The 490th Civil Affairs Battalion is a civil affairs (CA) unit of the United States Army Reserve located at the Grand Prairie Armed Forces Reserve Complex in Grand Prairie, Texas and organized under the 321st Civil Affairs Brigade, 350th Civil Affairs Command, United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) or USACAPOC. The 490th is composed of Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) and its four tactical companies, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. The unit was activated for service during World War II, the Berlin Crisis, and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).
Origins
Activation
The ancestral unit of the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion was constituted in the Army of the United States as the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 90th Military Government Company (also known as the 90th Military Government in some documents) and activated 25 August 1945 at the Presidio of Monterey, California, just days after Japan's surrender.
World War II
Presidio of Monterey
The Presidio of Monterrey served as the central mobilization and holding site for all Military Government and Civil Affairs forces from all branches of service (mainly US Navy and US Army) in response to the realization for a need to successfully manage the occupations of Europe and Japan for reconstruction. The training center was named the Civil Affairs Staging Area (CASA).
An August report from the commander of the CASA to the Civil Affairs Division (re-designated in 1960 as the Civil Affairs Branch) described physically demanding field exercises involving ruck marches, amphibious assault, scaling cliffs, and infiltration through perimeter defenses, which were "geared toward a possible invasion of Japan before military government teams could assume occupation duties."
Occupation of Japan
After Japan's surrender, the preparations for invasion proved unnecessary. In December 1945, the 90th Military Government deployed to Japan under the Headquarters, Eighth United States Army and General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP). Personnel likely wore the Eighth Army patch once they deployed to Japan.
According to an operational map of military government units in Japan as of January 1946, the 90th Military Government is designated as a company-sized element operating in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture.
In Kanazawa, personnel of the 90th Military Government supported Japanese administrators, maintained public services for the populace, and secured local artifacts and monuments (such as Kanazawa Castle) from potential looting and black market operations.
Inactivation - 1946
Within the first sixth months of occupation, MacArthur began to reposition and redistribute military government units to better meet the needs of the nation, as there were not enough elements in their initial configuration to cover all of the prefectures. By June 1946, all military government units in Japan were divided into newly created teams designated by their prefecture. The designations of most of the groups and companies were dropped and the team was the main military government organization deployed in Japan. With the reassignment of all of its personnel, the 90th Military Government Company effectively ceased to exist at this time. On 30 June 1946, the Army officially issued orders inactivating the 90th Military Government as a unit in the U.S. Army.
Early Years in Abilene, Texas
Reactivation and redesignation
From 1946 on, prominent business, civic, and professional leaders of Abilene, Texas were involved in several Army Reserve, National Guard, and Marine Corps Reserve units. One of these units was Detachment 3, 4005th Army Reserve Area Service Unit (Station Complement). When that unit was inactivated several of the unit's prominent members worked to organize the 90th Military Government [Company] for reactivation in Abilene.
The 90th Military Government Company was re-designated 2 November 1955 as the 490th Military Government, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, allotted to the US Army Reserve, and assigned to the Fourth Army (later re-designated as the Fourth United States Army) Area and aligned under the Eighth Army Corps. The unit was activated 1 December 1955. Special Orders Number 241, 13 December 1955, Headquarters, Texas Military District, Austin, provided for the official organization of the 490th Military Government in Abilene. The soldiers of the newly formed 490th bore the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI) of the Eighth Army Corps.