When a Hawaii Army National Guard unit was released from active duty in the 25th Infantry Division in 1969, it was replaced by the 4th Brigade, which was organized in December of 1969. It deployed to Vietnam for a year, but upon its return was reflagged as the 1st Brigade and inactivated. As part of the U.S. Army’s reorganization efforts dubbed the Army Modernization Plan, the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) was re-created at Fort Richardson, Alaska in 2004. Besides being the newest airborne combat brigade team (there are only six in the U.S. Army), it is the only one in the Pacific Theater.
Since its creation, the brigade has been deployed several times to Iraq and Afghanistan. During its first 15-month deployment in 2006-2007, the brigade helped wrest control of the Karbala Governorate from insurgents as one of many operations it conducted. In 2009, the brigade was sent to Afghanistan, where it conducted counter-insurgency operations (in tandem with the Afghan National Security Forces) in the eastern part of the country. Its final deployment to Afghanistan was in 2011 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. July, 2015 saw an announcement that the brigade would be inactivated, with about a thousand of its soldiers being used to form a maneuver battalion task force.
The CSIB seen here, with the “AIRBORNE” tab, is based on an amended design of the 25th Infantry’s Shoulder Sleeve Insignia which is authorized for wear by the 4th Brigade Combat Team only. Aside from the addition of the tab, it is identical to the standard
25th Infantry Division CSIB, with a design that invokes the imagery of “Tropic Lightning,” the division’s nickname and motto. It is also highly similar in appearance to the
Division’s Unit Crest and
ACU Patch.