The unit currently designated the 18th Engineer Brigade and stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany as a subordinate unit of 21st Sustainment Command began its existence the 347th Engineers in the Organized reserves when it was organized in Kansas City in February, 1922. Ordered into active military service in 1942, it was under its new designation—the 347th Engineer General Service Regiment—that the unit took part in four campaigns on the European mainland: Normany, Northern France, Rhineland, and Central Europe. After a stint of occupation duty following the German surrender in May, 1945, the regiment was inactivated and returned to the U.S. with a Meritorious Unit Commendation to its credit.
Following the redesignation of the Organized Reserve Corps as the Army Reserves, the unit underwent its final change of designation in 1954 when it became the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 18th Engineer Brigade and was allotted to the Regular Army and activated in 1954 at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. It was stationed there until its inactivation in 1963.
The outbreak and expansion of the Vietnam war led to the brigade’s reactivation in 1965. During its five-year deployment to Vietnam, where it provided engineer support for I and II Corps Tactical Zones, the brigade earned credit for participation in 13 campaigns and was awarded four Meritorious Unit Commendations and a Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class. It was inactivated in September, 1971.
Related Items
18th Engineer Brigade Patch (SSI)
18th Engineer Brigade Unit Crest (DUI)
Reactivated in 1977 in Germany, the 18th Engineer Brigade spent the next fifteen years as the go-to construction brigade for Seventh U.S. Army and U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR). A cooling of Cold War tensions led to a drawdown of U.S. forces, but during that process the brigade was deployed to take part in Operations Desert Shield and Storm as the support unit for VII Corps. With that mission completed, the brigade was inactivated in 1992.
After Coalition forces invaded Iraq, the brigade was once again activated (2004) and deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, where it earned a Meritorious Unit Commendation. It was the first of several deployments to the Southwest Asia theater, including a year-long mission in Iraq that earned the brigade credit for four campaigns and another Meritorious Unit Commendation. Afghanistan was the destination again in 2011, where the unit was tasked with training the Afghan National Army and performing route clearance and construction during its year-long deployment.
The brigade’s CSIB—short for “Combat Service Identification Badge”—features a crenelated square (it looks like the overhead view of castle’s fortifications) whose corners represent the four campaigns the brigade took part in during World War II. Four aspects of the engineer brigade’s mission—training, planning, construction, and combat support—are alluded to by the square’s four sides. A sword serves as a symbol for the two-pronged nature of the Engineer brigade: readiness to carry out Engineer missions during war and preparedness and vigilance in times of peace. You need only turn to the brigade’s unit crest to find the unit's motto,
Essayons Et Edifions ("Let Us Try And Let Us Build").