April 21, 2007: The "brigade centric"
reorganization of the U.S. Army reached another milestone, when the 4th
Infantry Division lost its divisional artillery. For over a century, American
infantry divisions had their own artillery "regiment" or "brigade." But under
the new organization, each combat brigade has a battalion of artillery. There
is still a divisional artillery organization, that contains rockets (MLRS) and
radars for detecting the location of enemy artillery. But under the new
organization, what has long been called "divisional artillery" is now referred
to as the "Fires Brigade." But in the case of the 4th Infantry Division, it was
felt that the unit was better used elsewhere. So the divisional Fires Brigade
was renamed the 41st Fires Brigade and made a non-divisional unit. That is, the
next higher headquarters (in this case the 3rd Corps) now controls the 41st
Fires Brigade, and can use it to support any of the divisions that are assigned
to the corps.
