The 141st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade (MEB) can trace its origins to 1883 and the organization of Company A in the Dakota Militia—later the National Guard—at Bismarck. It was first mustered into Federal Service in 1899 for the War with Spain, and would subsequently be called to serve the country during both World Wars.
It wasn’t until it was converted to an Engineer Group in 1955 that it began moving toward becoming a Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, a support unit created as part of the Army’s transformation into a modular-based organization in the early 2000s. It did not receive the MEB designation until it was redesignated HHD, Engineer Brigade, 34th Infantry Division and then consolidated with the 142nd Engineer Battalion to become the HHC, 141st MEB in 2008, when it also reverted back to state control as part of the North Dakota Army National.
The unit underwent a bewildering number of reorganizations and redesign over the decades—and saw a considerable amount of action. Amazingly, it participated in a total of nine named campaigns in both the European and Pacific theaters during World War II, earning a Presidential Unit Citation, a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, a French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star, and a citation in the Order of the Day for the Belgium Army.
The 141st MEB is based at the Fargo Armed Forces Reserve Center in North Dakota as part of that state’s Army National Guard and comprises a HHC, a Brigade Support Battalion, a Signal Company, and an Air Defense Artillery battalion.