U.S.Army CAPSTONE Alignments circa 1989

[mcchordsage]

Looks like we've seen some of the same sources, but you did much more work Louie! I've got some limited additional information on the 157th, which you may already have. It's all taken from this interview with a former officer and commanding general of the brigade: http://usahec.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm...35coll26/id/35

"We now began to formalize CAPSTONE relationships with different organizations. By the time I got to the 157th Headquarters, we began to work with the 1st Infantry Division. We worked with them for a number of years and it was a great experience. Then we began to work with I Corps subsequent to that relationship. All of our subsequent units in the trace would fall in on those things."
-Page 56, circa 1970s

"It was a great time. We left there and went to the 157th Brigade Headquarters, which was in Horsham, Pennsylvania. General Cannon was the Commander at the time. I was surprised to learn he wanted me to come down as the Brigade S3. I was sure that there were quite a few colonels that were longer in the tooth than I and who were quite capable of doing the job, but he seemed to think that he wanted to adopt our training style for the entire brigade’s operation. I said okay and moved on down the line. It was a very exciting time to be in the brigade. We were working with the 1st Infantry Division as our CAPSTONE. We were frequently invited out to participate in their CPXs [command post exercises] and war games."
-Page 57-58, circa 1970s

"By now, our CAPSTONE relationship had been shifted to I Corps in Fort Lewis, Washington. I Corps had a requirement that every headquarters participate in its annual war fighter exercise, Cascade Peak."
-Page 62, circa 1986

"The 157th was selected as an organization where they felt we could make some changes in terms of readiness. We had been assigned to report directly to the First United States Army. We were essentially OPCON to them."
-Page 65, circa 1988

"Desert Shield/Desert Storm [DD/DS] was a great campaign and over quickly so the 157th did not get called. A fair amount of its equipment went and a fair number of its soldiers went to back fill active duty activities. In the meantime, we continued on with our relationship with our CAPSTONE Headquarters. I can’t say enough about I Corps."
-Page 71, circa 1991

"There was another separate infantry brigade, it was a light brigade. We were the Heavy MECH [mechanized] brigade and the largest brigade in the Army Reserve. There was another brigade in Massachusetts, the 187th, which was a light brigade with a Joint Command Headquarters. It was really a terrific outfit commanded by BG Tom Stones and later Pete Clegg. They were perhaps the finest light infantry guys I had ever seen. We had an opportunity to help them out with modest support in Gaugetown, Canada during a couple of times in exercises."
-Page 74, just because the 187th fascinates me.

[Louied]

Mcchord

Thank you, there seems to be nothing out there in the 157th.

[mcchordsage]

Not much on them or the 187th. For a long time there was just a lot of uncertain speculation that they'd be sent to Iceland, but since those days I've seen a lot of confirming sources (including them training there in the 80s).

The other bit of info I finally ferreted out where it came from is on the 218th. Something told me they were involved with the 24th when it was at Fort Stewart even though the 48th Infantry Brigade was also supposed to be a roundout unit to them. It isn't a good, documentary source, and it doesn't say CAPSTONE anywhere but it sounds something like a CAPSTONE arrangement.

[Louied]

A couple of more gems I found......

The Army National Guard: Meeting The Needs of The National Strategy. Appendix gives you every ARNG Major Unit Colonel Command and above) in existence in 1992 (just before the draw-down)

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a274443.pdf

Beyond 10 in 10: Command and Control of Follow-on U.S. Divisions to AFCENT

https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA215859

[mcchordsage]

Interesting! First one I've seen before but didn't have it saved.

There were definitely some changes between CAPSTONE and Roundout units. 218th for example definitely became a 1st ID roundout brigade, but before '91 nothing makes a mention of the 1st ID connection. Brigade: A History has all the Roundout units with their years and some other interesting bits about the Pentomic brigades I used for my Twilight 1964 stuff. Posting the link just for reference.

https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Port...e-AHistory.pdf

[Louied]

218 IB only became RO to 1 ID when they lost their Fwd Bde in FRG during the post-Cold War drawdown. Around the same time 1Cav & 24 ID both got their third Bdes back with the drawdown of 9 ID, 194 AB, and 197 IB. AC units were in a massive state of flux at the time. If I was a betting man, prior to the Wall coming down, I would have to say that 218 was most likely CAPSTONED to XVIII Corps along with 28 ID, 39 IB, & 278 ACR.

[mcchordsage]

Probably! Seems that the Corps level separate brigades with rear area or other missions got lost in the shuffle.