Also known as a unit crest or DUI, a Distinctive Unit Insignia is worn by all Soldiers (except General Officers) in units that have been
authorized to be issued the device. It is worn centered on the shoulder loops of the Army Green Service Uniform (AGSU) and the blue Army Service Uniform (Enlisted only) with the base of the insignia toward the outside shoulder seam.
The Special Operations Support Command Distinctive Unit Insignia was approved on 18 March 1997. In its center is the eponymous Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, developed by a British Royal Marine and a British Soldier while they both served as police in Shanghai in the 1930s and an extremely popular weapon among Special Forces and Special Operations personnel across the globe.
The parachute behind it denotes airborne capabilities, highlighting the unconventional nature of the types of support necessitated by Special Operations. A pair of lightning bolts symbolize the two primary types of support the organization provides for Special Operations—combat support and combat service support—and the alacrity with which the support is delivered. “Assured Support” is the Command’s motto.
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia" and 21–3(d) and (e),
"Beret" and
"Garrison Cap," respectively.
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After existing as a provisional organization since the middle of the 1980s, Special Operations Support Command (Airborne), was activated formally on 1 November 1995, making it the newest major subordinate unit in the US Army Special Operations Command at the time. In October 2001, 150 Soldiers from the Command, which was headquartered at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in North Carolina, were among the first deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
Just four years later, it was inactivated during a ceremony held on 6 December 2005 at Fort Bragg and then reflagged as the Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne) (Provisional). Three years later to the day, Lieutenant General John F. Mulholland approved the redesignation of the unit as the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne).