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ed five infantry, two mechanized infantry, and two armor battalions. With the change in assignment from NATO reinforcement to counterinsurgency in Vietnam, the division was restructured. Honest Johns and Davy Crocketts disappeared while requirements for infantry rose. As no pool of unassigned maneuver battalions existed, two infantry battalions from the 2d Brigade, 5th Infantry Division, at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, were relieved and assigned to "The Big Red One." The 1st Division also reorganized two of its mechanized infantry battalions as standard infantry, bringing the number of infantry battalions in the division to nine.

The commander of the 1st Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Jonathan O. Seaman, wanted to take a tank battalion to Vietnam, but General Harold K. Johnson, Chief of Staff since July 1964, overruled him. Tanks were too vulnerable to mines, and no major enemy armor threat existed. Furthermore, Johnson thought that the tempo of the battlefield might be slowed by the limitations of the tank, whose presence might foster a conventional war mentality rather than the light, fast-moving, unconventional approach needed. General William C. Westmoreland, commander of U.S. Army, Vietnam, agreed, reporting that few places existed in Vietnam where tanks could be employed. Johnson, however, granted Seaman permission to take the reconnaissance squadron's M48A3 tanks to test the effectiveness of armor units.