It is unclear when the 321st Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Battalion organizational flash was approved, but theres no question where the inspiration for the design came from: it's identical to the flash approved on 29 March 2001 for the Regiment’s 1st Battalion, except this insignia features three scarlet barrulets (horizontal bars) instead of just one.
The flash is worn on the maroon beret, centered on the headgear’s stiffener. Officers (except Chaplains) wear their nonsubdued rank insignia centered on the flash, while NCOs and Junior Enlisted Soldiers wear the 321st Field Artillery Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia, or unit crest, in like manner.
Today’s 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery, assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps’ 18th Field Artillery Brigade and stationed at Fort Bragg, can trace its lineage back to the creation of two units that were created on 5 August 1917 as elements of the 82nd Division: Battery C, 321st Field Artillery (FA) and a second unit that began as “part of” the 307th Ammunition Train.
Both organizations fought in three campaigns as part of the 82nd Division during World War I campaigns and four in World War II as part of the 101st Airborne Division, with the former serving in the 101st Airborne Division as Battery C, 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion and the latter also serving as Glider Field Artillery, specifically Battery B, 907th Glider Field Artillery Battalion.
Military decorations earned in the Second World War include a Presidential Unit Citation for the Battle of the Bulge and several foreign honors, most notably a French Croix de Guerre with Palm, WWII, a Belgian Fourragere for two citations in the Order of the Day of the Belgium Army, a Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm, and a Netherlands Orange Lanyard.
A dozen years after the end of the war, the two units—still elements of the 101st Airborne Division now designated as Battery C, 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion and Battery C, 321st Airborne Field Artillery Battalion—were consolidated, with the newly merged unit retaining the designation of 321st Airborne Field Artillery Battalion.
It would not be deployed during the Vietnam conflict, and in February 1987 it was redesignated to roughly its current designation of HQ and HQ Battery, 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery (the last portion would become “Field Artillery Regiment” in 2005) and concurrently transferred to U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) at Fort Sill. It was inactivated on 15 January 1996 and then simultaneously reactivated and withdrawn from TRADOC the next day.
Since then, the Battalion has deployed on numerous occasions in support of the War on Terrorism and its individual components have been the recipients of several military decorations earned while assigned to a variety of parent units. The HQ and HQ Battery—or rather a Detachment of it—and B Battery were chosen for a Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC) for their service throughout almost the entire calendar year of 2010 (5 January to 28 December 2010). Battery C was tapped for two MUCs (October 2005 – September 2006, May 2007 – 2008) and a Valorous Unit Award (30 July – 31 October 2008), and Battery A earned two MUCs, the first for service between October 2005 and September 2006 and the second for January 2011 and December 2011).