Peace Again

From:
ONE HUNDRED YEARS WITH THE SECOND CAVALRY
By Joseph I. Lambert, Major, Second Cavalry
Copyright 1939 Commanding Officer, Second Cavalry, Fort Riley, Kansas
Capper Printing Company, Inc.

From 1919 to 1939 the Second Cavalry performed peace time duties as a school training Regiment at the Cavalry School, Ft. Riley, under the guidance of such men as General Patton, Truscott, Keyes, Mattox, and a host of others.

Here they experimented on the first armored cars, and in 1936 as more money was received for maneuver purposes they participated in the first Armored and cavalry maneuver which was held at Ft. Riley, Kansas.

On May 9, 1936, the Second Cavalry celebrated its centennial — 100 years of devoted service — and some of the men who took part were named S.W. Benkosky; E.C. George; D. Boone; C. Watson; M.F. Caldwell; W.E. Wells; Cook; C.A. Hurt; F.W. Murray and M.G. Winn.

In 1938 two Armored Regiments, the 1st and 13th, joined the Second Cavalry for maneuvers, and with the addition of Artillery and light planes it became an exercise to gain coordination in the use of combined arms.

The invasion of Poland by the German Panzers in 1939 gave increased impetus to the work on American mechanization and led to the first extensive maneuver in 1940 when the Second Cavalry and small Regular Army forces were joined by the 35th and 36th National Guard Divisions for exercises in Northern Minnesota.

By 1941 the Regiment was participating in large scale maneuvers in Louisiana, and served a stretch at Tuscon, Arizona in January 1942 on border duty. Since the emphasis was now on Armor, the Regiment, still a horse outfit, returned to Camp Funston, Ft. Riley, Kansas. Here on 15 May 1942 it was deactivated to form the 2nd Armored Regiment of the 9th Armored Division, the outfit that was to demonstrate its Cavalry training and alertness in the seizure of the Remagen bridge in March 1945.