Assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division since 2004, the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment’s Airborne heritage goes back to its very creation when it was constituted as Company B, 502nd Parachute Battalion on 14 March 1941. It was consolidated with and retained the designation of Company B, 502nd Parachute Infantry and assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.
The Company fought in four World War II campaigns between its Airborne parachute assault on D-Day and the end of the war in Europe, with its service recognized by both the Army, which tapped it for two Presidential Unit Citations (PUCs), as well as by Allied nations: France awarded it a French Croix de Guerre with Palm, Netherlands honored it with the Orange Lanyard, and Belgian chose it for a Belgian Croix de Guerre and a Belgian Fourragere for being cited twice in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army.
By the time it was called into service during the Vietnam War, it had been redesignated as 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry on 21 January 1964 and assigned once again to the 101st Airborne. The Battalion fought in almost every campaign in Vietnam (fifteen of seventeen), and its outstanding service was rewarded with two more PUCs, three Valorous Unit Awards, a Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC). These high honors were complemented with three Republic of Vietnam (ROV) Cross of Gallantry with Palm medals and an ROV Civil Action Honor Medal.
Though its assignment to the 101st Airborne Division had twice been briefly interrupted by very short reassignments or inactivations, it was once again with the 101st Airborne when Iraq invaded Kuwait and deployed with the 101st Airborne, taking part in two campaigns during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. It was still part of the Division when it was deployed for the first time in the War on Terrorism, and its service during the first months of Operation Iraqi Freedom garnered it another MUC.
Its assignment to the 101st Airborne “ended” on 16 September 2004 when it was reassigned instead to a unit directly under the command of the 101st, i.e., the Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team. Since that time, the Battalion as a whole has been credited with just a single campaign (Consolidation III in Afghanistan) in the War on Terrorism, but its professionalism, courage, and commitment to mission during that time have been recognized with a Presidential Unit Citation (Kandahar Province, Afghanistan), a Valorous Unit Award (Iraq), and an MUC,
The list does not include decorations issued to individual units in the Battalion, such as the MUC awarded a Detachment from the Battalion’s HQ and HQ Company that included Companies A and C for service between 3 May 2016 and 29 Jan 2017, or to Battalion units under different command and control, such as the MUC awarded to Companies A and C while attached to the HQ and HQ Battery, 320th Field Artillery Regiment between 8 February and 5 October 2014.