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FLEXIBLE RESPONSE

Soon after forming Task Force Oregon, Westmoreland decided to replace it with a division, For the unit's designation, he selected the Americal Division because it was to be organized under circumstances similar to those in which that division first had been formed during World War I with National Guard units from Task Force 6814 in New Caledonia. Westmoreland had originally planned to assign the 11th and 198th Infantry Brigades, then preparing to deploy, and the 196th Infantry Brigade, already in Vietnam, to the division. The Army Staff agreed but insisted that the unit's official designation be the 23d Infantry Division rather than "Americal" (the Americal Division had been redesignated as the 23d Infantry Division in 1954), On 25 September 1967 the division was activated to control the 196th Infantry Brigade: the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division; and the 3d Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. The division base was to be activated as requirements were identified.

In December 1967 the 23d Infantry Division received its planned brigades. In addition to the 196th Infantry Brigade, the 11th and 198th Infantry Brigades, reorganized as light infantry units, had arrived in Vietnam and replaced the brigades of the 4th Infantry and 101st Airborne Divisions, which returned to their parent units.

To strengthen the forces in Vietnam, Westmoreland had requested the remainder of the 101st Airborne Division by February 1968. Because of ominous intelligence reports about the enemy's activities, Westmoreland pressured Washington to advance the division’s arrival date. Thus, by 13 December 1967, following the longest troop movement by air in history, the "Screaming Eagles" arrived in Vietnam. The division fielded ten airborne infantry battalions, the three that had deployed with the 1st Brigade in 1965 and the seven that arrived in 1967.