The 32nd Combat Support Hospital is an inactive, deactivated, or demobilized unit in the Army Medical Department. It was originally constituted in the Regular Army on 1 January 1938 as the 32nd Surgical Hospital. On 7 June 1943, it was redesignated as the 32nd Portable Surgical Hospital and activated in Chickasha, Oklahoma. From 20 April 1944, the unit was deployed in support of the China Defensive Campaigned and was stationed in Algeria, India, and China. It was inactivated on 23 December 1945. On 16 February 1951, the unit was redesignated as the 32nd Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) and was reactivated seven months later on 15 September 1951 at Degerndorf, Germany. It was then redesignated as the 32nd Surgical Hospital (Mobile) on 1 April 1953 and transferred to Leighton Barracks in Würzburg on 15 June 1955. In 1970, the unit was deployed to Jordan in response to casualties caused by the civil war in that country, and the next year it became the first Medical Unit Self Transportable (MUST) Hospital in United States Army Europe.
On 29 December 1972, it was reorganized and redesignated as the 32nd Combat Support Hospital. It took part in every REFORGER and other major Field Training Exercise from 1975 well into the 1980s.
The 32nd Combat Support Hospital Distinct Unit Insignia features the unit motto, “Surgical Care Mobility,” likely a reference to its former status as a Portable Surgical Hospital or later evolution into a MUST Hospital.
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Also known as a unit crest or DUI, a Distinctive Unit Insignia is worn by all Soldiers (except General Officers) in units that have been
authorized to be issued the device. It is worn centered on the shoulder loops of the Army Green Service Uniform (AGSU) and the blue Army Service Uniform (Enlisted only) with the base of the insignia toward the outside shoulder seam. DUIs are not worn on the Dress variations of either uniform, however.
Enlisted personnel wear the insignia centered on a shoulder loop by placing it an equal distance from the outside shoulder seam to the outside edge of the shoulder-loop button. Officers (except Generals) wearing grade insignia on the shoulder loops center the DUI by placing it an equal distance between the inside edge of the grade insignia and the outside edge of the button.
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia" and 21–3(d) and (e),
"Beret" and
"Garrison Cap," respectively.