On the first day of the Gulf War 24 February 1991, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) began its attack with its Boeing AH-64 Apaches, Bell AH-1 Cobras, 60 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks and 40 Boeing CH-47 Chinooks augmented by the XVIII Airborne Corps' 18th Aviation Brigade and began lifting the 1st Brigade into what became Forward Operating Base Cobra (FOB), 93 miles (150 km) into Iraq and halfway to the Euphrates River.

Over three hundred helicopter sorties ferried the troops and equipment into the objective area in the largest heliborne operation in military history.

TF 118, or 4th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, as it became on 15 January 1991, operated armed Bell OH-58D Kiowas off U.S. Navy warships.

[3] An undated listing on Globalsecurity.org, seemingly for the early 2000s, said the brigade's units included two active, and eight National Guard battalions.

As part of an Army-wide restructuring, the brigade was deactivated shortly after its return from Iraq in March 2006.