205th Military Intelligence Brigade
205th MI BDE rapidly deploys and conducts IEW Operations in support of V Corps throughout the full spectrum of military operations.
The 205th Military Intelligence Brigade and its three battalions have a proud and distinguished history dating back to World War II. The Brigade has been in a continuous active service since 1944. The Brigade was constituted on 12 July 1944 in the Army of the United States as the 205th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment. It was allotted to the Regular Army on 6 October 1950. The unit served during World War II in Northern France, the Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe. It was reorganized and redesignated as the 205th Military Intelligence Detachment on 25 June 1958.
In Vietnam, the 205th took part in the Tet Offensive; the Tet 69/Counteroffensive; and the Summer-Fall Campaign of 1969. In October 1983, the Detachment was consolidated with Headquarters, 135th Military Intelligence Group and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 205th Military Intelligence Group. On 16 October 1985, the 205th MI Group was redesignated the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.
More than two thirds of the Brigade deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina with Task Force Eagle in December of 1995, redeploying to Germany in November of 1996. The Brigade continues to provide intelligence support to V Corps, and to the ongoing Joint and Combined Operations in the Balkans, from principal operating bases in Germany and Italy.
Elements of V Corps received orders to deploy to Kuwait in support of the oncoming Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to Stars & Stripes in a story on January 2, 2003, the 94th Engineer Battalion, the 22nd Signial Brigade, the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, and the 3rd Corps Support Command were to be depart for Kuwait in the coming weeks.
A gold metal and enamel device consisting of an oriental blue fleur-de-lis bearing in gold a dagger, point down, between a lightning flash and a propeller blade all convergent in base on a silver gray background enclosed at the bottom by a gold wreath of rice tied in red and at the top by an oriental blue scroll inscribed VANGUARD OF VIGILANCE in gold letters.
Oriental blue and silver gray are the colors traditionally associated with the military intelligence branch. The oriental blue fleur-de-lis refers to the unit's World War II service in Europe. Campaign participation in Vietnam is symbolized by the gold and red wreath of rice. The lightning flash represents signals intelligence and electronic warfare; the dagger represents human intelligence; the airplane propeller represents airborne imagery intelligence. The slanting of these symbols of the intelligence disciplines employed by the unit toward the fulcrum of the fleur-de-lis represents the convergence of intelligence from all sources to enable commanders to "see the battlefield."
