1st Battalion, 82nd Aviation was activated 7 December 1962, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina as Company A, 82nd Aviation Battalion, an element of the 82nd Airborne Division. The assets of A Company significantly increased the Division's mission capabilities and provided a highly mobile and responsive source of combat power to the division commander. The unit was first committed to combat in the Republic of Vietnam. Company A became known as the "Wolfpack" and adopted the name as its callsign. Throughout its one year stay in Vietnam, Company A participated in several defensive and counteroffensive operations and performed with valor earning both the Presidential and Meritorious Unit Citations.
In July 1979, Company A was inactivated and reactivated as Company D, 82nd Aviation Battalion.
In October 1983, Company D conducted attack helicopter combat operations with the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada. In October 1986, Company D inactivated and reorganized as the 20th Attack Helicopter Battalion (Provisional). Three months later, the D Company was reactivated and redesignated as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion (Attack), 82nd Aviation, with its organic elements concurrently constituted and activated. It continued to operate as the Army's only Airborne Attack Helicopter Battalion.
In August 1987, the Battalion deployed to Fort Hood, Texas and transitioned to the AH-64A Apache. In honor of the unit's lineage, 1-82nd Aviation reinstituted the "Wolfpack" callsign from its intense days of combat operations in Vietnam. In March 1988, the Wolfpack returned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and the 82nd Airborne Division as the world's first combat ready Advanced Attack Helicopter Battalion.
The Wolfpack conducted combat operations with the 82nd Airborne Division, 7th Infantry Division, 75th Ranger Regiment, and Special Operations units during Operation Just Cause, in Panama, in December 1989 and thus became the first attack battalion to conduct combat operations with the new AH-64A Apache. In August 1990, the Wolfpack was the first Army Aviation unit to deploy to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in preparation for combat in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Throughout Desert Storm, the unit conducted several successful deep attack missions as an integral part of the 82nd Airborne Division's end sweep deep into Iraq earning a second Meritorious Unit Citation.
On 16 March 1995, 1-82nd Aviation transitioned from the AH-64 Apache to the OH-58D(I) Kiowa Warrior.
1-82nd deployed to Iraq with other elements of the 82nd Aviation Brigade on three seperate occasions between 2003 and 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In January 2006 the entire 82nd Airborne Division began a transformation to the US Army's new modular force structure. 1-82nd Aviation remained with the reorganized and redesignated 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade.
In late 2006, 1-82nd Aviation deployed along with other elements of the 82nd Aviation Brigade returned to Iraq for another tour of duty.
In 2007 1-82nd Aviation deployed to Afgnanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
