1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment
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[edit] History of the silver lions
The 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, was the "only" Armor Battalion located on Fort Carson, with 48 M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks, 32 Armored Personnel Carriers, Over 50 Tactical Wheeled vehicles, 5 Tracked Maintenance/Recovery vehicles and over 600 personnel, the "Silver Lion" Battalion was a large Self Reliant organization. 1-68 Armor had 4 Company's (Companies A, B, C & HHC) that when combined into a team made a well organized combat unit. There were 14 M1A1 Main Battle Tanks in each Line Company (Companies A, B, & C). The combined strength of the 14 M1A1's with all guns blazing made each company, theoretically, more powerful than a WWII Battleship. With 3 "Battleships" at its disposal there was no mission that the "Silver Lions" Could not handle. To Support the 3 line Company's there was Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) which was the largest of the 4 Company's with over 300 personnel. Located in HHC were platoons of Cavalry Reconnaissance, Mortar, Maintenance, Headquarters, Signal, Supply, Intelligence, Cooks, Chemical, Administration and Medics for the Battalion.
Before the Force 21 Concept, 1st battalion 68th Armor had at the time 5 Company's that were headquarters and Headquarters Company, A, B, C & D Companies. On April 13, 2000, A Company was deactivated turning all 14 Tanks to the Mississippi National Guard. D Company was deactivated on April 14 2000 and re-flagged A Company, leaving the Battalion with only 4 Company's instead of 5.
[edit] Current setup of 1-68
Upon return from deployment to OIF 1, The 4th Infantry Division immediately began reorganization into the "modular brigade" structure of the new U.S. Army. 4th Infantry Division was again deployed to OIF in late 2005, replacing 3rd ID in Baghdad. The 3rd brigade was attached to the 101st and the 1-68 was sent to Baqubah, Iraq.
After being reorganized the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment became known as the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment. HHC known as Havoc with Medics, snipers, mortars and medics and staff positions. Alpha known as Attack and Bravo known as Blackhawk were designated as infantry companies with M2A3 Bradley fighting vehicles. Charlie company known as Steel, widely known as the most lethal and tactically proficient unit in 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, and Delta known as Destroyer were setup as tank companies [14 M1A2 Main Battle Tanks each]. Echo company known as Easy company as an engineering company. Fox company known as Forerunner was attached from 64th Brigade Support Battalion to provide Dining Facility (DFAC), maintenance/recovery and a Supply Distribution platoon. The final company is Golf company which is the rear-detachment company for the Battalion when it is deployed.
1-68 Armor is currently deployed to Iraq as part of OIF6 conducting counter-insurgency and combat operations in north east Baghdad (northern Adamiyah security District) and northern Baghdad province (Istaqlal Qada).
== Sources==army/1-68ar.htm
