U.S. ARMY 502ND INFANTRY REGIMENT, 1ST BATTALION OVAL

Assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team since 2004, the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment was originally as Company A, 502nd Parachute Battalion in the Army of the United States on 14 March 1941. It was consolidated the next with Company A, 502nd Parachute Infantry (constituted at that time) and the newly merged unit kept that designation.

Between 6 June 1944, when the Company was dropped behind enemy lines in the early morning hours, and the end of the war in Europe, the Company fought in four campaigns, earning Arrowhead devices for the D-Day Airborne assault and for General Montgomery’s September gambit dubbed Operation Market Garden. Its outstanding service over this relatively short but intense period was subsequently recognized with two Presidential Unit Citations, a French Croix de Guerre with Palm, Netherlands Orange Lanyard, a Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm, and a Belgian Fourragere for its two citations in the Order of the Day of the Belgium Army.

The years following the war saw the Company inactivated and reactivated several times. By the time it was deployed for combat again, it was given what is more or less its current designation of 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry (which was reworded to become the 502nd Infantry Regiment) in February 1964. Fighting with more manpower under this new name, the unit fought in a dozen campaigns in Vietnam, earning a Valorous Unit Award, three Republic of Vietnam (ROV) Cross of Gallantry with Palm awards, and an ROV Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class.

During the First Gulf War in 1990-1991, the Battalion was deployed with the 101st Airborne and fought in two campaigns and was afterwards tapped for a Meritorious Unit Commendation. It remained assigned throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, and it was still under the direct command and control of the 101st Airborne when it was deployed for the first time in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was awarded its second Meritorious Unit Commendation for that tour, its last before being assigned to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.

In the decade following its redesignation as 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, the unit has deployed numerous times to both Iraq and Afghanistan. For action in Afghanistan during 2010, it was subsequently awarded a Presidential Unit Citation and a Valorous Unit Award; its service two years earlier in and around Baghdad was also recognized with a VUA. This is in addition to two more MUCs, the most recent awarded to a Detachment of the Battalion’s HQ and HQ Company and its A, B, and C Companies for service in support of Operation Enduring Freedom XV working with the Afghan National Security Force in Nangarhar Province between February and October 2014.
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