Mary Lee Stubbs (Chief of the Organizational History Branch of the O.S. Office of the Chief of Military History) and Stanley Russell Connor (Deputy Chief of the U.S. Organizational History Branch, OCMH) wrote the 1968 Armor-Cavalry Part I: Regular Army and Army Reserve, part of the Army Lineage Series, which was "designed to foster the esprit de corps of United States Army units."

This book traces the lineage & honors of the currently active 55 Army National Guard Armor & Cavalry regiments. The lineage of a unit is its military history. It includes the organization of a unit, its entry into Federal service, & any reorganizations, redesignations or conversions the unit may have undergone. The honors of a unit consist of wartime campaigns & unit decoration streamers. Lineages for National Guard units are published at the regimental level as are the lineage & honors of the regiments included in this book. If a regiment is authorized a distinctive unit insignia it is shown to the left of its regimental designation.

The war stories and combat narratives of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment during five-and-a-half years of combat in Vietnam. When the U.S. Army went to war in South Vietnam in 1965, the general consensus was that counterinsurgency was an infantryman’s war; if there were any role at all for armored forces, it would be strictly to support the infantry. However, from the time the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment arrived in the country in September 1966, troopers of the Blackhorse Regiment demonstrated the fallacy of this assumption. By the time of Tet ’68, the Army’s leadership began to understand that the Regiment’s mobility, firepower, flexibility, and leadership made a difference on the battlefield well beyond its numbers. Over the course of the 11th Cavalry’s five-and-a-half years in combat in South Vietnam and Cambodia, over 25,000 young men served in the Regiment. Their stories—and those of their families—represent the Vietnam generation in graphic, sometimes humorous, often heart-wrenching detail. Collected by the author through hundreds of in-person, telephone, and electronic interviews over a period of twenty-five-plus years, these “war stories” provide context for the companion volume, The Blackhorse in Vietnam. Amongst the stories of the Blackhorse troopers and their families are the tales of the wide variety of animals they encountered during their time in combat, as well as the variable landscape, from jungle to rice paddies, and weather. Blackhorse Tales concludes with a look at how the troopers dealt with their combat experiences since returning from Vietnam. “Without question, Donald Snedeker has paid a fitting tribute to this superb unit, its soldiers, and their families.” —Military Review

This military history chronicles the combat operations of the Blackhorse Regiment, which paved the way for armored cavalry tactics in the Vietnam War. South Vietnam, September 1966. When the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment came ashore at Vung Tau, it faced a number of challenges. In addition to the threat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, the terrain and weather posed their own dangers, adversely affecting the use of bulletproof vehicles and helicopters. The dearth of doctrine and tactics for the employment of armored cavalry in a counterinsurgency was equally challenging—especially during pre-deployment training and initial combat operations. But despite all this, the leaders of Blackhorse Regiment found a way to accomplish their mission. Within a year of their arrival in Vietnam, Blackhorse troopers overcame ambushes that featured anti-tank weapons, numerous landmines, and coordinated assaults. They not only defeated an enemy division twice their size, but also demonstrated how to succeed while operating on and off the roads, in the jungle, and during both the wet and dry seasons. By the spring of 1967, army leaders were beginning to realize the value of troops stationed in Vietnam. And with the Blackhorse Regiment leading the way, armor came to be considered an essential part of the combat team. Written by a Blackhorse veteran, this regiment history features firsthand accounts from soldiers who served in Vietnam and Cambodia.

This work provides an organizational history of the maneuver brigade and case studies of its employment throughout the various wars. Apart from the text, the appendices at the end of the work provide a ready reference to all brigade organizations used in the Army since 1917 and the history of the brigade colors.