2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment
"Dreadnaughts"
On 1 October 1941, the 34th Armored Regiment was constituted at Fort Knox, Kentucky and assigned to the 5th Armored Division. The 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor was first constituted as Company B, 34th Armored Regiment.
Following 2 years of training for deployment to Europe with the 5th Armored Division, Company B, 34th Armored Regiment was reorganized and redesignated as Company B, 772nd Tank Battalion. The 772nd Tank Battalion was reassigned to the 4th Infantry Division.
The 772nd Tank Battalion first saw combat in Central Europe in 1945 as it fought its way across Northern France and into the German Rhineland. At the Roer River Dams, the 772nd Tank Battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its heroic assault on the enemy forces defending the dams and the Roer River.
After World War II, the 772nd Tank Battalion was transferred to Camp Shelby, Mississippi where it was inactivated on 14 November 1945. It was redesignated on 16 January 1947 as B Company, 306th Tank Battalion, as the 772nd Tank Battalion was redesignated the 306th Tank Battalion. It was assigned to Fort Ord, California, where the 306th Tank Battalion served a 4 year tour with Sixth Army. On 1 October 1963, the 306th Battalion was redesignated the 2nd Battalion, 34 Armor and activated at Fort Carson, Colorado. Once again the Battalion was assigned to the 4th Infantry Division.
The 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor was transferred to the 25th Infantry Division on 1 August 1967 and deployed to the Republic of Vietnam where it served with honor in the Central Highlands, Northern Provinces, and Cambodia. The Battalion received its second Presidential Unit Citation for heroic action against a superior enemy force at Soui Tre, Vietnam.
In Cambodia during Operation Fish Hook, the Battalion engaged in fierce bunker to bunker fighting against the North Vietnamese Army. After inflicting massive casualties on the enemy, destroying base camps, arms and food stores, the Battalion was awarded the Valorous Unit Award. After returning from the Republic of Vietnam, the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor was reassigned to the 4th Infantry Division where it served with honor until 14 July 1987.
On 16 August 1987, the battalion was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized). The Battalion deployed to Southwest Asia on 1 January 1991 in support of Operation Desert Shield. The 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor participated in Operation Desert Saber from 24 to 28 February 1991, organized as a balanced task force breached Iraqi border defenses and cleared the way for VII Corps to enter Iraq. On the night of 26-27 February 1991 the task force attacked and destroyed 2 reinforced battalions of the Republican Guard's Tawakalna Division without a single friendly casualty.
In January 2005, the 2nd Battalion 34th Armor was attached to the 3rd brigade, (Sledgehammer) 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized). The Dreadnaughts deployed to Kuwait, and in February 2005 completed a 420-mile overland route to its area of responsibility north of Baqubah, Iraq. For a year the Battalion conducted full-spectrum operations in an area of responsibility equal in size to Rhode Island, and set the conditions for two historical elections: the Constitutional Referendum and Parliamentary Selection.
After returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom III, 2-34th Armor reorganized and along with the rest of the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division became responsible for training Military Transition Teams preparing to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
