The 1st and 2nd battalions of the 2nd Engineers participated in the Battle of Belleau Wood in direct support of the 4th Marine Brigade of the US Army's 2nd Division.

In late fall of 1950 Chinese forces surprised and overran U.S. and U.N. troops, including the U.S. Eighth Army and the 2nd Infantry Division.

Once the road was cleared, the battalion was told to hold the line with the 23rd Infantry Regiment and A Battery of the 503rd Field Artillery.

Early on 30 November, the massive 2nd Infantry Division convoy began to slowly make its way across the mountain pass through a six-mile gauntlet of Chinese sniper and mortar fire.

Zacherle then ordered the battalion colors, its custom-made box, and the 25 combat streamers that adorned it soaked in gasoline and set on fire.

Every year since the mid-1990s, the battalion has held a solemn nighttime ceremony where those actions are remembered and the unit's colors burned.

Retired Major Arden A. Rowley, one of many soldiers captured during the battle by the Chinese, answered for himself during the roll call of 22 November 2013.

[2] Civil War: Peninsula; Antietam; Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville; Wilderness; Spotsylvania; Cold Harbor; Petersburg; Appomattox; Virginia 1863 Philippine Insurrection: Streamer without inscription Mexican Expedition: Mexico 1916–1917 World War I: Aisne; Aisne-Marne; St. Mihiel; Meuse-Argonne; Lorraine 1918; Ile de France 1918 World War II: Normandy; Northern France; Rhineland; Ardennes-Alsace; Central Europe Korean War: UN Defensive; UN Offensive; CCF Intervention; First UN Counteroffensive; CCF Spring Offensive; UN Summer-Fall Offensive; Second Korean Winter; Korea, Summer-Fall 1952; Third Korean Winter; Korea, Summer 1953 This article incorporates public domain material from 2d Engineer Battalion Lineage and Honors.