U.S. ARMY 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION COMBAT SERVICE ID BADGE (CSIB)

Originally activated in 1943 as the 10th Light Division (Alpine) in response to both the Russian setbacks in Finland against mobile Finnish soldiers on skis and the German Army’s creation of three mountain-warfare divisions, the unit was redesignated the 10th Mountain Division in November, 1944. Arriving in Naples, Italy on December 22, the division was attached to IV Corps of the Fifth United States Army. After first seeing combat in early February and fighting in a defensive posture for a few weeks, the division went on the offensive and began a fairly steady advance that gradually opened up the Po Valley by displacing German artillery in the Northern Apennines. By mid-April it captured Mongiorgio and advanced into the valley; the fierce opposition it met belied the Germans’ crumbling defensive positions, and by the start of May effective German resistance had come to an end.

During the Cold War of the 1950s, the 10th Mountain Division spent four years deployed in Germany; in 1958, it moved to Fort Benning in Georgia (now known as Fort Moore) and was inactivated in June. Reactivation came in 1985 at Fort Drum, New York, and with it a steady stream of deployments, both for overseas contingencies as well as humanitarian relief and peacekeeping efforts. Military and military-oriented operations for which the division has provided support includes Operations Desert Storm, Restore Hope and Continue Hope (Somalia), Joint Forge (Bosnia-Herzegovina), and Joint Guardian (Kosovo). During the U.S. Global War on Terror, the unit and its combat brigades have been deployed over 20 times to Iraq and Afghanistan in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

The image of scarlet-colored, diagonally crossed blades is featured prominently on the 10th Mountain Division’s CSIB (Combat Service Identification Badge) can also be found the division’s Unit Crest, also known as a Distinctive Unit Insignia. Here, the blades are bayonets, symbolic of infantry, and by positioning them in saltire (diagonally crossed) the Roman numeral X is created for the division’s numerical designation of 10.

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U.S. ARMY 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION COMBAT SERVICE ID BADGE (CSIB)