3rd Ranger Battalion (United States)

3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment

3rd Ranger Battalion shoulder sleeve insignia
Active 1943–45,1954–56, 1969–71, 1984 – present
Country  United States of America
Branch United States Army
Type Specialized Light infantry
Role Special operations
Size Battalion
Part of 75th Ranger Regiment
Garrison/HQ Fort Benning, Georgia
Engagements

World War II:

Vietnam
Panama
Operation Gothic Serpent:

War on Terror

The 3rd Ranger Battalion, currently based at Fort Benning, Georgia, is the third of three ranger battalions belonging to the United States Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.

History

After the impressive performance of the 1st Ranger Battalion in the North Africa Campaign the 3rd Ranger Battalion was organized on 19 June 1943 in Morocco, the battalion was made up of American volunteers and led by Major Herman Dammer.[1]

The battalion participated in the invasion of Sicily, the invasion of Italy, the battalion was destroyed at the Battle of Cisterna in early 1944.[2]

This unit was consolidated 10 August 1944 with Company F, 475th Infantry Regiment (Long Range Penetration, Special) (constituted 25 May 1944 in the Army of the United States), and consolidated unit designated as Company F, 475th Infantry Regiment. This unit was inactivated 1 July 1945 in China.

The unit was redesignated 21 June 1954 as Company F, 75th Infantry Regiment, in the Army of the United States, and was allotted on 26 October 1954 to the Regular Army. It was activated 20 November 1954 on Okinawa, and was inactivated there on 21 March 1956.

The unit was again activated on 1 February 1969 in Vietnam, and was again inactivated on 15 March 1971 in Vietnam.

This unit was again redesignated 3 October 1984 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Infantry, and activated at Fort Benning, Georgia (organic elements concurrently constituted and activated).

Headquarters and Headquarters Company consolidated 3 February 1986 with former Company A, 3rd Ranger Infantry Battalion 3rd Battalion, 75th Infantry Regiment, concurrently redesignated as the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

On 20 December 1989, the entire 75th Ranger Regiment was committed to Operation Just Cause, in Panama. Along with the 2nd Ranger Battalion, Companies A and B of the 3rd Battalion conducted an airfield seizure of the Rio Hato Airfield, and Company C participated along with the 1st Ranger Battalion to seize the airfield at Torrijos/ Tocumen Airport, and subsequent combat operations contributed significantly to the United States victory in Panama.

In August 1993, elements of Company B of the 3rd Ranger Battalion and the battalion headquarters deployed to Somalia as part of Task Force Ranger. After several successful missions, on 3 October 1993 exactly nine years from the activation of the battalion, they performed a courageous daylight assault where they were engaged in the most intense ground combat for U.S. troops since the Vietnam War.

Rangers from the 3rd Ranger Battalion during a nighttime combat mission in Afghanistan, 6 March 2012.

After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the 3rd Ranger Battalion deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. On the night of 19 October 2001, portions of Companies A and C of the 3rd Battalion conducted a daring low-level parachute assault onto Objective Rhino, a desert airfield in southwestern Afghanistan, as a Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP) for concurrent raids being conducted on Objective Gecko. During follow-on missions, forces from Company B, 3rd Battalion accomplished a successful night parachute assault into Bastogne Drop Zone to secure a desert landing strip in support of special operations raids in Lashkar Gah.

In 2003, the 3rd Battalion was called upon to participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom. A few weeks later, Company C, 3rd Battalion carried out a successful parachute assault in southwestern Iraq near the Syrian border in order to secure a small desert landing strip to allow follow-on coalition forces into the area.

28 March 2003, Company A and Headquarters and Headquarters Company with engineers attached conducted a parachute assault onto H1 Airfield in western Iraq. After the successful jump onto H1, on the night of 31 March 2003, Company B, 3rd Battalion moved to gain a foothold of the Hadithah Dam complex and fought off elements from the Iraqi Republican Guard's Hammurabi Division over the course of the next week. This was a critical part of the plan as leaders feared that Saddam Hussein would either open the flood gates to flood the down lying approach into Baghdad or try to destroy the dam to achieve the same effect. This action would have had a tremendous effect on the armored approach into Baghdad.

At the end of 2003, the battalion deployed again, this time sending elements of the battalion to both Afghanistan and Iraq. The battalion deployed multiple times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom until summer 2010. The battalion continues to deploy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Primary tasks include: direct action, national and international emergency crisis response, airfield seizure, airborne and air assault operations, special reconnaissance, intelligence and counter intelligence, combat search and rescue, personnel recovery and hostage rescue, joint special operations, and counter terrorism.

By mid-2015 each Ranger battalion had completed its 20th deployment in support of both Afghanistan and Iraq operations, as of 28 March 2016, since the War on Terror began, 31 Rangers from the battalion have been killed.[3]

Annex

Honors

Campaign participation credit

  • World War II:
  1. Algeria-French Morocco (with arrowhead)
  2. Tunisia
  3. Sicily (with arrowhead)
  4. Naples-Foggia (with arrowhead)
  5. Anzio (with arrowhead)
  6. Rome-Arno
  7. Normandy (with arrowhead)
  8. Northern France
  9. Rhineland
  10. Ardennes-Alsace
  11. Central Europe
  12. New Guinea
  13. Leyte (with arrowhead)
  14. Luzon
  15. India-Burma
  16. Central Burma
  • Korean War:
  1. First UN Counteroffensive;
  2. CCF Spring Offensive;
  3. UN Summer-Fall Offensive
  • Vietnam:
  1. Counteroffensive, Phase VI;
  2. Tet 69/Counteroffensive;
  3. Summer-Fall 1969;
  4. Winter-Spring 1970;
  5. Sanctuary Counteroffensive;
  6. Counteroffensive, Phase VII
  • Armed Forces Expeditions:
  1. Panama (with arrowhead)
  2. Somalia (with arrowhead)
  3. Afghanistan (with arrowhead)
  4. Iraq (with arrowhead)

Decorations

See also

United States Army Rangers
75th Ranger Regiment
1st Ranger Battalion
2nd Ranger Battalion

References

  1. ↑ Cawthorne, Nigel, The Mammoth Book of Inside the Elite Forces, Robinson, 2008 ISBN 1845298217 ISBN 978-1845298210
  2. ↑ Cawthorne, Nigel, The Mammoth Book of Inside the Elite Forces, Robinson, 2008 ISBN 1845298217 ISBN 978-1845298210
  3. ↑ "75th Ranger Regiment". leadtheway.org.

External links

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