Cavalry Training in the United States 1917-1918 (1936) US Army Horse Soldiers

Horses: Race Horses, Farm Horses, Ranch Horses, Ponies... playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ABDB9A0974BF08F US Army Training Film playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C7C6CCF1C0DEBB3 more at http://quickfound.net/links/military_news_and_links.html "Cavalry men at Fort Sill, Okla., teach horses to stand while the National Anthem is played. Troopers at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, practice mounting horses on the run, jumping their mounts, riding cross-country, and standing inspection while mounted." Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied. The film was silent. I have added MIDI classical piano music (Hungarian Rhapsody #9 "Carnival in Pest" by Franz Liszt) produced by Bernd Krueger, from http://www.piano-midi.de licensed under the cc-by-sa Germany License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cavalry The United States Cavalry, or U.S. Cavalry, was the designation of the mounted force of the United States Army from the late 18th to the early 20th century. The Cavalry branch was absorbed into the Armor branch in 1950, but the term "Cavalry" remains in use in the U.S. Army for certain armor and aviation units historically derived from cavalry units. Originally designated as United States Dragoons, the forces were patterned after cavalry units employed during the Revolutionary War. The traditions of the U.S. Cavalry originated with the horse-mounted force which played an important role in extending United States governance into the Western United States after the American Civil War. Immediately preceding World War II, the U.S. Cavalry began transitioning to a mechanized, mounted force. During World War II, the Army's cavalry units operated as horse-mounted, mechanized, or dismounted forces (infantry). The last horse-mounted cavalry charge by a U.S. Cavalry unit took place on the Bataan Peninsula, in the Philippines. The 26th Cavalry Regiment of the Philippine Scouts executed the charge against Japanese forces near the village of Morong on 16 January 1942. The U.S. Cavalry branch was absorbed into the Armor branch as part of the Army Reorganization Act of 1950. The Vietnam War saw the introduction of helicopters and operations as an airborne force with the designation of Air Cavalry, while mechanized cavalry received the designation of Armored Cavalry. Today, cavalry designations and traditions continue with regiments of both armor and aviation units that perform the cavalry mission. The 1st Cavalry Division is the only active division in the United States Army with a cavalry designation. The division maintains a detachment of horse-mounted cavalry for ceremonial purposes... Horse cavalry A horse cavalry rifle squad consisted of a corporal and seven privates in two sets of four. One of the privates acted as the squad's second-in-command (2IC). Each set of four consisted of a squad leader or 2IC, a scout, a horseholder and a rifleman. Mounted troopers would attack with their pistols; at the command 'charge', troopers would shorten their reins, lean well forward and ride at full speed toward the enemy. Each trooper would select a victim to his immediate front and bear down on him with his pistol extended at arm's length, withholding fire until within 25 yards. When fighting on foot, the horseholder would takes control of the other horses in the four, the other troopers would dismount and take their rifles from the scabbards. The Horse Cavalry rifle platoon consisted of three rifle squads and a platoon headquarters. The platoon hq consisted of a lieutenant as platoon leader, a platoon sergeant, a file closer sergeant, two intelligence scouts, who also acted as messengers, and three basic privates, who replaced squad casualties. The last horse cavalry charge by an Army cavalry unit took place against Japanese forces during the fighting in the Bataan Peninsula, Philippines, in the village of Morong on 16 January 1942, by the 26th Cavalry Regiment of the Philippine Scouts. Shortly thereafter, the besieged combined United States-Philippine forces were forced to slaughter their horses for food and the 26th Regiment fought on foot or in whatever scarce vehicles were available until their surrender. The 10th Mountain Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop of the 10th Mountain Division, while not designated as U.S. Cavalry, conducted the last horse-mounted charge of any Army organization while engaged in Austria in 1945. An impromptu pistol charge by the Third Platoon was carried out when the Troop encountered a machine gun nest in an Italian village/town sometime between 14–23 April 1945...