees mostly from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. It went overseas to the Western Front in September 1918, but was utilized as a pool of laborers by the Services of Supply (SOS) of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).

It returned to the United States in January 1919, shortly after the Armistice with Germany in November, to Camp Dix, New Jersey, and was demobilized in February 1919.

Commanders Major General Samuel D. Sturgis (25 August 1917). Brigadier General Robert Campbell Van Vliet (13 November 1917). Major General Samuel D. Sturgis. Colonel John O'Shea (6 October 1918). Major General Samuel D. Sturgis (23 October 1918). Brigadier General W. F. Martin (22 November 1918).

Order of battle Headquarters, 87th Division 173rd Infantry Brigade 345th Infantry Regiment 346th Infantry Regiment 335th Machine Gun Battalion 174th Infantry Brigade 347th Infantry Regiment 348th Infantry Regiment 336th Machine Gun Battalion 162nd Field Artillery Brigade 334th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) 335th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) 336th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) 312th Trench Mortar Battery 334th Machine Gun Battalion 312th Engineer Regiment 312th Medical Regiment 312th Field Signal Battalion Headquarters Troop, 87th Division 312th Train Headquarters and Military Police 312th Ammunition Train 312th Supply Train 312th Engineer Train 312th Sanitary Train 345th, 346th, 347th, and 348th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals

Interwar period

The 87th Division was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the Fourth Corps Area, and assigned to the XIV Corps. The division was further allotted to the states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. The division headquarters was organized on 23 September 1921 in Jackson, Mississippi. The headquarters was subsequently relocated on 14 October 1921 to the New Orleans International Depot in New Orleans, Louisiana, and once again relocated in April 1922 to Poland and Dauphine Streets in New Orleans, where it remained until activated for World War II. To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the chief of staff published a division newsletter named "The Acorn" in keeping with division’s nickname and the military, geographical, and historical background of the regions from which it drew its personnel. The newsletter informed the division’s members of such things as when and where the inactive training sessions were to be held, what the division’s summer training quotas were, where the camps were to be held, and which units would be assigned to help conduct the Citizens Military Training Camps (CMTC).

The designated mobilization and training station for the 87th Division was Camp McClellan, Alabama, the location where much of the division’s training activities occurred in the interwar years. The division headquarters was called to duty for training there as a unit on a number of occasions. The headquarters and special staff usually trained with their counterparts on the staff of the 8th Infantry Brigade, 4th Division, either at Camp McClellan or at Fort McPherson, Georgia. The infantry regiments of the division held their summer training primarily with the 4th Division's 8th or 22nd Infantry Regiments, either at Camp McClellan or at one of the Regular Army regiments' home stations. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, trained at various posts in the Fourth Corps Area, usually with the active units of the 4th Division. For example, the division’s artillery trained with units of the 2nd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; the 312th Engineer Regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, with the 4th and 7th Engineer Regiments; the 312th Medical Regiment trained at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia; and the 312th Observation Squadron trained with the 22nd Observation Squadron at Maxwell Field, Alabama.

In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility to conduct the CMTC held at Camp McClellan and Fort McPherson each year. On a number of occasions, the division participated in Fourth Corps Area and Third Army command post exercises in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the Fourth Corps Area, the 87th Division did not participate in the various Fourth Corps Area maneuvers and the Third Army maneuvers of 1938, 1940, and 1941 as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment. Instead, the officers and a few enlisted reservists were assigned to Regular and Guard units to fill vacant slots and bring the units up to war strength for the exercises. Additionally, some officers were assigned duties as umpires or support personnel. For the 1938 Third Army maneuvers, for example, about 200 of the division’s officers were attached to the National Guard's 31st Division (troops from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi) to allow that unit to function as an almost full-strength division.

World War II

Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The headquarters companies of the two infantry brigades were consolidated into the division's cavalry reconnaissance troop, and one infantry regiment was removed by inactivation. The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery, and its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split.

The 87th Infantry Division was ordered into active military service on 15 December 1942 at Camp McCain, Mississippi. It was nicknamed the "Baby Division" because many of its initial filler soldiers were among the first eighteen year olds conscripted after the lower limit of the draft age was reduced from twenty to eighteen years old in November 1942."News of Our Men and Women in Uniform," Dunsmuir News (Dunsmuir, California), 9 July 1943 It moved to the Tennessee Maneuver Area on 3 December 1943, for the Second Army #4 Tennessee Maneuvers, and consolidated at Fort Jackson, South Carolina on 20 January 1944 for divisional training. The division staged at Camp Kilmer, at Stelton (now Edison), New Jersey, on 10 October 1944 until it received its port call to the New York Port of Embarkation in Brooklyn, New York.

It sailed to the European Theater on 17 October 1944, arrived in England on 12 November 1944, and staged for movement to France. It was assigned to the Third Army on 25 November 1944, and arrived at Le Havre, France, on 28 November 1944. The 87th was further assigned to the III Corps on 4 December 1944, and to the XII Corps on 11 December 1944, to the XV Corps on 21 December 1944, and to the VIII Corps on 29 December 1944. Crossed into Belgium on 12 January 1945, and returned to XII Corps on 14 January 1945. Crossed into Luxembourg on 21 January 1945, and assigned to VIII Corps on 25 January 1945. Because of discontinuity in the German railroad system, the 87th was routed to Germany by returning to Belgium on 3 February 1945. Entered Germany 16 March 1945, and remained to Victory in Europe Day. Returned to the United States at the New York Port of Embarkation on 11 July 1945, and proceeded to Fort Benning, Georgia, on 14 July 1945 to prepare for deployment to Japan; it was at Fort Benning on VJ Day. The 87th Infantry Division was inactivated on 21 September 1945, at Fort Benning.

Campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe. Days of combat: 154. Distinguished Unit Citation: 2. Awards: Medal of Honor-1; Distinguished Service Cross-9; Army Distinguished Service Medal-1; Silver Star-364; Legion of Merit −20; Soldier's Medal −41; Bronze Star −1,542; Air Medal −49.

Commanders: MG Percy W. Clarkson (December 1942 – October 1943), MG Eugene M. Landrum (October 1943 – April 1944), MG Frank L. Culin Jr. (April 1944 to inactivation).

Returned to U.S.: 11 July 1945. Inactivated: 20 September 1945.

Combat chronicle

The 87th Infantry Division arrived in Scotland, 22 October 1944, and trained in England, 23 October-30 November. It landed in France, including at Rouen, 1–3 December, and moved to Metz, where, on 6 December, it went into action against and took Fort Driant after shelling the ports day and night for five days. The division then shifted to the vicinity of Gros-Réderching near the Saar-German border on 10 December. The 87th was moving into Germany when, on 16 December 1944, German Field Marshal Von Rundstedt launched his offensive in the Ardennes forest (Battle of the Bulge). Through 22 December, the division captured Rimling, Obergailbach, and Guiderkirch. Then ordered to head for the Bulge, they were relieved by the 44th division.