20th Engineer Brigade
The mission of the 20th Engineer Brigade is to maintain a crisis response engineer brigade capable of providing rapidly deployable engineer forces to xviii airborne corps and other unified or specified commands as directed; prepared to accomplish any engineer mission.
The lineage and honors of the 20th Engineer Brigade date back to the Civil War. First designated as the Battalion of Engineers on August 3, 1861, the battalion participated in 10 campaigns during the Civil War. Since that time, unit designations have changed many times as predecessors of the 20th Engineer Brigade have served in the War With Spain, the Philippine Insurrection, the Mexican Expedition and World Wars I and II.
On August 16, 1950 the Brigade was first designated as the 20th Engineer Brigade and activated at Camp Leonard Wood, MO. It deployed overseas to France in November 1952 and established headquarters in Croix Chapeau. Comprised of two battalions and six separate companies, the Brigade provided engineer construction support to the Base Section of the European COMMZ in southwestern France. In August 1954, it redeployed back to the United States and was activated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on September 10, 1954. From that time until its inactivation on December 12, 1958, the Brigade provided engineer support to the XVIII Airborne Corps.
In response to the build up of U.S. forces in the Republic of Vietnam, the Brigade Headquarters was reactivated May 1, 1967, at Fort Bragg, NC, and deployed to Vietnam in August 1967. During the Vietnam conflict, the Brigade numbered over 13,000 officers and enlisted men organized into three engineer groups, with 14 battalions and 31 separate companies and detachments. The Brigade provided all non-divisional engineer support in Military Regions III and IV during eleven campaigns. Units cleared more than one-half million acres of jungle, paved 500 kilometers of highway, and constructed bridges totaling more than six miles in length. As US forces were withdrawing from Vietnam, the Brigade was inactivated September 20, 1971.
As the organization of the Army changed following Vietnam, the 20th Engineer Brigade was again reactivated at Fort Bragg, NC, as an airborne brigade on June 21, 1974. Assigned as a subordinate command of the XVIII Airborne Corps, comprised of one airborne combat engineer battalion, a heavy construction battalion and four separate companies. Since that time the Brigade and its subordinate units have supported the XVIII Airborne Corps, fulfilling critical combat engineer, construction, topographic, and bridging missions. As requirements and the engineer force structure changed, the Brigade inactivated the combat heavy battalion in 1987 and activated another combat airborne battalion. In 1989, the 30th Engineer Battalion (Topographic) was added to the Brigade.
Throughout the years, the Brigade has provided engineer support to XVIII Airborne Corps and other Army commands. In addition to training, it has deployed in support of operations across the entire spectrum of conflict from disaster relief to combat operations. Most recently, the brigade was called to support the multinational response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. The Brigade grew to a 7,700 soldier force composed of three groups, ten battalions, four separate companies, and eight detachments in support of XVIII Airborne Corps during Operations Desert Shield and Storm. The Brigade completed 1,500 combat heavy battalions equivalent days of work constructing roads, airfields, heliports, ammunition/fuel/water storage points, life support areas and forward landing strips, distributed over ten million maps, trained over 5,000 coalition engineers, and supported the French attack on Assalman airfield. During follow-on missions the Brigade destroyed over 6000 enemy bunkers and one million tons of munitions.
The shoulder insignia was originally authorized on 30 June 1967. It was amended on 14 Jan 1975 to add the blue and white "Airborne" tab. It consists of a scarlet square bearing a white castle tower of three battlements and pointed at base paralleling the sides of the square on a white square divided throughout by a scarlet saltire all within a scarlet border. A blue arc tab containing the inscription "AIRBORNE" in white letters is worn centered immediately above the shoulder sleeve insignia, the top of the insignia touching the bottom of the arc tab. The colors scarlet and white are used for the Corps of Engineers, the castle tower being suggested by the Corps of Engineers branch insignia and its base pointed in reference to the Brigade's combat requirements. The tower also represents the Headquarters of the Brigade and the white areas, simulating carpenter squares, grouped around it allude to the engineer combat and construction groups which it serves, the four areas specifically referring to the Headquarters basic mission of command, operational planning, operational supervision and coordination of activities. The tower and white areas also simulate heavy construction (buildings, compounds, fortifications, bunkers, revetments, runways, roads, etc.) and on being placed on a square allude to the establishment of bases, the red border and the red saltire referring to lines of communication. In addition, the four white areas also resemble the letter "V" for victory (successful accomplishment) and the Roman numeral five (V) four of which make "20", the numerical designation of the Brigade. A saltire is also the brigade symbol used on maps.
The Distinctive Unit Insignia was authorized on 19 July 1967, consisting of a silver sword point down under and over a silver encircling scroll, the upper portion surmounting the hilt and inscribed "Building" and the lower portion over which the blade extends inscribed "Combat Power," all in black letters; overall two chevrons interlaced, apexes to the right and left and divided chevronwise white enamel on the outside and scarlet enamel on the inside. The sword and the chevrons, simulating carpenters' squares, refer to the Brigade's mission of combat and construction. The saltire, or "X" formed by the interlacing of the chevrons, denotes support and also alludes to the Brigade symbol used on Army maps.
