[2] In the 1920s and 1930s Harry S. Truman, a lieutenant colonel in the Officers' Reserve Corps, commanded the division's 1st Battalion, 379th Field Artillery Regiment.

The 102nd Infantry Division, under the command of Major General Frank A. Keating, arrived on the Western Front in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) at Cherbourg, France, 23 September 1944, and, after a short period of training near Valognes, moved to the German-Netherlands border.

A realignment of sectors and the return of elements placed the 102nd in full control of its units for the first time, 24 November 1944, as it prepared for an attack to the Roer.

On 23 February 1945, the 102d attacked across the Roer (Operation Grenade), advanced toward Lövenich and Erkelenz, bypassed Mönchengladbach, took Krefeld, 3 March, and reached the Rhine.

Crossing the river on 9 April on pontoon bridge, the division attacked in the Wesergebirge, meeting stiff opposition.

Breitenfeld fell, 15 April, and the division outposted the Elbe River, 48 miles from Berlin, its advance halted on orders.

About 1,200 prisoners from the Mittelbau-Dora and Hannover-Stöcken concentration camps were forced from a train into an empty barn measuring approximately a hundred by fifty feet on the outskirts of the town.

Major General Keating ordered that the nearby civilian population be forced to view the site and to disinter and rebury the victims in a new cemetery.

[7] The division patrolled and maintained defensive positions until the end of hostilities in Europe, then moved to Gotha for occupation duty.

Three Brigade Headquarters were activated and Infantry units were reorganized into battalions: Two additional Battle Groups were also formed: The division and subordinate elements were inactivated on 31 December 1965.

[10] The division's location was changed on April 1, 2017 to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri,[11] As of 2017 the following units are subordinated to the division: This article incorporates public domain material from The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950.