The 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment’s origins go back to the creation of the 506th Parachute Infantry in July 1942, when it was constituted as Company C. The 506th was attached to the 101st Airborne Division and took part in the Airborne assault that preceded the amphibious landings on D-Day. As part of the Regiment, it was the recipient of the same military decorations the 506th was awarded, including Presidential Citations for its two most famous actions: the D-Day parachute assault and the defense of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.
Unlike the Regiment’s “A” and “B” Companies, however, C Company was not redesignated and reactivated following the end of World War II. Instead, it remained dormant for more than two decades until its activation on 1 April 1967 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky and redesignation as 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry and assignment to the 101st Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade.
The Battalion spent six months in training before being deployed to South Vietnam in October 1967. Over the next three-and-a-half years, the Battalion would see constant combat, a fact that is evident when examining the military decorations it received over this relatively short period.
For its defense of Saigon during the Tet Offensive in early 1968 (31 January – 25 February), the Battalion’s service was recognized with a Valorous Unit Award, while the government of South Vietnam tapped the Battalion for no fewer than three Republic of Vietnam (ROV) Cross of Gallantry with Palm awards—two of them for service between March and September of 1971. It was also the recipient of an ROV Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class for its sustained excellence between March 1968 and May 1970.
The Battalion returned to the United States in the latter half of 1971 and was inactivated at Fort Campbell on 31 July 1972. Nearly forty years later, the Battalion was again in the spotlight as President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, the widow of U.S. Army Specialist Four Leslie H. Sabo, Jr. A member of the 3rd Battalion whose courage and heroism in taking out an enemy weapons emplacement was equaled only by the sacrifice of his life to save a wounded comrade by using his body as a shield against a grenade blast, Sabo was also honored with a posthumous promotion to Sergeant at the ceremony held at the White House on 16 May 2012.
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506th Infantry Regiment Unit Crest (DUI)