"The 101st...has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny."  Major General William C. Lee – The Father of American Airborne Troops

The 101^st Screaming Eagles became a part of destiny when MG Lee spoke these words during the activation ceremony on August 16^th, 1942. However, the 101^st actually already had a history.

The Division was activated on July 23, 1918 as part of the mobilization for World War One. The lack of supplies, ammo and weapons the 101^st was never fully manned or organized. It was demobilized after the war and in 1921 was reconstituted as the 101st Infantry Division with its headquarters in Milwaukee, WI. For the most part the 101^st was a paper division remained that way until the United States entered World War Two.

The airborne units were perhaps the most well trained, well-known and elite division in the world. They earned this reputation fighting in nearly all major battles and spearheading many ferocious attacks dropping behind enemy lines. These include the infamous D-Day invasion as well as battles in Normandy, Holland, and Bastogne during W.W.II, Dak To, the A Shau Valley, and Dong Ap Bia in Vietnam and as the "Lightning in the Storm" during the Gulf War. Today the Screaming Eagles from the 101^st have played and still are, a major part in the victory against Saddam Hussein during “Iraqi Freedom.”

General Order Number Five gave birth to the division. It reads, "The 101st Airborne Division, activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny. Like the early American pioneers whose invincible courage was the foundation stone of this nation, we have broken with the past and its traditions in order to establish our claim to the future.”

"Due to the nature of our armament, and the tactics in which we shall perfect ourselves, we shall be called upon to carry out operations of far-reaching military importance and we shall habitually go into action when the need is immediate and extreme.

"Let me call your attention to the fact that our badge is the great American eagle. This is a fitting emblem for a division that will crush its enemies by falling upon them like a thunderbolt from the skies.

"The history we shall make, the record of high achievement we hope to write in the annals of the American Army and the American people, depends wholly and completely on the men of this division. Each individual, each officer and each enlisted man, must therefore regard himself as a necessary part of a complex and powerful instrument for the overcoming of the enemies of the nation. Each, in his own job, must realize that he is not only a means, but also an indispensable means for obtaining the goal of victory. It is, therefore, not too much to say that the future itself, in whose molding we expect to have our share, is in the hands of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division."

The home of the 101st is now in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. During the quest of a "Rendezvous with Destiny", this division has changed the course of history and has exploited the doctrine of air assault - Tomorrow's Division in Today's Army. The 101^st Screaming Eagles now has a history for all of us to be proud of.