Born For Battle

During the hectic summer of 1966, as the war in Vietnam was heating up, General William Westmoreland requested that more combat troops and combat units be rushed to Southeast Asia. 

The 199th Infantry Brigade was created at Ft. Benning, Georgia, on June 1 to fulfill that need.  Fortunately, the majority of the Brigade’s senior NCO’s and field-grade officers were experienced veterans with decades of service from World War II and Korea.  The original Redcatchers in the enlisted ranks were combat arms qualified specialists.

Since the newly formed Brigade was slated to arrive in Vietnam by that December, speed in organization and crash-courses in jungle training and field exercises were the orders of the day.