When Pearl Harbor was struck in 1941, the 1st Cavalry Division was assigned to America's southern border. For almost three years, division commander Major General Innis Swift lobbied for the division to be sent overseas to fight the Axis powers.
 
Swift led the First Team into World War II, guiding them through training in Australia and New Guinea before the division was engaged in the Admiralty Island Campaign in 1944. The troopers continued the fight, landing on the islands of Leyte and Luzon, helping to liberate the Philippines from Imperial Japanese occupation before becoming the First American troops to enter Tokyo.