After the end of World War II, the United States National Guard was reorganized and expanded from its prewar size.

Initial War Department unit allocations submitted to states for review in early February 1946 gave the 49th Armored Division to Texas and New Mexico, with the latter receiving one combat command headquarters and its subordinate units as well as field artillery and engineer battalions.

Division troops included the 49th Mechanized Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron and the 386th Armored Engineer Battalion as well as other support units.

[4] A number of the original divisional units received federal recognition from the National Guard Bureau on 27 February 1947, a date used thereafter as the formation's "birthday", including the division headquarters at Camp Mabry in Austin.

[6] In September 1961, an executive order alerted the division for mobilization at Dallas due to the 1961 Berlin Crisis.

[10] A Department of Defense directive to the army to convert six National Guard brigades from infantry to armor in order to act as reinforcements for troops in Europe in event of war resulted in the reactivation of the division, headquartered at Camp Mabry, on 1 November 1973.

For the rest of its existence, the 49th, as the only Texas Army National Guard division, formed the bulk of the force.

[13] In January of 2004, Alpha Company of 1st Squadron, 124th Cavalry Regiment (United States), 180 Soldiers, were mobilized to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

[59][60][61] The 410 M1 Abrams[59] tanks of the National Guard were issued to round-out units of army divisions.

[62] The division's infantry battalions were equipped with M113 armored personnel carriers, of which the National Guard had 6,870 at the end of Fiscal Year 1987, with a further 1,411 due to be taken in service in 1988.

[66] On 23 January 2004, 180 Soldiers, mostly from the 124th Cavalry Regiment (United States) out of Waco, Texas, left for deployment.

The Newly designated Troops came home after a year of deployment, with only a few wounded, and fortunately, no dead.