Assigned to the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade since 2008, the 98th Civil Affairs Battalion is an Airborne unit headquartered at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in North Carolina. It was formed through the December 1989 consolidation of two units that were inactivated at the time, 98th Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, Military Government Group and the 3rd Civil Affairs Group. Purple and white, the only two colors used for the flash and oval, have been the official colors of the Civil Affairs branch since 1956.
Almost always referred as simply a “flash,” the Battalion’s organizational flash was approved 18 May 2007, a mere two weeks before its Distinctive Unit Insignia, or unit crest, was approved. The unit crest is worn by Battalion’s NCOs and Junior Enlisted Soldiers, centered on the stiffener of the maroon beret that indicates the organization’s Airborne status. Officers, on the other hand, wear their non-subdued rank insignia centered on the flash.
Officially called background trimming, the oval is used as backing for the Parachutist and Air Assault badges worn by all personnel on Service Uniform coats (ASGU and ASU, including Dress variation) and Service Uniform shirts; female Soldiers may wear it on the blue or green Army Maternity Tunic. The oval-and-badge combination counts as a single item toward maximum allowable badge and device limits. When measuring to determine placement from other badges and other reference points, the outermost edge is used regardless of whether that happens to be the badge or the oval.
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98th Civil Affairs Battalion Unit Crest