There is some understandable confusion differen-tiating between the 319th Military Intelligence Brigade and the 319th Military Intelligence Battalion (it doesn’t help matters that there is also a 319th Military Intelligence Company), and many online retailers list this insignia as that of the Battalion rather than the Brigade. But the book Military Intelligence, part of the Army Lineage Series from the United States Army Center of Military History and published in 1998, makes it quite clear that there were three distinct units with the 319th numerical designation, that they did not share any type of insignia, and that this one was worn by the 319th MI Brigade, not Battalion.
The 319th Military Intelligence Brigade was originally organized in the Organized Reserve Corps as the 319th Headquarters Intelligence Detachment and activated 15 June 1948. It was redesignated as the 319th Military Intelligence Group in 1950 and inactivated three years later. Thirty-five years later, on 17 September 1988, the unit was redesignated the 319th Military Intelligence Brigade and activated at Fort Lewis. The unit’s current status is unclear; it appears to have inactivated in 1995.
The 319th Military Intelligence Brigade patch, also called a Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, is rendered primarily in the Military Intelligence branch colors of Oriental blue and silver gray; blue also alludes to the Pacific and the unit’s area of operations. The black and blue portions of the field suggest round-the-clock, day-and-night vigilance. The polestar recalls collection and transmission of intelligence by satellite, and the jagged line separating the black and blue suggests a lightning flash signifying the speed of modern communications.
The motto of the 319th Military Intelligence Brigade was "Eyes Of The People."