Today’s United States Special Operations Command Europe, or SOCEUR, can trace its origins to the establishment of the Support Operations Command Europe on 22 January 1955 in Paris. Tasked with planning and operational control of Special Operations forces in the European Command Area of Responsibility, the Command Headquarters was reorganized as a Joint Task Force within European Command just a few months later on 4 May 1955 and redesignated as Support Operations Task Force Europe, or SOTFE.
A dozen years later, SOTFE headquarters was transferred from Paris to Panzer Kaserne (Barracks) near Stuttgart in Germany on 9 January 1967. The Task Force dealt with numerous agencies during this Cold War period, and to clarify its role and different functions in relation to them it was subsequently redesignated as Special Operations Task Force Europe with an effective date of 1 September 1978.
Almost three years later, this organizational flash was approved on 25 June 1981, but on 1 November 1983 the Command was once again redesignated, this time to its current designation of Special Operations Command, Europe. With the new designation came a new organizational flash that rendered this one obsolete.
Regulations regarding the wear or organizational flashes, also called beret flashes because they are worn on the stiffener of a beret, can be found in the
Chapter 21-32 (a) of the January 2021 edition of DA PAM 670-1.