The 172nd Preventive Medicine Detachment was first constituted on 7 October 1944 as the 172nd Medical Service Detachment before being activated on 22 November 1944 in England. Less than two months prior to VE day the detachment was redesignated as the 172nd Medical Automotive Maintenance Detachment before being inactivated on 18 September 1945 in England. The detachment was redesignated as the 172nd Medical Equipment Maintenance Detachment and allotted to the Regular Army before being activated on 1 May 1951 in St. The detachment was reorganized and again redesignated on 20 November 1952 as the 172nd Medical Detachment before being inactivated a year later on 15 October 1953 at St. The detachment was redesignated on 31 October 1967 as the 172nd Preventive Medicine Unit before being activated on 8 January 1968 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The unit was redesignated 21 September 1972 as the 172nd Medical Detachment and activated at Fort Ord, California. The detachment received participation credit for the European/African/Middle Eastern Campaign in World War II and participation credit for eleven campaigns in Vietnam including Counteroffensive Phases IV through VII, Tet 69/Counteroffensive, Summer-Fall 1969, Winter-Spring 1970, Sanctuary Counteroffensive, Consolidation I and II, as well as Cease-Fire. More recently, the detachment was deployed to Korea for Operation Team Spirit `89, to the Mediterranean for the NATO Exercise Display Determination `91, to Egypt for Operation Brightstar `94 and `95, to Guantanamo Bay for Joint Taskforce 160 in 1994, to Bosnia-Herzegovina for Operation Joint Forge 2000-2001, JRTC in October 2002 and April 2006, one rotation to Iraq for Operation New Dawn, New Jersey for Hurricane Sandy relief in 2012, and three rotations to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom I and V (2x).
