The 226th Medical Battalion was constituted in the National Army as the Medical Detachment, 307th Ammunition Train, an element of the 82nd Division, on 5 August 1917; it was organized at Camp Gordon, Georgia the following October. Deployed to Europe with the 82nd Division, the unit took part in the Lorraine 1918, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne campaigns. It was demobilized following the war but reconstituted in the Organized Reserves under its old designation. By the time it was ordered into active military service for World War II, it had been redesignated as the Medical Detachment, 907th Field Artillery Battalion and would subsequently be reorganized and redesignated as the Medical Detachment, 907th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, an element of the 101st Airborne Division.
It would participate in four campaigns in the European Theater while serving as part of the 101st Airborne Division, earning two Arrowhead devices for taking part in assault landings during the Normandy and Rhineland campaigns. The unit’s service before its inactivation in France on 30 November 1945 would be recognized with an Army Presidential Unit Citation, a French Croix de Guerre with Palm, a Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm, a Belgian Fourragere for being cited twice in the Order of the day of the Belgian Army, and a Netherlands Orange Lanyard.
After World War II, the unit would be redesignated in 1948 as the Clearing Company, 501st Airborne Medical Battalion, an element of the 101st Airborne and as the 226th Medical Company when it was relieved from assignment to the 101st Airborne in 1957. After nearly twenty years of inactivity, the Company was redesignated as the 226th Medical Unit and activated in Germany. On 17 January 1992, it was reorganized and redesignated as the 226th Medical Battalion, followed by redesignation as the 226th Medical Battalion (Logistics, Forward) in 1994 and assignment to the 30th Medical Brigade. During the War on Terrorism, the Battalion’s superior service between January 2004 and September 2006 was rewarded with two Meritorious Unit Commendations as its carried out its Logistics mission to “Support The Healers.”
As of Autumn 2023, it is unclear whether the 226th Medical Battalion was inactivated, deactivated, disbanded, redesignated, reorganized, or converted to another unit designation.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Commonly called a unit crest or DUI for short, the 226th Medical Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia features two arrowheads set upon a red cross to commemorate their participation in assault landings with the 101st Airborne Division.