The Army's last airborne cavalry squadron made its final jump at JBER

The day before it ceased to exist, the 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment put its paratroopers out over Malemute Drop Zone one last time. On July 16 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the Army reflagged the unit as the 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, ending its last active airborne cavalry squadron.

The 1-40th stood up at JBER in 2005 and deployed through Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. Seventeen of its soldiers died during the Global War on Terror. The same soldiers remain in formation under the new name.

The 511th had been inactive since 1957. Its paratroopers fought across the Pacific in World War II and carried out the raid at Los Baños, freeing more than 2,100 civilians from a Japanese internment camp.

The Army cast the change as part of reshaping Alaska-based forces for Arctic and Indo-Pacific operations.