4th Brigade Combat Team 25th Infantry Division (Airborne)

The 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division (25th ID) is an airborne infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of the United States Army. The unit is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska and is the only airborne brigade combat team in the Pacific Theater. It is also the newest airborne IBCT and one of only five in the United States Army; the others are the three IBCT of the 82nd Airborne Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.
The 4th Brigade was first activated on 6 December 1969 at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, to replace the 29th Infantry Brigade, a Hawaii Army National Guard unit that was being released from active duty, but inactivated on 15 December 1970 and reflagged as the 1st Brigade when that unit returned from Vietnam. In 2004, the United States Army announced the Army Modernization Plan, intended to restructure the U.S. Army by creating new modular brigade combat teams. A new airborne brigade combat team at Fort Richardson, Alaska was included as part of the restructuring. The new brigade was established as the fourth brigade under the lineage of the 25th Infantry Division and the first new U.S. airborne unit created since the end of World War II. The 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment (Airborne) then operating as a battalion task force and located at Fort Richardson was consolidated with the new brigade. The battalion served as a flagship unit, providing senior personnel and a training cadre for the other units of the brigade. On 14 July 2005 the brigade was officially constituted at the athletic fields of Buckner Field House, with COL Michael X. Garrett becoming the first brigade commander. At the ceremony, he officially christened the "Spartan Brigade" with the new motto "Sparta Lives."
United States Army Alaska is the brigade's next higher command, not the 25th Infantry Division which is headquartered in Hawaii. The brigade, along with 1st Brigade Combat Team (Stryker), 25th ID, which is also stationed in Alaska, share in the history of the 25th ID, but are not subordinate to the division; the chain of command goes direct from United States Army Alaska to United States Army Pacific.


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The above information provided in part by Wikipedia, The Institute of Heraldry, Global Security, and the official websites of the corresponding units and formations.