20th Infantry Regiment
Modern Era, United States, Infantry
The 20th Infantry Regiment originated in the Civil War as the 2d Battalion of the 11th Infantry and became a separate regiment in the 1866 postwar reorganization of the Regular Army. It then passed through the familiar sequence of frontier service, western posts, and late nineteenth-century overseas campaigning that shaped many old line infantry regiments. Its special designation, "Sykes' Regulars," linked it to the professional Regular Army tradition from which it emerged.
In the twentieth century the regiment first entered divisional service through the 2d Division, being assigned to that formation in 1920. In 1939 it was transferred to the 6th Division, and in World War II it fought as one of the 6th Infantry Division's regiments in the Pacific. This 6th Division association gave the regiment its main World War II combat identity.
Vietnam-era service came through battalion and separate company deployments rather than through the regiment as a whole. The 1st Battalion deployed in 1967 with the 11th Infantry Brigade, while Company E served as a long-range patrol and security element under higher commands that included I Field Force and the 4th Infantry Division. That battalion-level service included the regiment's darkest notoriety through the My Lai massacre, which involved Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry.
In the late Cold War and after, the regiment's battalions served in Panama, Korea, and the Stryker force. The 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry served with the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea and later became part of the Stryker structure at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, linked to the 2nd Infantry Division. The regiment's twentieth-century history therefore moved from the 2d Division interwar years to the 6th Division in World War II, then to brigade- and battalion-level service in Vietnam and Korea.
Battalion Page
A dedicated battalion subpage now collects the regiment's known battalion icons and short sketches for the 1st, 2d, and 3d Battalions. Open the 20th Infantry Regiment Battalions page.