Cold War Era
Following World War II, the division was inactivated on September 20, 1946 at Camp Campbell, Kentucky.i It was activated again on July 15, 1947 to serve as a training division to perform the functions of a Replacement Training Center at Fort Jackson, SCii but was inactivated again on April 30, 1950. On April 6, 1951, it was activated at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pennsylvania during the Korean War with a mission to train 32,000 troops as replacements for soldiers in Koreaiii and was again inactivated on September 1, 1953. On May 25, 1954, it was activated in Augsburg, Germany replacing the 43rd Infantry Division.iv The division would eventually become part of the new GYROSCOPE program. Contrasting with the older system of individual replacements, Operation GYROSCOPE would periodically interchange entire divisions, separate regiments, or separate battalions between overseas locations and their permanent stations in the United States. As far as possible the families of married personnel would accompany them concurrently. Moreover, after the completion of basic training an individual soldier normally would remain with one and the same unit for all, or at least a very substantial part, of his Army career.v On 31 March 1956, the 5th Infantry Division was replaced by the 11th Airborne Division and returned to the United States.vi and was eventually inactivated on June 1, 1957 at Fort Ord, California. It was redesignated on February 19, 1962 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Infantry Division and activated at Fort Carson, Colorado.vii
_________________________i National Archives Catalog, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration War Department. 5th Division. 12/11/1917-10/4/1921 Organization Authority Record, 1, available from https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10513926 ; Internet, accessed 22 February 2018.
ii The Red Devil, 5th Infantry Division Indiantown Gap Military Reservation (Atlanta: Albert Love Enterprises, 1953) 4. available from https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89096106760;view=1up;seq=1 ; Internet, accessed 22 February 2018.
iii My Base Guide, Fort Indiantown Gap History, 1, available from http://www.mybaseguide.com/army/83-1847/fort_indiantown_gap_history ; Internet, accessed 22 February 2018.
iv Walter Elkins, 7th Army Organization Combat Division Deployments to Germany between 1950 and 1968, 1, available from http://www.usarmygermany.com/units/7th%20Army/Org%20Charts_Divisions%201.htm ; Internet, accessed 22 February 2018.
v Headquarters, United States Army in Europe, Historical Division Operation Gyroscope in the United States Army (Heidelberg: US Army Europe, 1957) 1 available from https://history.army.mil/documents/gyroscope/gyro-fm.htm ; Internet, accessed 22 February 2018
vi Ibid., 36.
vii National Archives Catalog, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration War Department. 5th Division. 12/11/1917-10/4/1921 Organization Authority Record, 2, available from https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10513926 ; Internet, accessed 22 February 2018.