World War I The 317th Infantry was constituted on 5 August 1917 in the National Army and assigned to the 80th Division. It was organized from 23–27 August 1917 at Camp Lee, Virginia. The 317th Infantry arrived at the port of
Newport News on 2 June 1919 on the
USS Nansemond, and was demobilized 13–14 June 1919 at
Camp Lee,
Virginia.
Interwar period The 317th Infantry was reconstituted in the
Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, assigned to the 80th Division, and allotted to the Third
Corps Area. The regiment was initiated on 19 October 1921 with regimental headquarters at
Lynchburg, Virginia. Subordinate battalion headquarters were concurrently organized as follows: 1st Battalion at Lynchburg; 2nd Battalion at
Roanoke, Virginia; and 3rd Battalion at
Staunton, Virginia. The regiment conducted summer training most years with the
12th and
34th Infantry Regiments at
Fort George G. Meade or
Fort Washington, Maryland, or
Fort Eustis, Virginia. As an alternate form of summer training, it also conducted infantry
Citizens Military Training Camps some years at Fort Meade or Fort Eustis. The primary
ROTC "feeder" schools for new Reserve lieutenants for the regiment were the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the
Virginia Military Institute.
World War II The regiment was first commanded by
Colonel A. Donald Cameron. In October, 1944, he was replaced by Colonel Warfield M. Lewis. The final commander of the regiment, appointed in December, 1944, was
Lieutenant Colonel Henry G. Fisher, who served in this capacity until the end of the war. The unit was inactivated on 10 January 1946 at
Camp Kilmer in
New Jersey.
Cold War After World War II, the parent 80th Division was reactivated as airborne, and the 317th was redesignated on 15 July 1946 as the 317th Parachute Infantry, an element of the 80th Airborne Division. It was redesignated again only months later on 23 September 1946 as the 317th Glider Infantry and then activated on 14 November 1946 in the Organized Reserves with headquarters at Washington, D.C. On 5 October 1950 it was reorganized and redesignated as the 317th Airborne Infantry, but this was not to last. Maintaining airborne status in Reserve units proved to be extremely difficult, and on 10 May 1952 the unit was reorganized and redesignated as the 317th Infantry. Switching from a focus on combat to a training role, the unit was reorganized and redesignated on 6 March 1959 as the 317th Regiment, an element of the 80th Division (Training), with headquarters at Washington, D.C. (The location of the headquarters changed on 1 December 1960 to Riverdale, Maryland.) On 31 January 1968 the 317th was reorganized to consist of the 1st, 2d, and 3d Battalions, elements of the 80th Division (Training). It was reorganized several more times to remain within a training focus: • in 1994 it was assigned to the
80th Division (Institutional Training); • in 2007 it was assigned to the
95th Division (Institutional Training); • in 2008 it was assigned to the
98th Division (Institutional Training). The most current reorganization was in 2016 to the
104th Training Division (Leader Training). The regiment currently consists of a single battalion – 2nd Battalion, 317th Regiment, which is a drill sergeant battalion headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia. The battalion has a mission of conducting Cadet Summer Training (CST) for Reserve Officer's Training Corps (ROTC) basic (first-year) cadets at
Fort Knox, Kentucky. The battalion has six drill sergeant companies, located in
Charlottesville, Virginia (A Co),
Salem, Virginia (B Co),
Charleston, West Virginia (C Co),
Lynchburg, Virginia (D Co),
Culpeper, Virginia (E Co), and
Dublin, Virginia (F Co). ==Lineage==