FORT RILEY, Kansas – Two battalions assigned to the inactivating 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, are set to case their colors in ceremonies this month at the post’s Cavalry Parade Field.
The casing ceremony for the “Rangers” of the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, is scheduled for 10 a.m. May 1.
The 2nd Bn., 16th Inf. Regt., is being reorganized and assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Georgia.
The 2nd Bn., 16th Inf. Regt., earned the Rangers nickname when German forces guarding the coast mistakenly observed and reported the approaching regiment as a “Ranger” regiment during the D-Day invasion. The 16th Inf. Regt. has fought in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, Pancho Villa Expedition, World War I and II, Vietnam, the Gulf War and the War on Terrorism. The 2nd Bn., 16th Inf. Regt., has served with distinction throughout its history, most recently on the continent of Africa. The 4th IBCT regionally aligned force mission was spearheaded by the Rangers in Djibouti and the Horn of
Africa, conducting numerous exercises and theater security cooperation missions across the eastern portion of the African continent.
The casing ceremony for the “Wolverines” of the Special Troops Battalion is set for 2 p.m. May 12.
Soldiers of the STB have provided intelligence, logistics, signals capabilities among other critical specialties, and have played an integral role in 4th IBCT’s training, missions and multiple combat deployments in the last seven years.
The battalions and stood up in January 2006 when the 4th IBCT was activated at Fort Riley. The brigade’s colors were cased April 2 during a ceremony on Cavalry Parade Field ahead of the 4th IBCT’s June inactivation. The inactivation was first announced in July 2013 and was part of the Army’s ongoing restructuring process.
A casing ceremony for the 4th IBCT’s 701st Brigade Support Battalion is set for 1:30 p.m. June 2.
