What does the Calvary term Gary Owen mean?

The song 'Garry Owen' is an Irish drinking song dating back to the late 1700's. Apparently General George Armstrong Custer heard the song among the Irish troops of the 7th Cavalry and liked the cadence. The beat accentuated the cadence of marching horses. According to Penny, 'It was the last song played for Custer's men as they left General Terry's column at the Powder River and rode into history.'

Garry Owen As I Understand It

It’s Garry Owen with two r’s. Here’s the explanation of this proud term as I’ve always understood it.

Garry Owen is more than a song. And it’s not a person, as many people might think; it’s a place. Translated from the Gaelic, it means “Owen’s Garden”—and refers to a neighborhood in Limerick, Ireland. Garry Owen (also known as Garryowen) was home to a group of horse soldiers who immigrated to the United States in the mid 1800’s and joined the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, the very same regiment that rode with General Geroge Armstrong Custer into the Battle of the Little Big Horn. It’s my understanding that the men of the 7th Cavalry adopted the song “Garry Owen,” for obvious reasons, around this time and that it has been the regiment’s theme song ever since. It’s a rousing song, especially when played by tin whistles, fiddles, and other instruments common to Irish/Celtic traditional music.

Members of the 7th Cavalry Regiment often say “Garry Owen” to each other as a greeting and a salutation and an exclamation. This has spread throughout the United States Army’s modern 1st Cavalry Division which is the parent unit of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. I first heard “Garry Owen” when I joined the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment—a famed and storied unit in Vietnam—in 1969. You may have seen a sign that read “Garry Owen” and showed the 7th Cavalry Regiment crest in the Movie “We Were Soldiers,” which depicted the battle of the Ia Drang Valley that took place in 1965 and was one of the fiercest and costliest battles of the entire Vietnam War.

Of course, units of the 1st Cav bearing the 7th Cavalry Regiment’s name are fighting proudly and with great distinction in Iraq today. If you see a soldier in an airport or elsewhere bearing the 1st Cav’s crest on his or her sleeve, be sure to greet that soldier with a proud “Garry Owen!” And if you don’t get a glimmer of recognition from that (after all, their business is fighting, not history—that will come later!), just say “First Team!”

I am proud to have as my second family all the brothers and sisters of the 7th Cavalry Regiment and the 1st Cavalry Division. I am also especially proud to have had as my Company Commander in Vietnam a man named Patrick J. Keane, then a captain, who actually came from Garry Owen in the town of Limerick, Ireland.

I invite any reader to add a comment to this posting, and to correct me if I’ve been inaccurate in any way.