98th Division (United States)

98th Infantry Division
98th Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia
Active	1921-46 1947–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Garrison/HQ	Fort Benning, Georgia
Nickname(s)	"Iroquois" (special designation)
Engagements	World War II
Commanders
Current commander	Brigadier General Miles Davis
Insignia
Distinctive unit insignia

The 98th Infantry Division ("Iroquois") was a unit of the United States Army in the closing months of World War I and during World War II. The unit is now one of the U.S. Army Reserve's training divisions, officially known as the 98th Training Division (Initial Entry Training). The 98th Training Division's current primary mission is to conduct Initial Entry Training (IET) for new soldiers. It is one of three training divisions subordinate to the 108th Training Command (IET).

Following its initial organization in 1918, the 98th Training Division (IET) has experienced multiple cycles of activation, training, deployment and deactivation as well as substantial reorganizations and changes of mission. Since 1959, however, the 98th Training Division (IET) has been a unit of the U.S. Army Reserve with the primary mission of training Soldiers. Formerly headquartered in Rochester, New York with longstanding historical ties to New York and New England, the 98th Training Division (IET) was moved to Fort Benning, Georgia in 2012, and exercises command and control of units located throughout the eastern U.S. as well as Puerto Rico.

The 98th Infantry Division was activated too late to see service in World War I, demobilizing in 1918.

The 98th was activated from the Organized Reserve (where it had been since 1921) as one of the Army's infantry divisions on September 15, 1942 at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, filling its ranks primarily with soldiers from the New York and New England regions. A "triangular" division organized around a three-regiment (the 389th, 390th and 391st Infantry Regiments) core, the 98th spent the next eighteen months training at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, Camp Forrest, Tennessee and Camp Rucker, Alabama in anticipation of combat in the Asian theater. Arriving in Oahu, Hawaii on 19 April 1944, the roughly 15,000 Soldiers of the 98th relieved the 33rd Division of responsibility for the defense of the Hawaiian Islands and continued training for deployment to Asia. Slated as a participant in Operation Olympic, scheduled for 1 November 1945 one of two planned invasions of Japan, the war drew to a close before the 98th was deployed to an active combat zone. Instead, the 98th Division arrived in Japan on 27 Sep 1945 and served in Osaka, Japan as part of the occupying force until 16 February 1946 when the unit was inactivated.