After the demobilization of the 16th Division, the 32nd Infantry became a separate regiment and was transferred on 8 September 1920 to the Presidio of San Francisco, California.

The regiment underwent intensive training as a motorized unit at Camp San Luis Obispo, California.

Vast maneuvers were held in the Mojave Desert to prepare the 32nd for participation in the defeat of the German Afrika Korps, led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

After their baptism of fire in the Aleutians Campaign, the 32nd Regiment sailed to Hawaii for intensive training that emphasized amphibious landings and jungle fighting.

During five days of fighting, the 32nd, along with the 184th Infantry Regiment, eliminated all the enemy personnel on the island, with the exception of a few exhausted Japanese who surrendered.

The regiment returned to Hawaii on 14 February where it went through additional intensified jungle training for an expected invasion of the Yap Island.

Arriving at Eniwetok Atoll on 25 September 1944, the regiment's orders were changed and the 32nd joined General Douglas MacArthur's forces, spearheading the first landings on Leyte Island, Philippines.

Fighting in swamps, tropical jungles, and over rugged mountains, the 7th Infantry Division battled over 37 miles (60 kilometers) in 60 days of bitter combat.

[citation needed] The regiment's last campaign of World War II started 1 April 1945 with the landings at Okinawa.

After only three days of rest after the fighting on Okinawa, the 32nd embarked for Korea to receive the surrender of all the Japanese troops south of the 38th parallel.

The troops formed a tight perimeter against southbound guerrilla bands and were assigned the mission of eliminating the wholesale movement of black-market goods across the boundary.

A major problem facing the 32nd at this time was the integration of several hundred ROK soldiers who were to fight alongside American troops.

The "Buccaneers" of the 32nd, in the cold morning hours of 25 September, crossed the Han Rover under intense enemy fire and captured their first objective, a dominating hill mass outside Seoul, at 1030.

The division was relieved of the responsibility for the Seoul area on 30 September 1950 and moved 350 miles overland, arriving in Pusan to begin training for another proposed landing, this time at Wonson, North Korea.

Departing from Pusan Harbor on 28 October, the mission of the 7th Infantry Division was changed to land at Riwŏn and advance to the Korean-Manchurian border.

The 1st Battalion on the east coast of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir was with elements of the 31st Infantry Regiment and the 1st Marines, who were cut off by Chinese forces.

During the five-day period from 27 November to 1 December 1950, he personally directed his troops across the ice-covered reservoir and continually placed himself with the forward elements of the battalion.

Following reactivation, the battalion participated in numerous training exercises and deployed in support of Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti and a six-month rotation as a highly visible component of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) peacekeeping mission in the Middle East.

In August 2003, the battalion deployed to central Iraq as part of 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Delta Company was detached to 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment at FOB Salerno as the only maneuver force in Khost Province.

The first platoon of the engineer company conducted route clearance in the battalion's area of operations, while the Light Equipment platoon conducted construction and combat operations in the Korengal Valley, Pech River Valley, and Waygal Valley—including serving as battlespace owners in the village of Wanat.

Taskforce Chosin's AO was redrawn to include only Kunar and parts of Nuristan Provinces as the remainder of the brigade repositioned from the southern portion of Regional Command East.

As part of this move, Delta Company returned to battalion control, receiving its 2nd Platoon, a section of mortars, and a forward logistics element (FLE).

Soldiers from the battalion conducted a series of successful "Steel Lion"[3] operations, fighting south to the Arghandab River to isolate the Taliban insurgents from the population, secure the area through the construction of numerous strongpoints manned by US and Afghan security forces, and bring relative stability to the area.

The battalion again deployed to Afghanistan as part of 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in the fall of 2013.

In 2020, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Scott Horrigan, the battalion deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel.