Approved for wear on 3 July 1967, the 198th Infantry Brigade Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, or unit patch, is an arced rectangle with a white border and a blue field with a white bayonet superimposed on a tongue of red and orange flame. Blue and white are used because they are colors long associated with the Infantry branch. Flame is a symbol of the unit’s firepower, and the bayonet—one of the most basic Infantry weapons—represents carrying the fight to the enemy in close combat. In combination, the bayonet and flame allude to the unit’s willingness to victoriously engage the enemy whenever the opportunity arises. This insignia is also used as the basis for the 198th Infantry Brigade Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB) worn with the Army Service Uniform and Mess/Evening Mess Dress uniforms.
The 198th Infantry Brigade was constituted under that designation in June 1921 in the Organized Reserves and assigned to the 99th Division. Redesignated as the 99th Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized in 1943, the unit served with distinction as part of the 99th Infantry Division, earning a Belgian Fourragere 1940 with three citations in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for actions at the Siegfried Line, Elsenborn Crest, and in the Ardennes.
Redesignated again as HQ and HQ Company, 198th Infantry Brigade in 1962, the unit was activated in 1967 and took part in a dozen of the seventeen named U.S. campaigns of the Vietnam War, garnering three Republic of Vietnam Crosses of Gallantry with Palm and putting true meaning to the unit motto “Brave And Bold.” The Brigade was inactivated in 1971, but in 2007 was reactivated and assigned to U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning (renamed Fort Moore in May 2023) as an Infantry Training Brigade.
Related Items
198th Infantry Brigade Unit Crest (DUI)
198th Infantry Brigade Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB)