No mission too difficult - no sacrifice too great - Duty First!
Since 1917, the Fighting First has led the way in every major American conflict from the trenches of WWI to the beaches of Normandy and beyond. The Infantry soldiers of the 1st ID have embodied the division's motto "No Mission Too Difficult, No Sacrifice Too Great—Duty First!" In WWII, the joke among the Big Red One Soldiers who fought in North Africa, Sicily, D-Day, across France, through the urban hell of Aachen, into Germany, and central Europe was that "The First Infantry Division is the only combat unit in the war. Everyone else is just replacements."
