3rd Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment
"Attack!"
In FY 2004, as part of the Army's transformation towards a modular force, the 3-101 AVN stood down from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade and stood up with the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade.
The mission of the 3-101 AVN is to deploy worldwide within 36 hours, and destroy enemy forces with aerial firepower, mobility, and shock effect as an integrated maneuver element of an air assault combined arms team.
The unit is one of three attack helicopter battalions supporting the Division's 36 hour, worldwide deployment mission.
On 18 March 1964, the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion was created as a component of the regular army and assigned to the 11th Air Assault Division (Test).
The unit was activated for deployment to Vietnam 1 July 1965 and was concurrently redesignated the 229th Aviation Battalion (Assault Helicopter) and assigned to the First Cavalry Division (Airmobile). Over the next seven years, the 229th provided reconnaissance courier service, artillery adjustment, aeromedical evacuation, troop assault, armed escort and clandestine operations in 15 major campaigns until it returned from Vietnam and was inactivated at Fort Hood, Texas on 22 August 1972.
The battalion was reactivated on 12 September 1978 and was incorporated into the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) where it served as the 229th Attack Helicopter Battalion. On 11 October 1981, company d was activated at Fort Rucker, Alabama under the operational control of the 1st Aviation Brigade to complement the battalion's rapid deployment capability.
On 16 September 1986, the battalion was reorganized under the Army of Excellence structure. A company became the 55th Attack Helicopter Company, B Company remained the 229th Attack Helicopter Battalion and c company became the 309th Aviation Regiment, Camp Page, Korea, and the unit took the proud history of the 101st Aviation Battalion, and was redesignated as the 3rd Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment.
The unit is organized as part of the regimental system. A Company, B Company, and C Company provide the unit's destructive firepower and maneuver. D Company provides the battalion with logistics and ground repair resources. Headquarters and Headquarters Company is the backbone of the battalion. HHC provides the battalion with ammunition, fuel, administration, logistics, and the command group.
On 8 September 1990, the battalion was deployed with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The 3-101st Aviation Regiment participated in the largest air assault mission in history. The battalion returned to Fort Campbell on 7 April 1991.
In February 1992, the battalion deployed to Fort Hood, TX, to undergo a transition to AH-64 Apaches. Since returning to Fort Campbell in August of that same year, the battalion continues the air assault rapid deployment mission, the most recent example of which is the battalion's short notice deployment in July 1998 to Kuwait in support of operation southern watch.
The battalion deployed in 2000 to NTC and IBTC GATEX and executed aerial gunnery.
Elements from the unit were deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, as part of Operation Enfuring Freedom, in febraury 2002.
