It’s easy to find out when the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team was activated (1 September 2006). Trying to figure out the lineages and histories of the units involved in the consolidation that created it, however, is another story: there are no less than six annexes tracing the history of the various units that combined at one point or another before the 2006 consolidation of 66th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division and the 33rd Support Group.
Thankfully, it’s much easier to remember that the 33rd IBCT, nicknamed “Prairie,” carries on the lineage and history of the 33rd Infantry Division, which was reduced to brigade status in 1968. And part of that lineage is the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team unit patch (Shoulder Sleeve Insignia), which up until 2006 had served as the unit patch for 33rd Infantry Division (also nicknamed Prairie), the 33rd Infantry Brigade (until 1997), and the 33rd Area Support Group (2004 to 2006).
The reasons behind the design of the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, i.e. unit patch, are equally murky and don’t even apply to the subdued ACU versions. A couple of the explanations revolve around one of the Infantry regiments that made up the original 33rd Division being deployed years earlier to fight the Moros in the Philippine Insurrection. According to an entry on the 33rd Infantry Division Association Web site, the Soldiers began marking its property with yellow crosses to prevent thievery because yellow is taboo to Muslims, and revived the practice when called into service for World War I. Another source claims it is the cross, not the color, that was taboo.
A different explanation found in the book
U.S. Army Patches, Flashes, and Ovals by insignia maven Barry Jason Stein, which says that black and yellow were used because they were the only colors available to mark equipment prior to leaving Texas for France in May 1918. Regardless of which one is true, the design led to the 33rd having three nicknames: Illinois, Prairie, and Golden Cross.
Related Items
33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team Unit Crest (DUI)
33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB)