The 35th Infantry Division CSIB (Combat Service ID Badge) utilizes the same design as its Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI), commonly called a unit patch (link below). The SSI was first approved on 29 October 1918 for the 35th Division, the unit’s original designation when it was constituted over a year earlier on 18 July 1917, but not announced officially until 8 June 1922.
Like many Divisions in the Army and Army National Guard, it was redesignated from a Division to an Infantry Division with the same numerical designation in 1942. In 1963, the Division was reorganized and redesignated as HQ, 69th Infantry Brigade and subsequently ordered into active Federal service on 14 May 1968; it was released from this service in December 1969 and reverted back to state control.
It was not redesignated as the 35th Infantry Division again until 25 August 1984, and from August 1968 to until that time this insignia was assigned to the 35th Engineer Brigade; it was restored to the 35th Infantry Division when the 35th Engineer Brigade was given its own Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, which was approved in January 1984.
A symbol used as a marker for the old Santa Fe trail, the Santa Fe cross was chosen as the centerpiece of the 35th Infantry Division unit patch because the formation trained there extensively—so much so that the unit’s official special designation is “Santa Fe Division.” Today, the Division is headquartered at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
Related Items
35th Infantry Division Patch (SSI)
35th Infantry Division Unit Crest (DUI)