The 502nd Infantry Regiment, formerly the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, was an airborne infantry regiment of the US Army that was active from 1942 to 1945 and from 1957. The regiment was established shortly after the United States entered World War II, and it was assigned as a regiment of the US 101st Airborne Division. On 6 July 1944, it took part in the Mission Albany landings in Normandy during Operation Overlord, landing behind German lines to secure the causeways behind Utah Beach and to destroy a coastal artillery battery at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville. During the jump, regimental commander George Van Horn Moseley Jr. broke his leg, so John H. Michaelis took command of the 502nd. Five days later, the regiment took part in the Battle of Carentan, and, after assisting in the town's capture, it was withdrawn to England for refitting. On 17 September 1944, the regiment returned to combat in Operation Market Garden, during which its goal was to secure "Hell's Highway", stretching from Eindhoven north to Veghel. Lieutenant-Colonel Robert G. Cole, commander of 3rd Battalion, was killed during the Battle of Eindhoven, and, on 26 September, a lucky German artillery shot wounded 1st Battalion commander Patrick F. Cassidy, Michaelis, the regimental S2 and S3, the division G2 and G3, and the commander of the 377th Artillery Battalion, wounding Cassidy and Michaelis. The regiment was later withdrawn to France to refit, and it fought in the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-45. In April 1945, the regiment was sent to mop up the Ruhr Pocket, and it ended the war at the Berchtesgaden in Austria, where it arrested several Nazi Party officials. The regiment was deactivated that summer.
The 502nd was reactivated in a new form in 1956, and it served in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, and Operation Inherent Resolve during the Iraqi Civil War. In 1969, it was removed from parachute status, and it became an air assault unit in 1974.