3rd Ranger Battalion (United States) - History

History

3rd Ranger Battalion was organized 3 October 1943 in the Army of the United States in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations of World War II as an element of the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional).

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 2 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 December 20, 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 October 3, 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 since the Vietnam War.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the 3rd Ranger Battalion deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. On the night of October 19, 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, to capture key logistical information. 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 a special operations raid.

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.

March 28, 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 March 31, 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 in the grand scheme of things 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 affect. This would have had a tremendous affect 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.