3rd Infantry Regiment Battalions
Modern Era, United States, Infantry
This page collects the existing battalion illustrations and additional documented historical battalions of the 3d Infantry Regiment. The historical entries include inactive units and earlier designations; the regimental image identifies entries without a battalion-specific illustration.
1st Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment
The 1st Battalion best captures the Old Guard's most visible modern identity. After the regiment's 1948 return to the Washington area, the 1st Battalion became one of the principal carriers of the regiment's ceremonial and security mission while preserving the Army's oldest active infantry lineage.
That makes the 1st Battalion the clearest battalion-level expression of the regiment's postwar role: funeral honors at Arlington, presidential ceremonies, and the public face of a regiment whose history runs back to 1784.
2d Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment
The 2d Battalion represents the Old Guard's operational side. Vietnam brought the regiment back into field service through separate battalions, and the 2d Battalion became the best-documented modern maneuver battalion of the regiment when it deployed with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade in 1966.
That field identity carried forward after Vietnam. In the post-Cold War era, regiment elements again deployed operationally, and the 2d Battalion remained the easiest battalion through which to understand how the Old Guard balanced ceremonial prestige with real combat service.
3d Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment
The local icon set includes a 3d Battalion, but the regiment's better-documented modern battalion story points instead to the 4th Battalion alongside the 1st and 2d. For that reason this section remains a heritage placeholder inside the icon set rather than a firm battalion lineage narrative.
Any later battalion-specific research pass for the 3rd Infantry should revisit this slot together with the Vietnam-era 4th Battalion, since that is where the parent regiment page places the clearer battalion history.
4th Battalion, 3d Infantry Regiment
The 4th Battalion was activated at Schofield Barracks in July 1966 and deployed to Vietnam with the 11th Infantry Brigade.
Its later service with The Old Guard at Fort Myer included ceremonial and memorial duties. Regimental history (Wikipedia).
5th Battalion, 3d Infantry Regiment
The 5th Battalion was activated in November 1967 as an element of the 6th Infantry Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
It was a short-lived stateside formation, inactivated in July 1969. Historical battalion summary (Military Wiki).
6th Battalion, 3d Infantry Regiment
The 6th Battalion was activated in November 1967 as an element of the 6th Infantry Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
It was a short-lived stateside formation, inactivated in February 1969. Historical battalion summary (Military Wiki).
7th Battalion, 3d Infantry Regiment
The 7th Battalion was activated in November 1967 as an element of the 6th Infantry Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
It was a short-lived stateside formation, inactivated in July 1968. Historical battalion summary (Military Wiki).
Research note: The added historical entries cite their sources individually. Regimental illustrations are labeled as such. An earlier battalion designation can continue through another battalion or a separate battery; these relationships are identified in the entries. The original three entries are retained; the additional entries do not treat regimental campaign credits as evidence that every battalion fought in those campaigns.
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