The proud legend of the 63rd Infantry Division had its beginning at Casablanca in January 1943, when Prime Minister Churchill of Great Britain coined the phrase that the Axis powers would "Bleed and Burn in expiation of their crimes against humanity". From that statement, Brigadier General Louis E. Hibbs, soon to become the Division's commander, designed the shoulder insignia and the slogan "Blood and Fire".

On 15 June 1943, the Division was activated at Camp Blanding, Florida. The cadre manning the new division came from Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky's 98th Infantry Division. Following initial cadre training the division relocated some 650 miles to Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, arriving there during the latter part of August 1943.

During the month of September 1943, men from reception centers all over the country rapidly brought the division up to strength, and intensive basic training commenced. In November 1943 the men of the division had completed basic and small unit training and were anticipating advanced and larger unit maneuvers, this, however was not to be.

In December 1943, all privates, privates first class, along with some noncommissioned and junior officers were reassigned to other divisions alerted for overseas movement. The process of receiving replacements and training them only to have them reassigned as fillers for other divisions alerted for overseas movement was repeated twice again before the division was at long last alerted, as a unit, for overseas assignment.

During March and April 1944 the division was brought to full strength with replacements coming from training centers, as well as men from the Army Specialist Training Program and the Army Air Corps Cadet Training Program. The latter two programs had been cut-back and their participants released for assignment to the Infantry.

As the division reached full strength again , training started anew. By November 1944 the division was ready for movement to an overseas area. On 6 November 1944 the 63rd Infantry Division advance party left Camp Van Dorn by train for Camp Shanks, New York and ultimate shipment to France. The advance party or forward element of the division was known as Task Force Harris, and consisted of the three Infantry Regiments, the 253rd,the 254th and the 255th plus a small supporting staff. The Task Force was commanded by Brigadier General Frederick M. Harris.

Task Force Harris arrived in Marseille, France on 8 December 1944 and after a few days in a staging area moved by road and rail to Camp d'Oberhoffen France, located about midway between Colmar and Sarreguemines. By the end of December 1944, Task Force Harris was disbanded and all three regiments were reassigned to various divisions of the 6th Army Group. The 253rd was attached to the 44th Infantry Division in the Sarreguemines-Rimling area; the 254th as attached to the 3rd Infantry Division in the Colmar area and the 255th was attached to the 100th Infantry Division near Bitche.

Thus the three regiments, separated from 63rd Infantry Division control, were destined to make their own history, until reunited with the Division in mid-February 1945.

From mid-February until the end of the war, the 63rd Infantry Division made a path of Blood and Fire from Sarreguemines through the Siegfried Line to Worms, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Gunzburg and ending in Landsberg Germany at the end of April 1945 when the division was pulled from the line for a much needed rest.

By war's end Division units had participated in three(3) battle campaigns and its Infantry Regiments had been awarded seven (7) Distinguished Unit Awards (now known as Presidential Unit Citations) and a French Croix de Guerre with Palm.

Webmaster's Note The seventh Presidential Unit Citation was awarded to the 253rd Infantry for their action in the Buchhof/Stein area of Germany. Special thanks to Fred Clinton of the 63rd Infantry Division Association for bringing us up to date.

During the period of December 1944 to May 1945 the division suffered over 1000 killed, more than 4000 wounded, over 1000 missing in action, 63 captured by the enemy, and over 4000 non-battle casualties. Division forces captured over 21000 enemy soldiers.

In September 1945 the Blood and Fire division was restaffed with "high point men" from other divisions, returned to the United States and on 29th of September was inactivated.

The 63rd Infantry Division came back to life in March of 1952 when it was activated in the Los Angeles, CA area as a reserve Division. The division was deactivated again in March of 1965, only to return to life again as the 63rd US Army Reserve Command in February 1968.

The 63rd ARCOM embraces California, Arizona, and Nevada and is made up of Combat Service and Combat Service Support units and one tank battalion. During DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM 23 units of the ARCOM were mobilized. Some of these units were deployed to Saudi Arabia.

The World War II veterans of the 63rd Infantry Division are proud "Grandparents" of the men and women of the 63rd ARCOM. We congratulate and give our support to all who serve our nation today. Thanks for keeping the "Blood and Fire" alive.