Authorized for wear on 28 February 1984, this 5th Brigade Training (Armor) Shoulder Sleeve Insignia features a flaming torch, an image used frequently in heraldry to connote education the enlightenment it brings. The downward-pointing chevron suggest the Roman numeral V as a reference to the unit’s numerical designation; it is doubled to emphasize the importance of repeating key facts and principles during the learning process. Red, white, and blue are taken from the colors of the 89th Army Reserve Command insignia.
The Brigade was originally constituted as the 5th Tank Destroyer Group on 25 August 1942 and deployed to Europe during World War II, where it earned credit for participation in five named campaigns. Following the war, it underwent a series activations/inactivations and reorgnizations redesignations; these include 5th Armored Cavalry Group (1951), 5th Armor Group (1954), and Headquarters, 5th Brigade Training when it was allotted to the U.S. Army Reserve on 1 January 1975. It was under this designation that the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia was approved.
Withdrawn from the Reserve in 1997, the Brigade was allotted to the Regular Army and converted and redesignated as 5th Armored Brigade and activated at Fort Carson from 1997 to 1999. After seven years of inactivation, it was again activated on 1 December 2006 at Fort Carson and then relocated to Fort Bliss, Texas. While this Shoulder Sleeve Insignia is designated for the 5th Training Brigade, that unit is now the Training Support Brigade, 5th Armored Brigade. While 5th Army Brigade does have a Distinctive Unit Insignia, or unit crest, its members wear the
First Army Shoulder Sleeve Insignia.