39th Finance Battalion
The 39th Finance Battalion -- unofficially known as the Tuzla Bank and Trust -- was open for business as usual on the November 1997 morning in northern Bosnia. Jeff Bingham, who is a banker from Victoria, Texas, and a major in the Texas Army National Guard, was on hand to make sure the customers were satisfied. His desk in a nondescript cement, single-story building was fashioned from two-by-four studs and unpainted plywood. A vault behind him consisted of a half-dozen olive drab safes stacked against a wall and secured with a heavy chain. The shoulder holster strapped over his camouflage shirt held a 9-millimeter automatic. The trappings may be considerably more Spartan than his office at the South Texas Bank back in coastal Victoria where he is an investment counselor. But the job is essentially the same for this man who is as tuned in to finance as other Army officers are attuned to firepower. Sixty-nine members of the Texas Army Guard's 49th Finance Battalion from Austin were working behind the scenes with the active Army's 39th Finance Battalion until spring 1998 to keep their customers' pay and other financial benefits in order.
The 39th Finance Battalion was constituted 26 June 1942 in the Army of the United States as Detachment Finance 6055-S. Activated 28 September 1942 at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. Redesignated 22 March 1943 as the 39th Finance Disbursing Section. Inactivated 4 October 1946 in France. Allotted 20 September 1951 to the Regular Army. Activated 20 December 1951 in Germany. Redesignated 25 June 1964 as the 39th Finance Section. Reorganized and redesignated 16 October 1984 as the 39th Finance Center. Reorganized and redesignated 16 October 1988 as the 39th Finance Support Unit. Reorganized and redesignated 16 November 1993 as the 39th Finance Battalion.
The distinctive unit insignia was approved on 26 April 1994, consisting of a shield blazoned: Gules, on a pale Sable fimbriated Or three lozenges with axis horizontal of the like. Attached below and along two sides of the shield a Black scroll inscribed "DIAMOND DEDICATION" in Gold. The Finance branch is represented by the lozenges. The lozenges refer also to the unit's motto, "Diamond Dedication," and recall the three World War II campaigns in which the unit participated. Scarlet denotes courage and sacrifice. The black pale signifies solidity and responsibility. Gold (yellow) denotes the primary finance mission of the battalion. All three colors reflect the unit's historic ties to the Federal Republic of Germany. Gold (yellow) stands for excellence.
