47th Infantry Division (United States)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 47th Infantry Division


caption= Shoulder Sleeve Insignia
dates= 1946 - 1991
country= USA
allegiance=
branch= Army National Guard
type= Division
role= Infantry
size=
command_structure=
current_commander=
garrison=
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname= Viking Division
patron=
motto=
colors=
march=
mascot=
battles=
notable_commanders= Norman Hendrickson
anniversaries=US Infantry
previous=45th Infantry Division
next=49th Infantry Division

The 47th Infantry Division was a formation of the Army National Guard active from 1946 to 1991. The Division was created on June 10, 1946 as a National Guard infantry division from the efforts of Minnesota's Adjutant General Ellard Walsh. The division was built from scratch with veteran transfers and new recruits, mostly from Minnesota and North Dakota, under the command of Brigadier General Norman Hendrickson. General Hendrickson was the Chief-of-Staff for the 34th Division in the North African and Italian campaigns in 1943.

Units of the division were allotted to the Minnesota National Guard, and North Dakota National Guard. The division never saw combat throughout its history, although it was federalized and sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, from 1951 to 1954 in support of the Korean War. During the Korean War the division was used as a replacement division, and its men and units transferred to Regular Army units. It returned to state control, and its home state, in 1953.

The division's North Dakota elements were transferred out in 1959 during a service-wide reconfiguration to the Pentomic structure, and so became an entirely Minnesotan division. The division became mixed again in further Pentagon restructuring in 1968 when Iowa's 34th and Illinois' 66th Infantry Bridges joined.

The division was deactivated in 1991. Immediately afterwards, the division's former units were reactivated as the 34th Infantry Division. Effectively, the division was renamed, but for official lineage purposes, the Department of the Army does not recognize any continuity.

The 47th Infantry Division has the notoriety of remaining on the rolls longer than any other National Guard division that did not see combat (45 years of service). The only Army division that did not see combat to have remained on the rolls longer is the Army Reserve's 108th Division.

References

*Wilson, John B. (1997). "Maneuver and Firepower: The Evolution of Divisions and Separate Brigades". Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History.
* [http://www.dma.state.mn.us/campripley/SpecFeatures/47ID.doc Military Historical Society of Minnesota - 47th Infantry]