FRIDAY FOTO (July 30, 2021

Change of Pace.

(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sergeant Daniel Herman) Click on photo to enlarge iamge.

Here at 4GWAR we think variety is the spice of life — especially when it comes to the Friday Foto. For the last three weeks, we’ve featured aircraft from Navy F/A-18 Hornets to an Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II and an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

So, in the spirit of image diversity, this week’s FRIFO gets about as far away from airpower as one can get: Horsepower — literally.

Here we see the 1st Cavalry Division’s mounted honor guard at a transfer of command ceremony for new commander, Major General John B. Richardson IV, at Fort Hood, Texas on July 21, 2021.

Yes, the U.S. Army still has a cavalry division, but today it looks more like this. The last mounted troopers of the 1st CD traded in their horses for jeeps, trucks and tanks in February 1943 to prepare for action in the Pacific Theater during World War II, where it saw action in New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the islands of Leyte and Luzon in the Philippines.

However, today’s the 1st Cav does have this Horse Cavalry Detachment — one of seven active duty mounted units in the Army — for parades and other ceremonial and public functions.