The Red Arrow Division: Wisconsin's 32nd
Near Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The highway you are traveling is named for Wisconsin and Michigan's Thirty-Second Infantry Division, one of the most decorated American divisions of both World Wars. In the First World War the French called them Les Terribles, meaning the Terrible Ones, for their ferocity at the Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, and Meuse-Argonne offensives. The division's distinctive red arrow shoulder patch came from that war: the arrow piercing a red line symbolized breaking through every enemy line they faced.
In the Second World War they fought longer in combat than any other Army division in the Pacific, grinding through the jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines from nineteen forty-two to nineteen forty-five. Campaigns at Buna, Aitape, the Driniumor River, Morotai, Leyte, and Luzon cost the division dearly. The memorial highway designation keeps those names alive for every driver who passes through Wisconsin on roads the veterans helped make free.
