The United States Army Special Operations Aviation Command was not established until 25 March 2011, but the history of its primary combatant element, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, can be traced back to the earliest days of the Vietnam conflict and the seminal use of rotary-wing aircraft in a combatant role.
It wasn’t until 1 April 1982 that the Regiment was activated as the 169th Aviation Battalion, however, and since that time it and its component Battalions have taken part in every significant conflict our nation has faced, as well as conducting unnamed covert operations that remain classified for national security reasons. Among the name operations in which Regiment has taken part are Urgent Fury, Just Cause, Gothic Serpent, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn.
Today, the Regiment is the tip of the spear of Army Special Operations, consisting of four rotary-wing battalions and an ERMP (Extended Range-Multi-Purpose) Drone unit and reporting directly to U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command (USASOAC) ; the Regiment is based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, while the USAOAC is headquartered at Fort Liberty (formerly known as Fort Bragg) in North Carolina. VOLARE OPTIMOS, Latin for "Fly The Best" or "To Fly The Best," is the Command's motto.
Authorized for wear because of its participation in qualifying combat zone or military hostile conditions, the Command's Combat Service ID Badge, or CSIB, is based entirely upon the organization's unit patch, or SSI-MOHC (Shoulder Sleeve Insignia - Military Operations in Hostile Conditions.
Related Items
Special Operations Aviation Command Patch (SSI)
Special Operations Aviation Command Beret Flash