US Army leaders at Fort Campbell in western Kentucky retired the colors of one of the 101st Airborne Division’s oldest companies.
The Tuesday ceremony drew a crowd of veterans, family and community members to witness the end of the 74-year history of the Screaming Eagles’ Pathfinders.
Lt. Col. Ryan Boyle ordered the dismissal of the 101st’s last maroon beret-clad soldiers.
The 55 members of the F-Company 5th Battalion Pathfinders, among the last of their kind in the country, promptly recited their lifelong motto “First In, Last Out.”
The Pathfinders are experts in battlefield insertion and reconnaissance. First making their name in World War 2, they infiltrated the early hours of D-Day to set flares and radar targets to guide airborne soldiers dropping into Normandy. They’ve assisted air assault units in nearly every major war even as advancing military technology steadily replaced the need for their role.
Lt. Col. Boyle says an inactivation like this doesn’t happen often, and it comes as part of an Army-wide downsizing.
“From the Battalion Commander perspective and from the combat aviation perspective, we’re gonna lose the capacity organically to conduct pathfinder operations within the battalion and brigade," said Boyle. "These are some of the finest soldiers in the 101st airborne division, as they are reassigned and transferred, the gaining units that are gonna receive these soldiers, who are the most knowledgeable and experienced soldiers, top-notch individuals and professionals."
Capt. Daniel Marshall says it was a humbling experience to be the company’s last commander and that he was honored to share the company’s final day with veterans from previous wars, including the first commander Captain Frank Lillyman who led the Pathfinders during D-Day.
“No one wants to be the guy to inactivate a company," said Marshall. “It’s pretty awesome to see a 19 year-old Pathfinder who just got back from Afghanistan talk to a former 19 year-old who started in the Pathfinder company in Vietnam and to hear their similarities. It’s funny to see that some things about soldiers never change, and one thing is the pride you have to be in this unit and the spirit of the core, and the sense of brotherhood."
Sgt. Josh Morgan is one of the soldiers moving on to another unit.
“It’ll be hard at first because we’ve worked so closely together but we’re all real great friends, a lot of us have worked a lot together, so we maintain that friendship," said Morgan. "So either professionally at work or outside of work as friends so we’ll stay in touch and continue to talk to each other in our off time and if we have questions, help each other out.”
Marshall says the men weren’t fazed when they heard about the inactivation notice, but rather saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate to other companies the decades of expertise and glory associated with the Pathfinders name.
“You know, it wasn’t until we had to do the rehearsal for today that they’re were like ‘okay, what’s next? What’s our next mission?'" said Marshall. "Well, their next mission is to maintain the Pathfinder capability within the division and they’re extremely excited to carry that forward in the organization”
Carrying forward to, as the 101st say in their fight song, their “rendezvous with destiny."
