World War I

The 80th Infantry Division was organized on August 5, 1917, in the National Army as Headquarters, 80th Infantry Division. This was activated later that month at Camp Lee (now Fort Lee), Petersburg, Virginia.

The division was made up primarily of draftees from Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia and West Virginia; as well as the Cumberland Valley of central Pennsylvania and Maryland. The new division was nicknamed the "Blue Ridge Division." The unit shoulder patch reflects this tradition with three blue mountain peaks representing the Blue Ridge mountains running through those states.

The 80th reached its full strength of 23,000 soldiers and sailed for France, landing June 8, 1918. By mid August the Division completed training with the British Third Army and joined forces on the front lines, where it took part in the Somme and the Meuse-Argonne offensives. During the night of November 5, 1918, the 80th Division was replaced on the front lines by units of the 1st Division and held in reserve until the cessation of hostilities on November 11.

The 80th returned to the States in May of 1919, and was inactivated at Camp Lee on June 26. It was reconstituted into the organized reserve on June 24, 1921 and organized September 1, 1922, at Richmond, Virginia. Because of funding and personnel shortages, Army Reserve divisions were never more than cadre units during the inter-war period.

World War II

On July 15, 1942, just 20 days short of its 25th birthday, the 80th Division was again ordered to active service. Soldiers reported to Camp Forest, Tennessee, and later trained at Camp Phillips, Kansas, and the California-Arizona maneuver area (today known as Fort Irwin). On July 4, 1944, the 80th boarded the SS Queen Mary and a few days later landed at Greenock, Firth of Clyde, Scotland. It proceeded south to Northwich, England, for more training. The Division crossed the English Channel and into France, landing on Utah Beach shortly after noon on August 2, 1944. The 80th received its baptism of fire on August 8, 1944 when it took over the LeMans bridgehead in the XX Corps area.

During the next nine months the 80th Division served in General George S. Patton's Third Army, fighting its way across Northern France, Belgium, and into Germany. By war's end some 80th units had gotten as far east as Austria and Czechoslovakia. Along the way the Division saved the City of Luxembourg from German troops commanded by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt during the Battle of the Bulge (the Ardennes Offensive / Battle of the Bulge), by making a 150-mile motorized march in just 36 hours to form a defensive line around the city.

With the 4th Armored and 26th Infantry Divisions, the 80th Division's 2nd Battalion, 318th Infantry, and the 1st Battalion, 319th Infantry, helped relieve American forces surrounded at Bastogne.

The Division crossed the Our and Sauer rivers into Germany the first week of February 1945, breaking through the "West Wall." The advance moved with such speed that in one six-day period the Division covered 125 miles. By early April it crossed the Rhine and took the industrial city of Kassel. Proceeding eastward, it also captured Gotha, Erfurt, and Weimar-Buchenwald (location of the infamous concentration camp).

By V-E Day the 80th had amassed 277 days of combat and had captured more than 200,000 enemy soldiers. The Division returned to the States in January 1946 and was placed on inactive status. Six months later it was redesignated as the Reserve airborne division. The Division was reorganized as a Reserve infantry division on May 10, 1952, and then as a Reserve training division on March 1, 1959. On October 1, 1994, the 80th was re-designated as an institutional training division.

Southwest Asia

Two 80th Division units were called to active duty in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

The 424th Transportation Company of Galax, Virginia, was activated November 17, 1990. After training and equipping at Fort Eustis, Virginia, it deployed to Saudi Arabia January 5, 1991. For its service in the war the 424th was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation. By the end of the war, elements of the 424th had advanced as far as the Euphrates river in support of coalition assault units. The 424th returned to the States June 29-30, 1991, and to home station July 3.

Soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 318th Regiment, 4th Brigade, at Fort Story, Virginia, were activated January 23, 1991, and reported to Fort Eustis to train recalled reservists. Because of the short duration of the ground war in Iraq and Kuwait, additional Individual Ready Reserve troops were not called up and the 3rd Battalion was released from active duty and returned to home station March 17.

The 80th Division is still an active component of the United States Army Reserves and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Reserve sites for the division are still located throughout its original call up areas of 1917 (81 years ago) in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.