The 2nd Battalion, 321 Field Artillery Regiment, beret flash—more accurately referred to as an organizational flash as it points to a specific unit or organization—was approved on 2 March 2006. This insignia is worn centered on the stiffener of the maroon beret reserved for wear by members of Airborne-designated units, with Officers (save Chaplains) placing their nonsubdued insignia of rank on it and Enlisted personnel wearing the Distinctive Unit Insignia of the 321st Field Artillery Regiment.
Inactivated in April 2014, the 2nd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment was originally constituted as Battery B, 321st Field Artillery, an element of the 82nd Division, in August 1917. It would fight in three campaigns during World War I before returning stateside and undergoing demobilization in 1919. It would also undergo a couple of reorganizations and redesignations that eventually led to is designation as Battery B, 321st Glider Field Artillery regiment, an element of the 101st Airborne Division, in August 1942.
During World War II, the Battery fought in four campaigns, earning two Arrowhead devices for taking part in assault landings during the Normandy and Rhineland campaigns. Its military decorations for service between the D-Day landings and the end of the war include a Presidential Unit Citation for its stand at Bastogne during the Battle of the bulge; a French Croix de Guerre with Palm, WWII for action following the Normandy invasion; a Netherlands Orange Lanyard; a Belgian Fourragere for two citations in the Order of the Day of the Belgium Army; and a Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm.
The Battery went through several sporadic inactivations/reactivations in the years following World War II, and in February 1964 it was relieved from its assignment to the 101st Airborne Division and assigned once again to the 82nd Division, now the 82nd Airborne Division. Reorganized as Headquarters, Headquarters and Service Battery, 2nd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery, it was activated in May 1964 and eventually deployed to Vietnam, where its first action came in the bloody Tet Counteroffensive in the winter and spring of 1968.
By 1971, the Battalion had fought in seven campaigns, and its service during this period was later recognized with a Republic of Vietnam (ROV) Cross Gallantry with Palm award and an ROV Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class (Batteries A and B were individually awarded the Valorous Unit Award for service during the defense of Saigon and Battle of Hue. As previously mentioned, the Battalion was inactivated from 1986 until 2006, when it was assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne and activated at Fort Bragg (known as Fort Liberty since June 2023). Over the final eight years of its service life, the Battalion was deployed to Afghanistan three times in support of the War on Terrorism.
Between August 2009 and 2010, the heroism and courage under fire displayed by the Battalion’s HQ and HQ Battery and Batteries A and B were subsequently recognized with Valorous Unit Awards, Battery A for action in the Zabul and Kandahar provinces and the HHB and Battery B for their service as part of Task Force Professional operating in Herat, Ghor, and Badghis provinces.