2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment
"The Rock"
On 24 February 1942, the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment was formed. The Regiment's 1st and 2nd Battalions were formed at Fort Benning, Georgia from the 503rd and 504th Parachute Battalions, respectively. Shortly thereafter, the Regiment was deployed as an independent parachute regiment to join General MacArthur's forces in the South Pacific theater.
After several months of preparation, the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment assaulted Corregidor Island, the Philippines, for which the unit was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. The 2 other airborne operations included an assault on the Japanese-held Nadzab airstrip, New Guinea on 5 September 1943, and Kamiri Airfield on Noemfoor Island off the coast of Dutch New Ginea on 3 July 1944.
Following a non-combat landing on the Island of Leyte, in the Philippines, the 503rd Parachute Regimental made a major amphibious landing on the Island of Mindoro, in the central Philippines on 15 December 1944. Originally, it was intended that the 503rd to jump on Mindoro, but due to inadequate airstrip facilities on Leyte, an airborne landing was not possible. The purpose of this landing was to secure sites for airstrips providing forward Air Corp bases to support later landings at Lingyen Gulf, Luzon. The Regiment was subjected to intense air and naval actions during this operation and, at one point, was shelled for 25 minutes by a Japanese Naval task force. One Company of the Regiment engaged in a fierce battle against a Company-size enemy air raid warning station on the North end of Mindoro.
The Regiment jumped on Fortress Corregidor on 16 February 1945 to liberate that Island from occupying Japanese forces. This was the most vicious combat action in which the Regiment engaged during its existence. Corregidor was the bastion that withstood a fierce Japanese siege for nearly 5 months in 1941 and 1942, thereby interrupting the Japanese advance toward Australia. The 503rd was proud to have been allowed the honor of recapturing the island. Japanese sources have estimated there were 6550 Japanese on the Island when the 503rd landed. Of those, only 50 survived. The 503rd, however, lost 169 men killed and many more wounded or injured. The 503rd was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its actions. Private Lloyd G. McCarter was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery on Corregidor.
Almost immediately after returning to Mindoro from Corregidor, the Regiment was called upon to bolster the 40th Division, which was bogged down on the Island of Negros, in the Central Philippines. The Regiment was inserted into Negros by landing craft, although it had been alerted for another combat jump. Japanese forces destroyed a strategic bridge and large lumber mill, thereby eliminating the first jump objectives of the 503rd. The 503rd engaged in battles against Japanese resistance in the mountainous areas of Negros for more than 5 months. The 40th US Division convinced higher headquarters there were only a few enemy troops remaining on the Island and was moved to Mindanao, leaving the 503rd to battle the Japanese alone. At the end of the War with Japan in August 1945, about 7,500 of the surviving Japanese troops surrendered to the 503rd Parachute Regiment.
Official US War Department sources estimated the 503rd killed over 10,000 Japanese troops during its combat operations in the Southwest Pacific. Unfortunately, the 503rd lost many good men in accomplishing its missions. The names of 392 of these men have been identified.
By early November 1945, the 503rd Parachute Regiment ceased to be operational. All men with lengthy service in the Southwest Pacific had been rotated to the United States, while those who had served the Regiment for a shorter time were reassigned to the 11th Airborne Division and sent as occupation troops to Japan. The Regiment was inactivated on 24 December 1945 at Camp Anza, California.
It was reactivated and redesigned as Company B, 503rd Airborne Infantry in February 1951 and assigned to the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In 1959, the regiment again reorganized as the 1st and 2nd Airborne Battle Groups, 503rd Infantry, and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In March 1963, both battle groups were redesignated and reorganized as the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 503rd Airborne Infantry, and reassigned to the newly formed 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate).
In May 1965, the 503rd Infantry deployed with the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Vietnam as the first major US Army ground combat unit to be deployed. In November 1967 Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Regiment, one of the units ordered to drive a battalion of the North Vietnamese Army's 1st Infantry Division off Hill 875, about five miles from the Cambodian border. The NVA soldiers were dug in deep. They were a far more formidable foe than the Viet Cong had been elsewhere in the country.
The attack was ordered because it reflected Gen. William Westmoreland's strategy to "find, fix and destroy" the enemy, wrote Edward J. Murphy in his graphically detailed book, "Dak To" (Presidio, 1993). "It was just one more place where the enemy could be killed." Only 29 of the estimated 110 men in the company who went up the hill survived the battle. Many of those men, including the commander and a chaplain, were wiped out in one blinding instant by a 500-pound bomb mistakenly dropped on their position from an American plane.
During its 6 years in Vietnam, the 503d Infantry participated in fourteen campaigns, winning two more Presidential Unit Citations and a Meritorious Unit Commendation. It redeployed to the United States in July 1971, having the distinction of being one of the last units to leave Vietnam. Subsequently, the 503d Infantry served as part of the 101st Airborne Division until 1983 when it was inactivated. On 16 December 1986 2-503 Infantry was reactivated and assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea. It was inactivated on 29 September 1990 and relieved from assignment to the 2d Infantry Division.
The 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, was reactivated on 25 January 2002. This second airborne battalion for the Southern European Task Force was created by doing away with a truck company and a missile maintenance company. The addition of this second airborne battalion gave the task force the ability to seize an enemy airfield or some other target with more than 1,000 airborne infantrymen, including reconnaissance scouts who had the technology to send digital photos of the target back to commanders before the main force jumps.
The reactivation of the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry Regiment, constituted a major event for 173rd Airborne Brigade veterans. The 503rd Parachutist Battalion, one of the original formations of the expanding U.S. Army Airborne forces, was activated and organized in August 1941.
From 26 March 2003 until 21 February 2004, the 2nd Battalion served in and around Kirkuk, Iraq with the 173rd Airborne Brigade as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As of June 2006, the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry had most recently served in combat operations in Zabol province, Afghanistan beginning in March 2005 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
In May 2006, soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment joined the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry when 1-508th Infantry was deactivated (1-508th Infantry was reactivated assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division). 2-503rd Infantry continued to serve in Afghanistan as part of the United States contribution to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) into 2008.
