Similarly to the 360th Civil Affairs Brigade, the 358th Civil Affairs Brigade was originally constituted as an Army Reserve unit in the Civil Affairs Area in January 1966 and activated at Norristown, Pennsylvania; it underwent reorganization and redesignation on 1 June 1975 to become a Civil Affairs Brigade. Its first call to active military service was as part of the military buildup leading to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, where it was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for its work with the I Marine Expeditionary Force. It later was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation by the United States Army for a subsequent 2005 – 2006 tour in Iraq, followed by yet another deployment to the country in 2010. For the last tour, the Brigade sent fourteen Civil Liaison Teams to work closely with officials from the State Department, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the Iraq government in an effort to ensure its continued stable transition to an autonomous civil state.
Since 2008, the 358th has been based at Riverside Air Force base, along with other units from the Reserve forces of other branches of the military (Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and the California National Guard (both Army and Air Force units), many of them dedicated to the same goal put forth by the 358th’s motto, “Victory for Humanity,” found on its unit crest. As of Autumn 2023, the 358th Civil Affairs Brigade remains allotted to the U.S. Army Reserve and consists of four Civil Affairs Battalions: 425th, 492nd, 416th, and 426th, with the last two being designated as Airborne units.
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Officially known as a Distinctive Unit Insignia or DUI for short, the unit crest is worn only with the blue Army Service Uniform (ASU) that replaced the Army Green Uniform. The DUI is the ASU equivalent of the colored Shoulder Sleeve Insignia-Former Wartime Service (SSI-FWTS) patch worn on the left sleeve of the Army Green Uniform discontinued in 2015. However, the SSI-FWTS was brought back and redesignated as the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia-Military Operations in Hostile Conditions, or SSI-MOHC, with the introduction of the Army Green Service Uniform (AGSU) in November 2018.
Related Items
358th Civil Affairs Brigade Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB)