User:FuryRecon

4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment

The 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment began as the 76th Tank Battalion in the Regular Army on 13 January 1941. Redesignated on 8 May 1941 as the 756th Tank Battalion; actual activation took place on 1 June 1941 at Fort Lewis, Washington. In June of 1943, the battalion deployed to Casablanca in French Morocco to participate in WWII. Upon arrival, the 756th moved to the Salerno beachhead in September to support the 45th Infantry Division. In January of 1944, the battalion performed reconnaissance missions in the Mt. Porchia and Cicerelli areas. The battalion was then in action with “Butler Force” near Mt. Villa and supported the 133rd Infantry in its attack against Cassino. In May and June 1944, the 756th Tank Battalion took part in an offensive action that resulted in breaching the Gothic Line at Santa Maria which drove a wedge into the Liri Valley opening an entrance through Rome and pursuing the retreating enemy forces south of Florence. The French government twice cited the battalion for its actions in Italy. After heavy fighting on 8 September, they continued to push across the Moselle River through an enemy stronghold along the Rhine which helped seize Strasbourg. It secured Sigolsheim against strong resistance and assisted in wiping out the Colmar Pocket, an action for which it was awarded the Army Presidential Unit Citation. In 1949, the 756th Tank Battalion was reassigned to the 3rd Infantry Division as the 73rd Heavy Tank Battalion in Fort Benning, GA. With the outbreak of the Korean War the following year, the battalion was relieved from the division and deployed to Korea, arriving there in August 1950. That same month, Company C was awarded the Army Presidential Unit Citation, also with the 27th Infantry, for its part in defending Taegu, the site of Eighth Army headquarters. The 73rd Tank battalion was redesignated on 2 October 1962 as 73rd Armor, a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System. In 1972 the unit was reorganized as the 4th battalion and activated in West Germany as part of the 3rd Infantry Division. It was inactivated in 1983.

On 22 June 2006, 4th Squadron was activated as 4-73rd Cavalry Regiment, an airborne unit reassigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team. The 4th Squadron 73rd Cavalry Regiment conducted combined combat operations during a 15 month deployment in the provinces of Paktyka and Paktya, Afghanistan. During its deployment, 4-73rd successfully completed 7 Squadron level Full Spectrum Counter Insurgency Operations (COIN), each demanding the flexibility and agility necessary to integrate with various higher command headquarters and conduct missions at every level of warfare in various environments. Their missions spanned from separating the enemy from a population deeply rooted for hundreds of years with insurgent activities to mentoring and developing the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in order to establish a strong independent foundation for the future success of Afghanistan. As the Squadron conducted hundreds of lethal operations against the enemy, it simultaneously developed its sophisticated approach to non-lethal operations that protected Afghans’ lives and limited collateral damage. The 4-73rd’s approach to COIN yielded immediate positive impacts to the local populace, served as a model of growth to the Coalition’s lines of military operations, and initiated conditions for sustainable governance in its area of operations. The 4th Squadron 73rd Cavalry Regiment has returned to Afghanistan for 12 more months in efforts to reproduce the same results in the western provinces of the country.