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442nd Infantry Regiment Plaque,14″, Mahogany

$189.00

1 in stock (can be backordered)

Description

442nd Infantry Regiment Plaque

A 14 inch solid wood and meticulously carved plaque of the 442nd Infantry Regiment. We can recreate any logo and personalize as you see fit.

The 442nd Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment is best known for its history as a fighting unit composed almost entirely of second-generation American soldiers of Japanese ancestry (Nisei) who fought in World War II. Beginning in 1944, the regiment fought primarily in the European Theatre, in particular Italy, southern France, and Germany. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) was organized on March 23, 1943, in response to the War Department’s call for volunteers to form the segregated Japanese American army combat unit. More than 12,000 Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) volunteers answered the call. Ultimately 2,686 from Hawaii and 1,500 from U.S. incarceration camps assembled at Camp Shelby, Mississippi in April 1943 for a year of infantry training.[4] Many of the soldiers from the continental U.S. had families in internment camps while they fought abroad.[5] The unit’s motto was “Go for Broke”.

The 442nd Regiment is the most decorated unit for its size in U.S. military history.[6] Created as the 442nd Regimental Combat Team when it was activated 1 February 1943, the unit quickly grew to its fighting complement of 4,000 men by April 1943, and an eventual total of about 14,000 men served overall. The unit including the 100th Infantry Battalion[4] earned more than 18,000 awards in less than two years, including more than 4,000[4] Purple Hearts and 4,000 Bronze Star Medals. The unit was awarded eight Presidential Unit Citations (five earned in one month). Twenty-one of its members were awarded Medals of Honor.[3] In 2010, Congress approved the granting of the Congressional Gold Medal to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and associated units who served during World War II,[8] and in 2012, all surviving members were made chevaliers of the French Légion d’Honneur for their actions contributing to the liberation of France and their heroic rescue of the Lost Battalion.

Arriving in the European Theatre, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, with its three infantry battalions, one artillery battalion and associated HQ and service companies, was attached to the 34th Infantry Division. On 11 June 1944, near Civitavecchia, Italy, the existing 100th Infantry Battalion, another all-Nisei fighting unit which had already been in combat since September 1943, was transferred from the 133rd Infantry Regiment to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Because of its combat record, the 100th was allowed to keep their original designation, with the 442nd renaming its 1st Infantry Battalion as its 100th Infantry Battalion.[10] The related 522nd Field Artillery Battalion liberated at least one of the satellite labor camps of Dachau concentration camp and saved survivors of a death march near Waakirchen.

The 442nd RCT was inactivated in 1946 and reactivated as a reserve battalion in 1947, garrisoned at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. The 442nd lives on through the 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry Regiment, and is the only current infantry formation in the Army Reserve. More information about the current 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry Regiment and its current alignment with the active 25th Infantry Division, the reserve 9th Mission Support Command, and its combat duty in the Vietnam War and the Iraq War can be found at 100th Infantry Battalion (United States).

The 100th/442nd’s current members carry on the honors and traditions of the historical unit. In recognition of its storied combat record, the 100th/442nd was also one of the last units allowed to use its individual shoulder sleeve insignia. In the interest of greater division unity, they officially relinquished their patch in 2016.

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