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Since the beginning of man's awareness, the rainbow, spanning the horizons, has been a mystic symbol, displayed in the heavens to signal the passing of yet another storm and the birth of new hope for mankind.

So it is today. Twice in this century, the Rainbow has signaled to millions of people the end of tyranny and oppression, and the beginning of new hope for a better world.

The 42nd "Rainbow"Division Veterans "Association" merged with the RDV "Memorial Foundation, Inc." at 9 P.M. July 19, 2003 at the Annual Reunion in St. Louis. The Veterans organization is now officially Rainbow Division Veterans Memorial Foundation, Inc. WWI and WWII veterans, families and extended families are eligible to be members of this organization.

42nd Infantry Division Mechanized

Honorably discharged veterans, or active duty personnel of the 42nd Infantry Division Mechanized are eligible for membership in the 42nd Rainbow Division Veterans Memorial Foundation, Inc.

RAINBOW DIVISION -- WORLD WAR I

The 42nd Rainbow Division was formed in August 1917 of National Guard units from 26 states and the District of Columbia. After Chief of Staff Major Douglas MacArthur remarked that the Division "would stretch over the whole country like a rainbow," the coalesced national guard units were christened Rainbow Division. As the war progressed Douglas MacArthur was promoted to commander of the 84th Brigade and finally to commander of the Rainbow Division. Its four infantry regiments were respectively 165th (formerly New York's 69th); 166th (formerly Ohio's 4th); 167th (formerly Alabama's 4th); and 168th (formerly Iowa's 3rd). The field artillery, machine gun, ambulance, hospital, and other units originated in other states from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The Division saw its first action in February 1918 fighting alongside the French. The battles continued throughout the following months and on July 14, 1918 the final German offensive was contained by the 4th French Army, in which the Rainbow Division played a prominent role at the famous Battle of the Champagne. Many bloody battles and great victories followed until the Germans were finally defeated. Battles included those in the Chateau-Thierry salient where Rainbow's poet, Joyce Kilmer was killed; St. Mihiel; Verdun front and Argonne, where Rainbowmen engaged in the final battle of WW I. German occupation duty followed.

RAINBOW DIVISION -- WW II

In the World War II 42nd Rainbow Division, the three Infantry Regiments were numbered 222nd, 232nd, and 242nd. Other units in the Division organization were: 42nd Division Artillery; 232nd Field Artillery Bn., 392nd Field Artillery Bn., 402nd Field Artillery Bn., and 542nd Field Artillery Bn; 142nd Engineer (Combat) Bn.; 122nd Medical Bn.; 42nd Reconnaissance Troop; 132nd Signal Company; 742nd Ordnance Co.; 42nd Quartermaster Company; 42nd Military Police Platoon; Division Headquarters and Headquarters Company. The World War II Rainbow Division was activated on July 14, 1943, with the new Rainbow soldiers distributed throughout the Division proportionate to the population of the states at that time.

In the Autumn of 1944, the three Infantry Regiments were rushed overseas ahead of the remainder of the Division. They were designated as "Task Force Linden" and, in the words of one infantryman, "flung into the maw," totally fragmented, segregated with no artillery or back up support to bolster other thinned-down divisions trying to prevent a breakout of two German armies in Alsace. Task Force Linden's companies were used to defend against and attack and counterattack powerful German forces along a 30-mile furious battle front in January 1945. The rest of the Division arrived in France in January and the Division was at last intact. The Rainbow Division as part of the expanded 7th Army attacked through the strong German defensive positions in the Hardt Mountains of France, penetrated the Siegfried Line at the German frontier, crossed the Rhine, and advanced into the cradle of Nazism, capturing Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, Furth (Nuremberg's twin city), Donauworth, liberating Dachau concentration camp, on April 29, 1945, and swept through Munich on April 30, shortly before the war ended on May 8. The 42nd Rainbow Division served in the Army of Occupation in Austria until the spring of 1946. The Division was deactivated on July 14, 1946.

42ND RAINBOW DIVISION RETURNS

Following is the history copied from www.42idonline.com/history.php

The 42nd returned in 1947 as a National Guard Division for New York, the state of its birth. During the Cold War years, the division assisted communities during numerous emergencies while actively training for its wartime mission. In March 1970 the division federalized during the national postal strike and later provided relief to New Yorkers in the aftermath of Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Rainbow Soldiers took over the New York prison system in 1979 during a corrections officers’ strike. In December 1989, the Rainbow Division headquarters moved from New York City to Troy, New York, where it remains today.

In 1991, hundreds of Rainbow Soldiers volunteered and served during the Gulf War. In addition, the division provided an opposing force at the Army's National Training Center to better prepare units for deployment overseas. The division Soldiers performed so well they received the Army's prestigious Hanby Trophy, the first National Guard unit to ever do so.

The 42nd Division returned to its roots as a truly diversified division in 1993 when it consolidated with elements of the 26th and 50th divisions to form one National Guard Division. The division now has units in nine different states, including New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Florida, Michigan and Illinois.

Division Soldiers have repeatedly responded to local needs during emergencies with more state active duty missions in the 1990s than ever before in the Rainbow's history. The division participated in the northeastern states’ disaster response for blizzards and floods in 1996, fires in 1997, the devastating ice storm and New York’s tornado recovery in 1998, and the Y2K contingency and snowstorm and hurricane responses in 1999 and 2000.

Following the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, Rainbow battalions from New York City armories, the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, 1st Battalion, 101st Cavalry, the 642nd Division Aviation Support Battalion and the 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery Regiment provided immediate emergency response. Thousands of Rainbow Soldiers from the remainder of the division’s New York Army National Guard and the division headquarters sustained security and recovery operations in Manhattan as part of Joint Task Force 42. The security augmentation operations for hundreds of Rainbow Soldiers continue to this day.

Other Rainbow Soldiers federally mobilized for the nation’s Global War on Terror with troops deployed to Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, providing homeland security missions for Operation Noble Eagle from 2001 through 2003 and deploying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004 where the Rainbow Division will lead elements of the Multinational Corps – Iraq in providing stability and support to the emerging Iraqi democratic government. Today, the Soldiers who wear the famous 42nd Infantry patch continue the Division's long-standing tradition of service to nation, state, and community.

All WW I and WW II Rainbow veterans are eligible for membership in the RDV Memorial Foundation, Inc. All of their descendants and blood and adopted relatives and their descendants are eligible for membership. In addition, all active duty and veterans of the National Guard 42nd Division Mechanized are eligible for membership.

The Rainbow story is one of patriotism and dedication to the cause of freedom. It spans most of the Twentieth Century and is destined to last through out the current century.

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