27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (United States)

27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
Shoulder sleeve insignia
Active	1986–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Brigade
Nickname(s)	Empire (special designation)
Engagements	Iraq, Afghanistan

The 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team ("Empire") is an infantry brigade combat team of the New York Army National Guard, one of the brigades that make up the 42nd Infantry Division.

The state mission of the 27th Infantry Brigade is to maintain a manned, trained and equipped force capable of rapid deployment to any area within New York to aid civil authorities. The 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team is also tasked with overseas deployment missions and must be capable to respond to any threat, foreign or domestic.

Composition of the Twenty-Seventh Division in WWI:

After the war the 27th was reactivated back in the New York National Guard for peace time service, climaxed by participation in the First Army maneuvers of 1940.

Composition of the Twenty-Seventh Division between the wars

The 27th Division was federalized for service on 15 October 1940 and sent to Fort McClellan, Alabama for training, it was commanded by Major General William Haskell. At this time it still retained its World War I organization of two brigades and four regiments. The 53rd Brigade consisted of the 105th and 106th Infantry regiments while the 54th Brigade contained the 108th and 165th Infantry regiments. The initial call up was for one year which would have ended in October 1941; the President directed that all federalized National Guard units be extended for six months. The 27th Division was the first divisional unit deployed from the continental United States and left for California seven days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii. While in California the 27th awaited orders to ship out and concentrated on bringing itself up to the authorized field strength of 1,012 officers and 21,314 enlisted men. The division’s strength had been reduced by discharges to around 14,000 men. The first elements of the division boarded ships bound for Hawaii on 27 February 1942. During its layover on the West Coast, the 27th was redesignated the 27th Infantry Division.

The division remained on Hawaii for a number of months, during which time it was triangularized, with the 108th Infantry regiment being reassigned to the 40th Division. A division that has been triangularized has been given three infantry regiments instead of the four of a square division. This final reorganization dismantled the brigade structure and again dropped the division’s strength to 14,000 men. Following the reorganization, the 27th Division was shifted to Oahu, where it would relieve the 25th Infantry Division, which was slated to join the U.S forces fighting in Guadalcanal. For most of its time in Hawaii, the 27th was under the command of Brigadier General Ralph Pennel.