The 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team will be inactivated during a ceremony Wednesday at Fort Carson, Colorado.

The ceremony will be one of two brigade inactivation events this week as the Army cuts 11 brigade combat teams as part of a sweeping reorganization and drawdown.

The 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team will be inactivated Thursday at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Officials announced that ceremony last week.

The Army is cutting 11 BCTs as it works toward an end-strength of 490,000 soldiers by the end of 2015.

Five of those BCTs were inactivated last year. The rest are scheduled to be cut by Sept. 30, which is the end of this fiscal year.

The other BCTs inactivating this year are:

• 3rd BCT, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, New York.

• 3rd BCT, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas.

• 4th BCT, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas.

• 1st BCT, 2nd Infantry Division, South Korea.

These cuts will bring the number of active-duty BCTs down to 32.

In addition to the BCT cuts, the Army is reorganizing most of its remaining BCTs by adding a third maneuver battalion to its armored and infantry brigades. The Army's Stryker brigades already have three maneuver battalions each.

Once the reorganization is completed, each BCT will have about 4,500 soldiers, nearly 1,000 more than they do in their current configuration.

The 2nd BCT, 4th Infantry Division, also known as the Warhorse Brigade, was created in November 1917 as an element of the 4th Infantry Division at Camp Greene, North Carolina. It was activated and inactivated several times throughout the years, with its last activation taking place in December 1995 at Fort Hood, Texas, according to information from the division.

Through its history, the brigade has participated in World War I, the Vietnam War, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

The brigade returned from its most recent tour in July, after a nine-month deployment to Kuwait.

The 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd BCT will be inactivated Thursday, but its flag will not remain cased for long.

This summer, the 3rd Infantry Division's 4th BCT will be reflagged as 2nd BCT, taking on its colors and lineage.

The history of 2nd BCT dates back to 1917 and includes deploying to France during World War I and fighting in the Battle of the Marne, from which the 3rd Infantry Division derives its motto "Rock of the Marne," according to the brigade website.

The brigade headquarters was inactive during World War II, but the units that make up the modern brigade were heavily involved in the war, including during Operation Torch in North Africa and the Battle of Anzio in Italy, during which 22 Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor, according to the brigade website.

The Spartan Brigade was called into action again during the Korean War, participating in eight separate campaigns, according to the website.

In March 2003, the brigade attacked into Iraq as part of the "Thunder Run" into Baghdad, according to the website. It would return to Iraq several more times through 2010.

About Michelle Tan

Michelle Tan is the editor of Army Times and Air Force Times. She has covered the military for Military Times since 2005, and has embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Haiti, Gabon and the Horn of Africa.

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