The 1st Ranger Battalion is an elite special operations unit of the US Army that is currently based at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, United States.
It was originally formed shortly after the United States' entry into World War II and was modelled upon the British Commandos. Members from the unit were the first American soldiers to see combat in the European theatre when they participated in the failed raid on Dieppe in France in 1942, during which three Rangers were killed and several more were captured. Later, the 1st Ranger Battalion was sent to North Africa where they participated in the landings in Algeria and the fighting in Tunisia in 1943. In late 1943 the unit was broken up in order to raise two more Ranger battalions before it took part in the campaigns in Sicily and Italy. After World War II, the 1st Ranger Battalion has gone through a number of changes of name and composition as it has been activated and deactivated and re-organised on a number of occasions. However, the unit has lived on in one form or another since then, serving in the Korean and Vietnam Wars before being consolidated into the 75th Ranger Regiment of which it is a part today. Recent deployments have included operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the wider global war on terrorism.