During World War II, the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment ("Bastogne Bulldogs") was a gliderborne regiment of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division. It fought during World War I as part of the U.S. 82nd Division. It has also been deployed to: The Dominican Republic 1965; Vietnam 7/29/65 – 3/10/72; Grenada 1983; Panama 1989;Desert Storm 1990; and most recently to Iraq and Afghanistan. The song "Glider Rider" describes (humorously) some of the slights that gliderborne troops felt they received from the Army during WWII; though the regiments public claim to fame came in the 1949 movie Battleground about the Siege of Bastogne in 1944.
On 27 April 1954 the 516th was relieved from assignment to the 101st Airborne Division and activated at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, on 15 May 1954, again as a training unit. On 1 July 1956 it was reorganized and redesignated as the 327th Airborne Infantry Regiment, an element of the 101st.
On 25 April 1957 the colors of Company A, 327AIR were reorganized and redesignated as HHC, 1st Airborne Battle Group, 327th Infantry, and remained assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (organic elements concurrently constituted and activated). This was the only active element of the 327th Infantry during the Pentomic era. When the Army abandoned battle groups for brigades and battalions, the unit was reorganized and redesignated on 3 February 1963 as the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry, an element of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
On 21 January 1964 the lineage of the former Company B, 327AIR was redesignated as HHC, 2d Battalion, 327th Infantry, assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (organic elements concurrently constituted) and activated on 3 February 1963, also as an element of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
As elements of the 1st Brigade, the two battalions of 327th Infantry deployed to Vietnam in 1965, where they were joined by the rest of the division in late 1967. The 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry was the last unit of the 101st Airborne to leave Viet Nam, departing in April 1972, making it the longest serving unit in combat during the Viet Nam war. While still at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the remaining elements of the 101st were severely stripped of personnel to support the war effort. When ordered to deploy, it was necessary to fill empty manning slots with non-Airborne-qualified soldiers, effectively making these units of the division Airborne in name only. In mid-1968, the Army created a second Airmobile division (the other being the 1st Cavalry Division) by reorganizing the 101st and its subordinate elements, to include the battalions of the 327th Infantry. The division has remained a helicopter-landed unit to the present day.
During the early 1980s the Army adopted a battalion rotation program that paired combat battalions based in the continental United States with those stationed overseas. As part of this program, the lineage of the former Company C, 327AIR was redesignated on 21 January 1983 as HHC, 3d Battalion, 327th Infantry, and assigned to the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). This was accomplished by reflagging the existing 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry. In Alaska the existing infantry battalions of the 172nd Infantry Brigade were reflagged as the 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions, 327th Infantry, with the 3 'C' Companies' back on Airborne status, thus reactivating the lineages of the former Companies D, E, and F, 327AIR. The rotational program was later abandoned and the Alaska-based battalions were reflagged again, leaving only the Fort Campbell-based battalions with 327th designations.
When the 172nd Infantry Brigade (Separate) was inactivated and replaced by the newly re-activated 6th Infantry Division (Light) in 1986; the 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions, 327th Infantry were also inactivated and replaced by the 1st and 2nd Battalion, 17th Infantry (Fort Richardson, AK); and the 4th and 5th Battalion, 9th Infantry (Fort Wainwright, AK).
With the recent Army-wide reorganization adding one brigade to each division and eliminating one infantry or armor battalion from each brigade, 3-327th was inactivated and replaced by the 1st Squadron (RSTA), 32nd Cavalry Regiment. The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) also includes the 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment; the 426th Brigade Support Battalion; and the Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
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