On June 1, 1966, the 2d Battalion, 3d Infantry Regiment was activated at Fort Benning, GA. The 2nd Battalion was assigned to the 199th Infantry Brigade, eventually serving in the area around Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). The 2d Battalion was awarded a Valorous Unit Award and earned 11 campaign streamers for its service in Vietnam. One of the Regiment’s four Medal of Honor recipients was Corporal Michael F. Folland, Company D, 2d Battalion, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 3, 1969. The 2d Battalion was inactivated on October 15, 1970, at Fort Benning.

Previously, the 2d Battalion was active from 1957-1963 in South Korea as an element of the 7th Infantry Division. The 2d Battalion was activated again in March 2001 at Fort Lewis, WA, which served as a home base between its four deployments to Iraq (3) and Afghanistan (1) since 2003.