Draft:356th Infantry Regiment (United States)

The 356th Regiment is a United States Army regiment, part of the United States Army Reserve. Originally constituted for service in World War I, the regiment was active during that war as well as during the interwar period. The regiment did not see active service during World War II, being disbanded in 1944. It was reconstituted and activated during the Cold War in 1959, and regimental elements currently serve as training units.

World War I
The 356th Infantry Regiment was constituted on 5 August 1917 in the National Army and was assigned to the 89th Division. It was organized on 27 August 1917 at Camp Funston, Kansas, on the grounds of Fort Riley near Junction City. The regiment was initially manned with draftees assigned to the camp from northwestern Missouri. After serving in the Battle of St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the closing months of the war in France, the 356th Infantry arrived at the port of New York on 24 May 1919 on the troopship USS Agamemnon and was demobilized (disbanded) on 11 June 1919 at Camp Funston.

Interwar period
The 356th Infantry Regiment was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, assigned to the 89th Division, and allotted to the Seventh 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 356th Infantry was initiated (activated) in November 1921 with the regimental headquarters at Watertown, South Dakota. Subordinate battalion headquarters were concurrently organized as follows: 1st Battalion at Webster, South Dakota; 2nd Battalion at Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and 3rd Battalion at Rapid City, South Dakota. The regimental headquarters was relocated on 15 May 1922 to Sioux Falls. Throughout the early 1930s, Organized Reserve units that were geographically dispersed across the less-populous states were reorganized with their major subdivisions or the entire unit in one or several of the larger population centers in these states. The entire 356th Infantry was relocated on 12 October 1931 to Sioux Falls.

The 356th Infantry conducted summer training most years with the 7th Division's 17th Infantry Regiment at Fort Crook, Nebraska, and some years at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, or Fort Lincoln, North Dakota. As an alternate form of summer training, the regiment conducted infantry Citizens Military Training Camps many years at Fort Lincoln. The primary ROTC "feeder" schools for new Reserve lieutenants for the regiment were the University of South Dakota in Vermillion and the South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in Brookings. During the United States' prewar mobilization of 1940-1941, the officers of the 356th Infantry were dispersed individually to existing Regular Army and National Guard units to fill vacancies.

World War II
In early 1942, after American entry into World War II, the infantry divisions of the Organized Reserve were reorganized on paper from the four-infantry regiment "square" organization to the new three-infantry regiment "triangular" organization preparatory to their call to active duty. On 22 February 1942, the 356th Infantry was relieved from assignment to the 89th Division, concurrently withdrawn from the Organized Reserve, and allotted to the Army of the United States as an inactive unit. It was disbanded in an inactive status on 11 November 1944.

Cold War to present
The 356th Infantry was reconstituted on 12 June 1959 in the Army Reserve as the 356th Regiment, and activated on 1 October 1959 as an element of the 89th Division (Training), with the regimental headquarters at Wichita, Kansas. It was reorganized on 31 January 1968 to consist of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, on 31 January 1971 to consist of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, and on 1 May 1971 to consist of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions. On 1 March 1974, the regiment was reduced to the 3rd Battalion, and this battalion was inactivated on 1 February 1975 and relieved from assignment to the 89th Division (Training). The 356th Regiment was reorganized on 17 October 1999 to consist of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, elements of the 91st Division (Training Support).