‘A week to remember’: Fort Hood soldiers spend week celebrating 104th anniversary of the 1st Cavalry Division
FORT HOOD, Texas (KWTX) - Soldiers on Fort Hood spent the week celebrating the history of the 1st Cavalry Division.
Since 1921, the 1st Cavalry Division has dawned the big yellow patch as it defends America and its allies.
“A legacy forged on horseback along the border, in the jungles of the pacific, the mountains of Korea, the valleys of Vietnam, in the deserts of the Middle East, now on the plains of Europe,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas Feltey, Commanding General of 1st Cavalry Division. “The yellow patch has been everywhere our nation has needed it.”
That history is celebrated in true warrior fashion with a little healthy competition through sports like basketball and combat events like grappling, boxing and more.
All of it happened during a weeklong celebration they call Cav Week.
“I want to congratulate every unit that stepped up and competed,” said Maj. Gen. Feltey. “Whether you walked away with a trophy or not, you represented your troopers, your leaders, and the Division with pride.”
Even those who only had time to cheer on their battle buddies felt the impact of Cav Week.
“I’m very proud of what our boys in 3CR have done,” said Staff Sgt. Jessie Blalack with the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. “I’m also proud of everybody that competed in every competition we had this week. It showed more heart than I have ever seen in any other unit that I have ever been in.”
That heart was fueled by a century of wearing the big yellow batch on the battle field.
“Cav Week means to us, it means truly, truly, how do you bring the past of the cavalry division to the present and how do you celebrate that,” said CSM LeVares Jackson Sr., Command Sergeant Major of 1st Cavalry Division. “They way we found fit to celebrate that is by allowing soldiers and families to invest in each other.”
That investment and honor was not lost on the highest ranking noncommissioned officer in First Cavalry.
“Unable to say in words but it’s a feeling that deep down inside, you know that you’re a part of something that’s bigger that life,” said CSM Jackson Sr. “That’s bigger than all things. That I always can say, ‘I’ve been a 1st Cavalry Division trooper.’”
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