The 46th Military History Detachment, out of North Little Rock, Arkansas, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009. Their mission entailed capturing data on Army operations by conducting oral interviews; taking photographs and videos; and collecting artifacts and documents.
Military history units have existed since 1943. They came into being during World War II when the Army created teams of historical personnel to capture data on divisional operations. Some 300 officers and enlisted men were serving in these historical units when the war ended in 1945. Among the prominent Army military historians of World War II were Col. S.L.A. Marshall, Maj. Hugh M. Cole, and Master Sgt. Forrest Pogue.
Military history units served in the Korean War (1950-53), the Vietnam War (1965-72), the Gulf War (1990-91), and peace keeping operations in the Balkans (1996-98). From these conflicts, tactical deployment policy evolved to the present doctrinal concept that calls for a military history detachment to support each combat unit, down to division and separate brigade level. These military history detachments deploy on operations to collect and preserve the data needed to produce the Army’s official histories.
Today there are a total of twenty-two military history detachments in the Army: one in the active Army, 16 in the Army Reserve, and five in the Army National Guard.
The military history detachment operates as an independent table of organization and equipment unit (TOE) of three personnel. Ideally, the commander is a branch immaterial major holding a “Historian” 5X additional skill identifier, which indicates advanced professional training in the field of history (a masters or doctorate degree). A public affairs sergeant first class serves as the unit’s photojournalist, holding special abilities in interviewing and photography. The detachment administrative assistant sergeant performs as the unit expert on records management and transcribes oral history interviews.
SSgt. Claude Dixon receives his ammo for during a familiarization fire of automatic weapons at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., in April 2009.