LONG THRUST OPERATIONS "The Duffle Bag Soldiers"

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In response to the 1961 Berlin Crisis, the Army's famous Big Red One upscaled itself from a training cadre to a full strength, combat ready, TO&E Pentomic Infantry Division. Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, 1st Infantry Division soldiers trained in Colorado's mountains, California's desert, and on the beaches and in the woods of Virginia and the Carolinas. In 1962, the Division began sending reinforced Battle Group Taskforces, in what were termed Long Thrust Operations, to Germany. The units flew non-stop from Topeka, Kansas to Rhine-Main Air Force Base. After drawing vehicles and crew served weapons from pre-positioned NATO stocks, they immediately engaged forward combat units of the 7th Army in realistic war games. Following these maneuvers, Big Red One units moved to the Wildflecken Training Area for training in the snow, mud, hills, and forests of West Germany. After three months of intensive field training, 1st Division units underwent Battle Group ATTs. Units which achieved "superior" ATT scores were deemed acceptable to serve on the "front line of the Cold War" and transferred to Berlin for three months; then back to Fort Riley. 1st Infantry Division troopers moved around so often that men of the Germany-based 7th Army referred to them, aptly, as "the duffle bag soldiers." :ek: