November 25, 1940

President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Thirty-first “Dixie” Division into active service. Originally created as a National Guard division during World War I, the division served to train personnel from January 1941 to March 1944. From there, the division deployed to the South Pacific to fight under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea and the Philippines.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Portrait of Gen. Douglas Macarthur, August 1945. (Photograph taken by the U.S. Army in Manila, Philippine Islands, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

The insignia of the Thirty-first “Dixie” Division, created from the Army National Guard and active during World I and World War II. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the U.S. Army)

World War II combat survivors of Company B, 124th Infantry Regiment, 31st Infantry Division. Photo taken at Camp Stoneman, California, December 1945. (Photograph taken by the U.S. Army, Wikipedia)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.