Approved for wear on 10 June 1966, the 199th Infantry Brigade Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (unit patch) is an arced blue rectangle with an inset white-bordered blue field containing a white spear emerging through red and yellow flames. The blue field and white spear and border are in recognition of the Brigade’s classification as Infantry. Taken together, the white spear—one of the earliest offensive weapons used by Infantry Soldiers—and red and yellow flame symbolize the evolution of the firepower wielded by modern Infantry units.
Nicknamed “The Redcatchers,” the 199th Infantry Brigade was constituted in Organized Reserves in June 1921 and organized at Huntington, West Virginia in December of the same year. During World War II, the Brigade was redesignated the 100th Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized and was deployed with the 100th Infantry Division in the European theater, where it took part in the Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe campaigns. Following several redesignations in the 1950s and 1960s, it was redesignated as the 199th Infantry Brigade in 1966, and during the Vietnam War it took part in eleven campaigns and was honored with several awards from the Republic of Vietnam.
It was inactivated for over 20 years (1970 to 1991) before being briefly activated in 1991, only to be inactivated in 1992; it would not be activated until 2007, when it was reconstituted through a reflagging of the 11th Infantry Regiment and assigned as a training unit at the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Moore (formerly known as Fort Benning) in Georgia.
Related Items199th Infantry Brigade Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB) 199th Infantry Brigade Unit Crest