The design of the 71st Ordnance Group (EOD) Combat Service ID Badge, or CSIB, is taken from its Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (often called a unit patch). That insignia was approved for the 71st on 21 April 2011, although it surely was the one worn by the unit before its inactivation in 1966. A falling bomb hearkens back to the nascent days of EOD units and the defusing of undetonated bombs in civilian areas and the birth of the Army’s bomb-disposal units.
Bomb defusal became a pressing need during the Battle of Britain after the Germans decided to switch their bombing raids from airfields and radar installations to residential areas. With the Japanese strike at Pearl Harbor, the possibility of such attacks on America became quite obvious, and the Army began working with Civil Defense authorities on training personnel to locate and defuse UXB (unexploded bombs).
An especially important component of the early development of Explosive Ordnance Disposal was the cadre of experts from the British Army who were send to America to share the lessons they had learned in dealing with unexploded bombs during the London Blitz. Their expertise was crucial in the U.S. Army's creation of a formal Bomb Disposal School based at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and working under the command of the Ordnance Corps.
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71st Ordnance Group Patch (SSI)
71st Ordnance Group Unit Crest (DUI)