The flash and oval (background trimming) of the Company C (Airborne), 14th Military Intelligence Battalion features a bi-colored bend (diagonal band) in the branch colors of oriental blue and silver gray separating white and black fields, symbolizing the mission of deriving facts and data (white) from the confusion of misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda (black).
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Except for a nine-year stint at Fort Lewis in Washington between 1988 and 1997, the 14th Military Intelligence Battalion has called Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) home ever since it was activated there on 24 November 1965. The relocation to Fort Lewis took place after a sixteen-year period of inactivation beginning in 1972; eleven years of inactivation preceded the Battalion’s activation at Fort Bragg in October 2008 in order to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Nicknamed “Vipers,” the 14th MI Battalion returned stateside in 2010 only to deploy again in October 2011. The unit was awarded a Meritorious Unit Citation for its service in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, but after returning to the U.S. in 2012 the Army announced the Battalion would be inactivated in June 2013. The Vipers spent the time leading up to its inactivation training members of other units in the 470th Military Intelligence Brigade based at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, among them the 338th and 163rd Battalions.