506th Infantry Regiment

History

The 506th Infantry Regiment, originally designated the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (506th PIR) during World War II, is an airborne light infantry regiment of the United States Army. Currently a parent regiment under the U.S. Army Regimental System, the regiment has two active battalions: the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment (1-506th IR) is assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, and the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment (2-506th IR) is assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.

The regiment served with the 101st Airborne Division in World War II. Regimental elements have served with the 101st in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Regimental elements have also served in peacetime and in Iraq with the 2nd Infantry Division.

The World War II actions of E Company ("Easy Company") of the regiment's 2nd Battalion were portrayed in the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

Text from Wikipedia: 506th Infantry Regiment, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1942
   The regiment was initially formed during World War II at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, in 1942 where it earned its nickname, "Currahees", after the camp's Currahee Mountain.
2. 1942
   Constituted 1 July 1942 in the Army of the United States as the 506th Parachute Infantry
3. 1956
   The colors of the 101st were reactivated as a combat division in 1956 under the Pentomic structure, which eliminated infantry regiments and battalions in favor of five battle groups per division.
4. 1967
   On 1 April 1967 the colors of the former Company C, 506AIR were reactivated at Fort Campbell as HHC, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry.
5. 1970
   Place and date: Firebase Maureen, Thua Thien province, South Vietnam, 7 May 1970
6. 1973
   When the 101st was reformed in 1973 at Fort Campbell (after its return from Vietnam), the 1st Battalion was the only active unit of the regiment, assigned to the division's 2nd Brigade.
7. 1987
   Withdrawn 16 March 1987 from the Combat Arms Regimental System and reorganized under the United States Army Regimental System
8. 2004
   In 2004, 1-506th was deployed from Korea to Habbaniyah, Iraq in the Iraq War.
9. 2014
   Re-aligned 16 April 2014 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky under 1st and 3d BCTs, 101st Abn Div.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone with this unit

A unit history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Morning reports and unit rosters: access (National Personnel Records Center)
• Search Army morning reports, 1912–1946 (National Archives Catalog)
• Unit and organizational records held in St. Louis

More history

• U.S. Army Center of Military History
• Wikipedia: 506th Infantry Regiment