The 337th Infantry Regiment was an American National Army Infantry Regiment first organized for service in World War I as part of the 85th Division. It later served in the Mediterranean Theater during World War II. Since then it has served as a training Regiment, training Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers for service in support of the Global War on Terror.
Service history
World War I
The regiment was constituted 5 August 1917 in the National Army as the 337th Infantry and assigned to the 169th Infantry Brigade of the 85th Division. It was organized at Camp Custer, Michigan, on 30 August 1917. Its initial commander was Walter Cowen Short. In August 1917, the regiment was organized with 3,755 officers and enlisted men: Headquarters & Headquarters Company- 303 Supply Company- 140 Machine Gun Company- 178 Medical & Chaplain Detachment- 56 Infantry Battalion (x3)- 1,026 Headquarters- 2 Rifle Company (x4)- 256 The regiment deployed to France as part of the American Expeditionary Forces and were billeted in Sancerre from August 14 to September 2, 1918. On September 4, they moved to the cities of Nevers and Cosne where they were trained until the end of the war. The 337th Infantry did not participate in any named campaigns; instead the regiment provided individual replacement soldiers for divisions engaged in combat. After completing its war service in France, it arrived at the port of New York aboard S.S. Leviathan on April 2, 1919. The regiment demobilized at Camp Custer on April 23, 1919.
Between the Wars
The regiment was reconstituted in the Organized Reserves as the 337th Infantry on 24 June 1921 and reassigned to the 85th Division (later redesignated as the 85th Infantry Division) in the Sixth Corps Area. It was organized in December 1921 with the Regimental Headquarters and the 1st and 2d Battalions at Grand Rapids and the 3rd Battalion at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions relocated by 1929 to Muskegon and Cadillac respectively. The regiment conducted summer training most years with the 2d Infantry Regiment at Camp Custer. In 1928 the regiment conducted summer training with the 126th Infantry Regiment at Camp Grayling. In 1934 the regiment conducted summer training with the 125th Infantry Regiment at Camp Grayling. They also conducted infantry Citizens Military Training Camp (CMTC) training some years at Camp Custer or Fort Brady, as an alternate form of summer training. The primary ROTC feeder school was Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science.