70th Tank Battalion (United States) - Reorganization As 70th Armor Regiment and Cold War Service

Reorganization As 70th Armor Regiment and Cold War Service

When the Army instituted the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS) in the late 1950s, the 70th Tank Battalion was selected for conversion into the 70th Armor Regiment. The tank companies, where appropriate, supplied the lineage and heritage of the respective battalions of the 70th Armor Regiment. Throughout their individual histories, all the battalions of the 70th Armor Regiment were either stationed in Germany or were based in the United States with contingency plans to reinforce the forces in Germany in case of a crisis or actual conflict with the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact. As the perceived threat level in Europe waxed and waned, so battalions were activated or inactivated to counter the threat. Initially, three battalions were activated in January 1963, equipped with M60 tanks, and all were assigned to the 24th Infantry Division in southern Germany. These battalions were:

1st Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment (1-70 Armor) – assigned to the 1st Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, Augsburg, Germany

2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment (2-70 Armor) – assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, Augsburg, Germany

3rd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment (3-70 Armor) – assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, Munich, Germany

1-70 Armor and 2-70 Armor were withdrawn from Germany along with their respective brigades of the 24th Infantry Division in late 1968 and stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas. However, by the end of 1970 the rest of the division, including 3-70 Armor, had also been withdrawn from Germany and all elements of the 70th Armor Regiment were inactivated at Fort Riley.

1-70 Armor was reactivated in 1975 as an element of the 4th Infantry Division when it activated a 4th Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado. The brigade was selected to rotate to Germany on the REFORGER deployment in 1976 and dubbed “Brigade 76”. Once deployed, the Brigade’s assignment to Germany was made permanent and attached to the 8th Infantry Division. 1-70 Armor operated from Wiesbaden Air Base from 1976 until the brigade was inactivated in 1984.

1-70 Armor was reactivated when the 1st Battalion 40th Armor (1-40 Armor) was reflagged as 1-70 Armor in 1988. The battalion was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Although organized as a modernized “J-Series” battalion with four tank companies, the battalion was initially equipped with M60A1 tanks instead of M1 Abrams tanks. The battalion was inactivated with the rest of the division in November 1992.

2-70 Armor was once again assigned to the 24th Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia, but was inactivated on 15 October 1987. On 16 December 1987, 2-70 Armor was assigned to the 1st Armored Division, Erlangen, West Germany, where it remained until it deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1990.

3-70 Armor was activated in 1975 and assigned to the 2nd Brigade of the reactivated 5th Infantry Division at Fort Polk, Louisiana. The battalion was equipped with M60A1 tanks. They were reorganized as a modernized “J-Series” battalion, with four tank companies instead of three, in 1985, but the M60A1 series tanks were not replaced by M1 Abrams tanks until 1988.

In 1989, the Army reorganized its regimental system again as the U.S. Army Regimental System (USARS). The 70th Armor Regiment once again saw units redesignated under the new system. Most of the battalions of the 70th Armor retained the designations and bases already assigned, but the reorganization saw the creation of a fourth battalion (4-70 Armor) for the first time. This expanded new organization reflected the military buildup begun under the Reagan administration that was intended to stress the military and economic limits of the Soviet Union. All the battalions of the 70th Armor Regiment remained active until after the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact in February 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. At the time of reorganization, the units were designated as follows:

1-70 Armor – 5th Infantry Division, Fort Polk, Louisiana

2-70 Armor – 1st Armored Division, Ferris Barracks, Erlangen, Germany

3-70 Armor – 5th Infantry Division, Fort Polk, Louisiana

4-70 Armor – formed from 2-81 Armor, Ferris Barracks, Erlangen, Germany, and assigned to 1st Armored Division, Germany.