The 782nd Brigade Support Battalion was originally organized as the 82nd Division Ordnance Section in August 1942 and constituted in the Army of the United States as the 782nd Airborne Ordnance Maintenance Company. After taking part in campaigns on Sicily and at Naples, the Battalion saw action in Holland and took part in the Ardennes and Rhineland campaigns, earning Arrowhead devices to denote its participation Assault landings in both.
Over the decades, the unit would undergo several redesignations and go on to take part in three Armed Forces Expeditions (Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama) and campaigns in the First Gulf War and in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. It was redesignated from a Maintenance to a Support Battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division on 22 October 1993, and in January 2006, as part of the Army's transformation to a modular force structure, it was inactivated then reactivated as the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. The Battalion was subsequently inactivated along with its parent organization, the 4th Brigade Combat Team, in May 2014.
Since the launch of the War on Terrorism, the Battalion as a whole was awarded a Valorous Unit Award (for service between March and September 2012) along with a host of awards for individual companies and the Battalion’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company, including four Valorous Unit Awards (Companies F, G, and E, the latter earning two).
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782nd Support Battalion Beret Flash and Oval The 782nd Brigade Support Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI), also called a unit crest, was originally approved for the 782nd Airborne Ordnance Battalion on 20 September 1954. It was redesignated for the 782nd Maintenance Battalion on 4 August 1958, then on 16 April 1994 for the 782nd Support Battalion. Its description was amended on 31 January 2007.
Crimson and yellow are the colors of units in the Ordnance Corps, the original branch of the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, and its time as an Airborne Ordnance units is represented in its unit crest by a winged cannon ball. The shape in the center, recalling a crossbow arrowhead, is called a pheon and commemorates the Battalion’s assault landings during World War II. PERITIA COGNITO, the Battalion motto, is Latin for “Skill And Knowledge.”
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.