The regiment was constituted 8 June 1995 as the 171st Aviation, a parent regiment under the United States Army Regimental System and allotted to the Army National Guard of Georgia and Florida.

[1] It was organized on 1 September 1996, to consist of the 1st Battalion with headquarters at Winder, Georgia.

1, H Company, 171st Aviation Regiment, Florida Army National Guard, based at Lakeland Linder International Airport, crashed during heavy rainstorms around 1100 hrs.

All 21 people on board were killed.

The aircraft was en route from Hurlburt Field, Florida to NAS Oceana, Virginia with a Virginia Beach-based USAF RED HORSE engineer detachment on board who had been training at Hurlburt.