The 502nd Infantry Regiment originated in July 1941, as the 502nd Parachute Battalion, an experimental unit formed to test the doctrine and tactics of parachute assault. On 2 March 1942, the unit was re-designated as the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment. The 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment was activated on 1 July 1941, at Fort Benning, Georgia, and joined the 101st Airborne Division in August 1942.
The regiment would participate in three major battles during the war: D-Day, Operation Market Garden, and the Battle of the Bulge. The 502d was often referred to as the "Five-Oh-Deuce" or simply, "The Deuce".
At the end of the war in 1945, the unit was deactivated along with the rest of the 101st.
In 1956, congressional pressure from the State of Kentucky saw the activation of an airborne division at Fort Campbell. The "Angels" of the 11th Airborne had departed Fort Campbell for Germany, and the 5th Infantry Division was a "leg" outfit that didn't draw jump pay. That was a hit to the then-rural local economy, so when Kentucky's Congressional delegation went to the 101st's WWII commander Maxwell Taylor, by then a four-star general and Chief of Staff, the "Screaming Eagles" were reborn. The Division was trained, equipped (including "Honest John" battlefield nuclear rockets), and organized in the five-company Pentomic "battle group" configuration. This split the 502nd's regimental traditions among the 1st and 2nd Battle Groups, 502nd Infantry.
The Pentomic configuration was soon found unworkable, and the Pentagon unable to admit a mistake, a brigade configuration was adopted. Cynical observers believed it an attempt to allow more brigadier generals into the Army, but these commanders ended up staying full-bird colonels as their forebears had been commanding regiments.
The 502nd was split. 2nd Battalion was in the Division's 1st Brigade with 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 327th Infantry. Deployed to Vietnam in 1965, it was most notably commanded in Vietnam by LTC Hank "The Gunfighter" Emerson. 1/501 was in 2nd Brigade with 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 501st, and which didn't arrive in Vietnam until 1967 with the remainder of the Division. 3/502 would remain inactive.
In November of 1984, through a complex "reflagging" process, all three battalions of the 502nd Infantry were placed under the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. The 2nd BRigade deployed to Saudi Arabia in 190 and drove deep into the Iraqi rear during Operation Desert Storm. Later peacekeeping missions took the Strike Brigade to Panama and Kosovo.
The 502nd would see sand again in 2003, when we spearheaded the 101st's combat Air Assault into Iraq. The 3d Infantry Division needed extensive light infantry support during the 2003 Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and COL "Fighting Joe" Anderson's brigade got the nod. The 3rd Battalion in particular received the Army's Valorous Unit Award for the battles in Karbala against Fedayeen Saddam insurgents attacking 3rd ID's supply lines. Later the 2nd Brigade was instrumental in the killing of Uday and Qusay Hussein in Mosul.
The regiment was transformed and refitted along with the rest of the Division. At that time, the 3rd Battalion was again deactivated and the 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry activated in its place as the Strike Brigade's RSTA (Reconnaisance, Surveilance, and Target Acquisition) Squadron. This unit was again deployed to Iraq in support of the 4th Infantry Division in September 2005.
On June 30, 2006, the United States military began criminal military investigations of five U.S. soldiers from B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry, including Steven D. Green, regarding the alleged rape of a 15 year old Iraqi girl (local officials and relatives had said she was 15 or 16, her identity card and a copy of her death certificate, however, show she was just 14), Abeer Qasim Hamza, and the murder of her mother, father and seven year old sister in Mahmoudiyah. [link] One of the soldiers admitted to the crime. One of the soldiers has been discharged. [link] [link]
Relieved 25 April 1957 from assignment to the 101st Airborne Division; concurrently reorganized and re-designated as the 502d Infantry, a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System
Withdrawn 29 June 1984 from the Combat Arms Regimental System and reorganized under the United States Army Regimental System
