The colors of 1-504th returned to the 82nd, and on 25 May 1963 they were reorganized and redesignated as 1st Battalion (Airborne), 504th Infantry, an element of the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. On 26 April 1965, the 82nd Airborne Division received orders to prepare to deploy forces to the Dominican Republic. A parent regiment under the United States Army Regimental System, two battalions from the regiment, 1st Battalion (1-504 PIR) and 2nd Battalion (2-504 PIR), are currently active, both assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. From Aachen, it moved by train back to Laon, France to await orders. On 2 August 1990, the Iraqi Army (the world's fifth largest) attacked Kuwait. The 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment was activated during World War II on 20 October 1942 at Camp Blanding, Florida. [1], Colonel James M. Gavin, commander of the 505th Parachute Regimental Combat Team (with the 3rd Battalion of the 504th attached), led the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Husky, and, on the night of 9 July 1943, the 504th helped spearhead the Allied invasion of Sicily in the first airborne military offensive in the history of the United States Army. Assigned 15 July 1968 to the 82d Airborne Division and activated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The operation was to be called Operation "Shingle", and it involved an airborne assault into a sector behind the coastal town of Anzio, 35 miles south of Rome. The colors of both remained with the 8th until the end of the Pentomic era, at which time (1 April 1963) they were reorganized and reflagged as 1st and 2nd battalions (Airborne), 509th Infantry, elements of the division's 1st Brigade (Airborne). The brigade conducted nearly 3,500 patrols, killed or captured 400 enemy combatants, found nearly 200 roadside bombs and weapons caches, and engaged the enemy over 170 times. Ironically, the German Army's own Panzerfaust (a light anti-tank weapon with which the 504th was well equipped) was the regiment's most effective weapon against the German pillboxes. Reorganized and redesignated 1 March 1957 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Airborne Battle Group, 504th Infantry, relieved from assignment to the 82nd Airborne Division, and assigned to the. Areas of operation included Kandahar, Bagram Air Base, FOB Shkin, FOB Salerno, FOB Asadabad, and others. The Blue Devils redeployed to Ft Bragg in late January 2006. Within ten minutes, the enemy was overrun with more than 100 killed and 180 captured. In June 2006 the battalion was reflagged as the 1st of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the newly formed Fourth Brigade of the division. [1], In March 1988, 1st and 2nd battalions, the 504th joined soldiers from the 7th Infantry Division (Light) at Fort Ord, California in a deployment to Honduras as part of Operation Golden Pheasant - The 7th ID was the first unit on the ground and went directly to protect the local population from attack by Cuban armed communist guerrillas - a deployment ordered by President Reagan in response to actions by the Cuban and Soviet-supported Nicaraguan Sandinistas that threatened the stability of Honduras' democratic government. H Company drove forward to rescue a captured British General and was cut off. [1], On 6 April 1945, A Company crossed the Rhine at 02:30 hours and immediately made contact with the enemy. Sporman, Leonard E. 1st Ranger Battalion 839. Units of the division's 4th Brigade remained in skeletal status, never being fully manned, and were inactivated upon the return of the 3rd Brigade from Viet Nam.). In 2006, Colonel Condrey was selected as an Olmsted Scholar with assignment in Bucharest, Romania. Flying in columns of battalions, they exited over the barrels of gasoline-soaked sand that formed a flaming "T" in the center of the drop zone. Upon redeployment from Afghanistan in 2011, Colonel Condrey served as the Battalion S3 and XO in 2nd Battalion, 504th PIR in Ft. Bragg, NC, deploying to Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. Training intensified and senior officers such as General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO), Lieutenant General Clark, the U.S. Fifth Army commander, and Lieutenant General Patton, the U.S. [3]:201–203, The 504th deployed a captured German halftrack armed with a 70mm gun manned by two paratroopers with no training in its use. In just four hours, the regiment had jumped, assembled, engaged the enemy, and seized its objectives.[1]. Nevertheless, the 505th PIR was one of the first airborne units to hit the ground and despite the subsequent confusion surrounding the landing, were able to use it to their advantage mustering enough troops under the command of the 2nd Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort to liberate the first town in France, - St. Mere-Eglise. Lieutenant General Dempsey, commander of the British Second Army, after witnessing the crossing, characterized the attack with a single word as he shook his head and said, simply, "Unbelievable. Reorganized and redesignated 25 May 1964 as the 1st Battalion, 504th Infantry. [7], After remaining in the front-line for the next few weeks, on 16 November 1944, the 504th arrived at Camp Sissone near Rheims in Northern France on British lorries, greeted again by the traditional "We’re All American..." of the 82nd band. Here the 82nd Airborne Division earned the name, "America’s Guard of Honor," as a fitting end to hostilities in which the 504th had chased the German Army some 14,000 miles (23,000 km) across the European Theater.[1]. On 1 October 1943, the 504th became the first infantry unit to enter the city of Naples, which it subsequently garrisons, along with most of the rest of the 82nd Airborne Division. This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Army Center of Military History document: "504th Infantry Lineage and Honors". Freezing temperatures, snow, ice and years of exposure had corroded the detonators. Colonel Condrey is married to Meagan and they have four children, IMCOM is not responsible for the  content of links outside Home.Army.mil, U.S. ARMY INSTALLATION MANAGEMENT COMMAND, "We Are the Army's Home - Several months of rigorous training had been conducted prior to the invasion. 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