Nam Province (posthumous) Private First Class David F. Winder, HQ & HQ Company, 3rd Battalion, 13 May 1970 (posthumous) Recent History (1994–present) Reactivation On 16 December 1994 the 2nd Battalion was reactivated at Fort Wainwright as part of the 6th Infantry Division (Light), which was reduced in size and reflagged as the 172nd Infantry Brigade (Separate) in April 1998. Iraq War In August 2005 2nd Battalion was deployed, along with the 172nd Stryker Brigade, to Mosul Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The battalion conducted counter insurgency operations aimed at securing the city of Mosul from an insurgency headed by the terrorist organization al-Qaeda in Iraq. After 12 months in Mosul 2nd Battalion was preparing to return to home station at Fort Wainwright, Alaska when their deployment was unexpectedly extended by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The 2nd Battalion, along with the entire 172nd Infantry Brigade, was subsequently sent to Baghdad, Iraq to quell rising sectarian violence. The 2nd Battalion returned home in December 2006 after 16 months in Iraq. It was inactivated on 16 December when the 172nd was reflagged as the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, and the 2-1st Infantry was reflagged as the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry. War in Afghanistan The battalion was reactivated on 17 April 2007 as part of the 5th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis. On 17 February 2009, President Obama ordered 4,000 soldiers of 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team to Afghanistan, along with 8,000 Marines. The deployment came as a result of the then-worsening situation in the Afghan war. These soldiers were to be deployed in the southeast, on the Afghan border. The brigade was scheduled to return to Joint Base Lewis–McChord in July 2010. After it returned, on 22 July, the 5th BCT was reflagged as the 2nd BCT of the 2nd ID and the battalion continued to serve with the latter. From June 2009 to June 2010, a group of U.S. Army soldiers from the 1st Infantry Regiment based in FOB RAMROD perpetrated the murders of at least three Afghan civilians. Body parts of the victims, such as finger bones and a skull were collected by the soldiers as war trophies. Honors Campaign participation credit War of 1812 Canada Lundy's Lane New Orleans Alabama 1814 Florida 1814 Alabama 1815 Louisiana 1815 Mexican–American War Monterey Vera Cruz Civil War Mississippi River Vicksburg Missouri 1861