The Reforger exercise itself was first conceived in 1967. The Johnson administration announced plans to withdraw approximately two divisions from Europe during 1968. As a demonstration of its continuing commitment to the defense of NATO and to illustrate its capability of rapid reinforcement, a large scale force deployment was planned that would deploy a division or more to West Germany in a regular annual exercise. The first such exercise was conducted beginning on 6 January 1969. These exercises continued annually past the end of the Cold War, except for the years 1989, until 1993. Reforger 1988 was billed as the largest European ground maneuver since the end of World War II as 125,000 troops were deployed.[1]

Reforger was not merely a show of force—in the event of a conflict, it would be the actual plan to strengthen the NATO presence in Europe. In that instance, it would have been referred to as Operation Reforger. Important components in Reforger included the Military Airlift Command, the Military Sealift Command, and the Civil Reserve Air Fleet.

The US Army also increased its rapid-reinforcement capability by prepositioning huge stocks of equipment and supplies in Europe at POMCUS sites. The maintenance of this equipment has provided extensive on-the-job training to reserve-component support units.

Operation Bright Star, the annual deployment of American army and Air Force units to Egypt serves much the same purpose as Reforger did.

Reforger Exercises

Name Start Date Major Units

Reforger I JAN 1969 24th Inf Div

Reforger II OCT 1970 1st Inf Div[2]

Reforger III

Reforger IV

Reforger V SEP 1973

Reforger 74 SEP 1974

Reforger 75 SEP 1975

Reforger 76 SEP 1976

Reforger 77 SEP 1977

Reforger 78 SEP 1978

Reforger 79 JAN 1979

Reforger 80 SEP 1980

Reforger 81 SEP 1981

Reforger 82 SEP 1982

Reforger 83 SEP 1983 1st Cavalry Division

Reforger 84 SEP 1984

Reforger 85 JAN 1985

Reforger 86 JAN 1986

Reforger 87 SEP 1987

Reforger 88 SEP 1988

Reforger 90

Reforger 91 SEP 1991 4th Infantry Division

Reforger 92 - "Certain Caravan" SEP 1992 HQ, 1st (U.S.) Infantry Division (Mech); Parts 2nd Brigade, 1st (U.S) Infantry Division (Mech); HQ, 30th Armored Brigade (Sep) (ARNG, Tennessee); HQ, 3rd Brigade, 7th (U.S.) Infantry Division (Light)[3]

Reforger 93

545th Military Police in Europe
Reforger 1983
Atlantic Lion Exercise – Autumn Forge

In the fall of 1983, military policemen from the 545th MP Co. at Fort Hood, had the opportunity to train with MP’s from the Netherlands in Europe. As usual, they made friends with fellow military policemen from other countries and came home after gaining some great training and even greater friendships in Europe.

Reforger Photo Album

Sam Reinert
CPT MP USAR (Ret)
Founder
545th Military Police Company Association
626 1/2 South 9th Street
Richmond, Indiana 47374 USA
(765) 962 4627 phone & FAX
http://545thmpassn.com/