C co. “Charlie Airborne”

For the paratroopers of Charlie Airborne stationed in Ft. Wainwright, AK.

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 Brigade101st 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 three “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).