Thanks for the info. Guard units seem to be of WW I origin and later deactivated. Here is the history of 42nd Div of which I was a member. In WW II they were regular divisions staffed by regular army and draftees and deactivated as army divisions at the end of the war. I knew nobody as a guard member. In the Iraq war they already existed as a Guard unit, served time and returned as a unit.
” With the onset of America’s participation in the Second World War, the 42nd Division was reactivated. At the July 1943 reactivation ceremony, the new division commander, Brigadier General Harry Collins echoed MacArthur’s sentiments on the 42nd Division’s unique status when he said, “The Rainbow represents the people of our country.”
The 42nd landed in France in December 1944 and as part of the 7th Army, advanced through France and entered Germany in March of 1945. It was during the 42nd Division’s rapid advance through Germany in April 1945 that they, along with the Guard’s 45th Infantry Division, liberated the infamous Dachau concentration camp.
By the end of the war, the 42nd Division had established an enviable record. It was first in its corps to enter Germany, first to penetrate the Seigfried line and first into Munich. Rainbow soldiers had seized over 6,000 square miles of Nazi held territory during their march across Europe. The Division ended the war serving as occupation forces in Austria and was inactivated in June 1946.”
“42nd Div of which I was a member”
What unit?
I myself was with 1/101FA out of New Bedford for a short time.