Draft:357th Infantry Regiment (United States)

The 357th Regiment is a United States Army regiment, part of the United States Army Reserve. The regiment was originally constituted for service in World War I with the 90th Division, and remained a part of the division during World War I, the interwar period, World War II, and the early part of the Cold War. When the United States Army Reserve was organized in the 1960s, the 357th Infantry was inactivated, but was reactivated as a training unit in 1999.

356th Infantry Regiment 356th Regiment
Active	1917-1919 1921-1944 1959-1975 1999-present
Country	United States
Branch	Army Reserve
Role	Training
Size	Regiment
Engagements	World War I St. Mihiel Meuse-Argonne Lorraine 1918 World War II Normandy (with arrowhead) Northern France Rhineland Ardennes-Alsace Central Europe

History

World War I

The 357th Infantry was constituted on 5 August 1917 in the National Army and assigned to the 179th Infantry Brigade, 90th Division. The regiment was organized 25 August 1917 at Camp Travis, in Burnet County, Texas, and was originally manned by draftees from Oklahoma; the 179th Infantry Brigade was the "Oklahoma" brigade of the 90th Division, while the 180th Infantry Brigade was made up of draftees from Texas. In September 1917, training began. Between January and June 1918, 50,000 fresh drafts and transfers arrived at Camp Travis, but losses aggregated 35,000. Early in 1918 the regiment received new men, many from Oklahoma and Texas, but in the spring, many men were transferred to other divisions at Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma, Camp Hancock, Georgia, Camp Joseph E. Johnston, Florida, and Fort Sheridan, Illinois. At the end of May 1918, drafts from Illinois, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota arrived from Camp Dodge, Iowa. Moving overseas to Liverpool, England in mid-June 1918, the 357th Infantry then moved to France. Occupying quiet sectors of the front in late August and early September, the regiment then participated in the Battle of St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive with the 90th Division in the closing months of the war.

Interwar period

The 357th Infantry arrived at the port of Newport News, Virginia, on 7 June 1919 on the troopship USS Huron, and was demobilized (disbanded) from 18–21 June 1919 at Camp Pike, Arkansas. The 357th Infantry was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, assigned to the 90th Division, and allotted to the Eighth Corps Area. Per the terms of the National Defense Act of 1920 that stipulated that Organized Reserve units be organized in the geographic locations that their National Army predecessors had come from during World War I, to the extent practicable, the 357th Infantry was initiated (activated) on 19 November 1921 with regimental headquarters at San Antonio, Texas. Subordinate battalion headquarters were concurrently organized as follows: 1st Battalion at San Antonio; 2nd Battalion at Austin, Texas; and 3rd Battalion at Brownsville, Texas. The regiment typically conducted inactive training period meetings at the Bexar County Courthouse, the Gunter Hotel, and later at the Smith-Young Tower in San Antonio. Summer training was typically held with the 2nd Division's 9th and 23rd Infantry Regiments at Fort Sam Houston or Camp Bullis, Texas. As an alternate form of summer training, the regiment conducted infantry Citizens Military Training Camps at Fort Sam Houston or Camp Bullis. For officers not selected for active duty training, the regiment conducted annual "contact camps" at Camp Bullis during the fall or winter months. The primary ROTC "feeder" school for new Reserve lieutenants for the regiment was was the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in College Station, Texas. The designated mobilization training station for the regiment was Fort Sam Houston.