Informally tracing its origins back to the Civil War and the 174th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the 17th Infantry Brigade was officially constituted on August 5, 1917 and assigned to the 87th Division, with which it is closely associated. Currently active as a training brigade, the unit gives veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom the opportunity to train new personnel who face potential deployment to either Iraq or Afghanistan.
Performing labor duty and serving as a reinforcement pool, the 174th did not see combat duty during World War I. World War II saw it deploy with the 87th Division in December, 1944. It helped capture Fort Driant on December 8 as part of the Battle of Metz, and after joining in the fighting near the end of the Battle of the Bulge it advanced to Luxembourg and continued the drive into Germany, crossing the Rhine in late March and taking the town of Falkenstein just before the German surrender.
The decades following World War II saw the unit undergo numerous inactivations and redesignations in the Army Reserve, with a two-year period of allotment to the Regular Army (1997-1999). Since 2006, it has been actively training Army National Guard soldiers in marksmanship, urban warfare, area security, and live-fire exercises at Fort Drum, New York.
The 174th Infantry Brigade’s CSIB (Combat Service Identification Badge) features a highly symbolic design that evokes the unit’s commitment to patriotic service for its country and its ties to the 87th Division. Two bolts of lightning recall a chevron that creates the point of an arrow—homage to the unit’s lineage with the 87th Division, the “Lightning Division,” as well as the brigade’s Latin motto
Pium in Cuspis (“Patriots on Point”). The four-pointed polestar is emblematic of guidance and is also a reference to the unit’s origins in the northern region of the United States. A Revolutionary War-era powder horn stands for constant preparedness for combat, as in the phrase “keep your powder dry.”
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174th Infantry Brigade Patch (SSI)
174th Infantry Brigade Unit Crest (DUI)