Fort Bragg has signal: Unit returns to North Carolina
FORT BRAGG — After spending 15 years at Fort Gordon, Georgia, an Army signal unit is back at Fort Bragg.
The 35th Signal Brigade inactivated on Fort Bragg on April 12, 2007, and was reorganized and redesignated as a theater tactical brigade on April 23, 2007.
On Friday, the colors of the 35th Corps Signal Brigade were uncased, again, at Fort Bragg.
The brigade's headquarters brought more than 125 soldiers to Fort Bragg, while the headquarters is the higher command for 1,200 soldiers in either the 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion-Enhanced which will also be at Fort Bragg and the 63rd Expeditionary Signal Battalion that will be at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
“Much of today’s ceremony is about reacquainting ourselves about where our unit was actually born and its legacy,” said Col. Bernard Brogan, commander of the 35th Signal Corps Brigade.
Unit history
According to the unit’s history, it was first activated as the 931st Signal Battalion on Jan. 11, 1943, at Esler Field, Louisiana.
During World War II, it deployed to India and Burma to provide communications to the American and British armies and participated in the India-Burma, Central Burma and China offensive campaigns.
“The two lions on the crest and the lion patch on our soldiers are rooted in those campaigns and represent the lions on the Burmese coast,” Brogan said.
The 931st was deactivated after World War II and was reactivated and redesignated as the 35th Signal Group on April 25, 1967, at Fort Bragg, where it gained airborne status.
The unit reorganized once again on Dec. 16, 1979, as the 35th Signal Brigade and participated in and supported Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1989 and Operation Golden Pheasant in Honduras the same year.
It deployed to Saudi Arabia from 1990 to 1991 in support of the 18th Airborne Corps Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and has supported the Global War on Terrorism since 1992 with multiple deployments to Iraq.
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“This is our homecoming,” Brogan said at Friday’s ceremony.
Brogan said the unit is ready to support the 18th Airborne Corps in future airborne and contingency requirements.
He and other leaders spoke about what being back at Fort Bragg means for the future of the unit.
Looking to tomorrow
Maj. Gen. Brian Mennes, deputy commander of the 18th Airborne Corps and senior acting commander for Fort Bragg, said the brigade’s ability to help the Army communicate is important to soldiers.
“It affects their ability to synchronize effects and has a ridiculous impact on the morale of the soldiers when it can be done,” Mennes said.
Following Friday’s ceremony, Brogan said the brigade operates similar to commercial phone, internet and communication providers but is for the Army as it can set up its equipment and satellites worldwide.
“Going forward, the networks that we will build will be faster, more resilient, more robust and we will enable the warfighter to decide and act quicker than any of our adversaries,” he said during the ceremony.
Maj. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of the Army Future Command’s Network Cross-Functional Team, also spoke during the ceremony, saying that being data-centric is an Army priority, and that means the Signal Corps has a role.
“With the right people, the training and the task organization, we can better meet commander’s needs with data across echelons and environments,” Rey said.
He charged the brigade’s soldiers to become familiar with cloud storage on technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data.
“You are combining commercial and military transport to enable faster and more reliable and more resilient connectivity,” Rey told the brigade’s soldiers. “This is critical to achieve mobility and survivability for large-scale combat operations.”
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Army 35th Corps Signal Brigade returns to Fort Bragg after 15 years
