The 17th Infantry Regiment is a United States Army infantry regiment. An earlier regiment designated the 17th Infantry Regiment was organized on 11 January 1812, but it was consolidated with four other regiments as the 3rd Infantry in the post-war reorganization of the army following the War of 1812, due to the shattering losses it sustained at the River Raisin. The current 17th Infantry was constituted as the 17th Regiment of Infantry on 3 May 1861.
The 17th Infantry Regiment served in the Army of the Potomac, in Sykes' Division of the 5th Army Corps. Its badge was a white cross patee.
During the Fredericksburg, the 17th Infantry suffered heavy losses in the assault on Robert E. Lee's Confederates entrenched behind a stone wall. "For one entire day, (December 14) the men of the 17th lay flat on their faces eighty yards in front of the famous stone wall, behind which the enemy was posted in large numbers and any movement on their part was sure to draw the fire of rebel sharpshooters."
A five-bastioned fort, shown on a blue shield above and to the right of a stone wall, was the badge of the 5th Army Corps in Cuba during the Spanish American War in 1898.
A buffalo, displayed on the a shield below the stone wall, represents the regiment's history in the Korean war. The "Buffalo" nickname was adopted at the suggestion of the 17th Regiment's commander in the Korea, Col. William W. "Buffalo Bill" Quinn.
The shield is blue, as it is the color of the infantry.
The crest is a sea lion taken from the Spanish Arms of Manila to represent the fighting for that city in 1898.
The two arrows represent the Indian campaigns the 17th Regiment participated in.
Spanish–American War
Private George Berg, Company C
Private Oscar Brookin, Company C
Corporal Ulysses G. Buzzard, Company C
Private Thomas J. Graves, Company C
First Lieutenant Benjamin F. Hardaway
Corporal Norman W. Ressler, Company D
Second Lieutenant Charles DuVal Roberts
Corporal Warren J. Shepherd, Company D
Private Bruno Wende, Company C
World War II
Private First Class Leonard C. Brostrom, Company F
Private First Class John F. Thorson, Company G
Korean War
Private Charles H. Barker, Company K
Captain Raymond Harvey, Company C
Corporal Einar H. Ingman, Jr., Company E
Private First Class Anthony T. Kahoʻohanohano, Company H
Corporal William F. Lyell, Company F
Private First Class Joseph C. Rodriguez, Company F
First Lieutenant Richard Thomas Shea, Company A
Constituted 3 May 1861 in the Regular Army as the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry
Organized 6 July 1861 at Fort Preble, Maine
Reorganized and redesignated 13 December 1866 as the 17th Infantry
Consolidated 1 June 1869 with the 44th Infantry, Veteran Reserve Corps (constituted 21 September 1866), and consolidated unit designated as the 17th Infantry
Assigned 5 July 1918 to the 11th Division
(2d and 3d Battalions inactivated 1 October 1921 at Fort McIntosh, Texas; activated 24 June 1922 at Fort Crook, Nebraska)
Relieved 24 March 1923 from assignment to the 11th Division and assigned to the 7th Division
Relieved 15 August 1927 from assignment to the 7th Division and assigned to the 6th Division
(2d Battalion inactivated 31 October 1929 at Fort Des Moines, Iowa)
Relieved 1 October 1933 from assignment to the 6th Division and assigned to the 7th Division (later redesignated as the 7th Infantry Division)
(2d Battalion activated 1 July 1940 at Camp Ord, California)
Relieved 1 July 1957 from assignment to the 7th Infantry Division and reorganized as a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System
(4th Battalion activated 1984)
1986 - 1st and 2nd Battalions re-activated at Fort Richardson, AK as part of the 1st Brigade, 6th Infantry Division (Light).
Withdrawn 16 November 1986 from the Combat Arms Regimental System and reorganized under the United States Army Regimental System
(4th Battalion inactivated 1993)
Redesignated 1 October 2005 as the 17th Infantry Regiment
(4th Battalion activated in Jan 2011 at Fort Bliss TX under 1st Brigade 1st Armored Division)
Civil War: Peninsula; Manassas; Antietam; Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville; Gettysburg; Wilderness; Spotsylvania; Cold Harbor; Petersburg; Virginia 1862; Virginia 1863
Indian Wars: Little Big Horn; Pine Ridge; North Dakota 1872
War with Spain: Santiago
Philippine Insurrection: Manila; Malolos; San Isidro; Tarlac; Mindanao; Luzon 1899; Luzon 1900
Mexican Expedition: Mexico 1916-1917
World War II: Aleutian Islands (with arrowhead); Eastern Mandates (with arrowhead); Leyte; Ryukyus (with arrowhead);Okinawa;Occupation of Korea
Korean War: UN Defensive; UN Offensive; CCF Intervention; First UN Counteroffensive; CCF Spring Offensive; UN Summer-Fall Offensive; Second Korean Winter; Korea, Summer-Fall 1952; Third Korean Winter; Korea, Summer 1953
Vietnam: Counteroffensive, Phase VII; Consolidation I; Consolidation II; Cease-Fire
Armed Forces Expeditions: Panama (with arrowhead)
Operation Iraqi Freedom: August 2005 to December 2006 Mosul and Baghdad
Operation Enduring Freedom: July 2009 to July 2010 Kandahar Province, Afghanistan; May 2012 to May 2013
War on Terrorism: Campaigns to be determined
A Company, 1-17 IN, received the Presidential Unit Citation (Navy) for actions in support of Operation Helmand Spider in Marjah during Operation Enduring Freedom 09-11.
