A part of the Kentucky Army National Guard, the 149th Infantry Regiment (“Second Kentucky”) likely holds a singular distinction among Army units: Not only was the Regiment split into halves sent to serve in the armies of two different nations, but these two nations just happened to be in active state of war with each other at the time, i.e., the United States and the Confederate States of America. In fact, the two different components of the Regiment—the 1st and 2nd Volunteer Kentucky Infantry Regiments on the Union side, and the 1st Kentucky Brigade for the Confederacy—actually fought against each other at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.
The Regiment underwent a mind-boggling number of changes over the next five decades. It did not receive its current numerical designation until it was consolidated with part of the 3d Regiment of Infantry, reorganized, and redesignated the 149th Infantry and assigned to the 38th Division. Many of its personnel, both Officers and Enlisted alike, were sent as replacements to units that had suffered casualties, earning the Regiment a World War I campaign streamer but without an inscription for a specific battle or campaign.
On 6 April 1964, the Regiment was converted, reorganized, and redesignated from the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 123rd Armor Division to the 149th Infantry, a parent regiment in the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS). The Regiment was broken up in 1968, and then in in 1974 some of its former elements were against consolidated/converted/reorganized/redesignated yet again as the 149th Infantry under CARS; it was withdrawn from CARS in 1989 and reorganized under the U.S. Army Regimental System. In 2005, it was given its current designation, 149th Infantry Regiment, on October 1, consisting of the 1st Battalion ("Mountain Warriors"). The Regiment finished a tour of active Federal service in 25 January 2012 and was reverted to state control in the Kentucky Army National Guard.
The Battalion's most recent assignment was its 2021-2022 deployment to Kosovo in support of Operation Joint Guard, where they served as part of NATO's Kosovo Forces (KFOR) missoin designated KFOR 30, representing th thirtieth rotation for U.S. Soldiers in this role. The deployment, which sent the battalion to two different theaters of operation, marked the Battalion's first overseas mission in a decade. Approximately 200 Soldiers from the Battalion returned home on to a large reception at the Blue Grass Airport on 17 November 2022.
As of Spring 2023, the 149th Infantry Regiment still comprises a single Battalion, the 1st, assigned to the 38th Infantry Division. Its motto, “ASSIGN US THE MISSION,” is found on the Regimental Distinctive Insignia seen here.