44th Support Group (Corps RAOC)

Organized and Federally recognized 1 March 1929 in the Illinois Army National Guard at Chicago as Headquarters and Services Company, 108th Engineers an element of the 33rd division. Inducted into Federal service 5 March 1941 at Chicago. Reorganized and redesignated 21 February 1942 as Headquarters and Services Company, 108th Engineer Batallion, and relived from assignment to the 33rd Division. Reorganized and redisigned 1 August 1942 Headquarters and Services Company, 108th Engineer Combat Battalion. Inactivated 5 February 1946 in Japan. Reorganized and Federally recognized 6 March 1947 at Chicago. Reorganized and redisigned 1 February 1953 as Headquarters and Services Company, 108th Engineer Batallion. Reorganized and resesigned 1 March 1959 as Headquarters Company, 108th Engineer Battalion.

Personnel transferred 15 December 1967 to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Illinois Emergency Operations Headquarters, Illinois Army National Guard; transferred 1 May 1971 to the 44th Support Center.

Doctrinally, a corps has several Rear Area Operations Centers (RAOCs), which are Reserve component units specifically designed to assist with managing and coordinating rear operations. Typically, each division has one RAOC to assist with its rear operations, while a corps has from two to five. Each RAOC commander is a lieutenant colonel. The RAOC may be placed in a direct-support relationship with each corps support group (CSG).

At the CORPS level, the Deputy CORPS Commander directs Rear Operations. CORPS Support Groups manage the Combat Support and Combat Service Support units supporting the CORPS Mission on a one per division basis. At the CORPS Rear Headquarters, the Rear Operations Center (ROC) directs the tactical operations in the rear area through Rear Area Operations Centers (RAOC's). These RAOC's are assigned to each CORPS Support Group. ROC/RTOC's provide intelligence about the battle to all the RAOC's for further dissemination to units in the rear. RAOC's report all incidents, attacks, etc that occur in their areas to the ROC/RTOC. This information is then shared with the other RAOC's to give a more complete awareness of the enemy situation.