The design used for the Oregon Army National Guard’s 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (often called a unit patch) and Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB) was once the insignia of the 41st Infantry Division, which was constituted on 18 July 1917 in the National Guard with troops from several Western states (Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington). Because of the insignia—a setting sun over the Pacific ocean—the Division was nicknamed the “Sunset Division” and its Soldiers were “Sunsetters.”
Although the 41st was called into service and deployed to France during World War I, the division was broken up into training cadres to instruct replacement troops before they were sent to combat divisions, earning it a World War I streamer but with no campaign inscription. One exception to this pattern, however, was the 66th Artillery Brigade; it was assigned as the artillery corps for the First American Army Corps, and served in the three largest American campaigns of the war.
Activated for service in World War II, the Division arrived in Australia in early April 1942 and had its baptism when one of its Infantry regiments was called in as reinforcements in the Battle of Buna-Gona in December, 1942. Before the war’s end, the 41st would earn credit for participation in three named campaigns, New Guinea, Luzon, and Southern Philippines, the last with an Arrowhead indicating an amphibious assault. The Division was also honored with a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation embroidered “17 OCTOBER 1944 TO 4 JULY 1945.”
The 41st Division saw no further action after World War II, but the considerable time the unit’s men had spent in jungle combat had led to their acquisition of a new nickname: “The Jungleers.”
In 1965, the 41st was reorganized and redesignated as the 41st Infantry Brigade, which in the mid-2000s became an Infantry Brigade Combat Team. Three years later, in 1968, the 41st Infantry Division was inactivated.
Related Items
41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team Unit Crest (DUI)
41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB)