525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade History
By Second Lieutenant Teresa Mulholland
The Soldiers of the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, also known as the “Lightning Brigade,” have a distinguished history dating back nearly seven decades. The brigade is a unique combination of military intelligence, cavalry and long range surveillance capabilities that traces its lineage to three World War II era units: the 525th Interrogation Team, the 218th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment, and the 38th Cavalry Squadron.
During World War II, the 38th Squadron participated in the Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe campaigns. The squadron was especially famous for being the first unit to enter a liberated Paris in August 1944. The 218th Detachment spent most of 1945 operating in Germany, France and Fort Meade, Maryland before deactivating at Fort Campbell, Kentucky that October. The 525th Team served a six month tour in Heidelberg, Germany before temporarily deactivating in November 1946.
The late 1940’s and 1950’s were a period of rapid growth and major re-organization for the 525th Group and many of the units that would eventually fall under its command. On February 21st, 1948, the 525th Headquarters Intelligence Detachment was reactivated and assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Originally a small element of one officer and three enlisted Soldiers, the unit expanded to become the 525th Military Intelligence Service Group in 1950, with an authorized strength of 350 enlisted personnel, 100 officers, and one warrant officer. Organizations specializing in censorship, interpretation, and counterintelligence were attached to the Group.
The 523rd Military Intelligence Service Platoon (re-designated as Alpha Company, 519th Military Intelligence Battalion in 1959) activated at Fort Riley, Kansas in 1950 and deployed to Korea from 1951 until 1954. The platoon became a company in 1952 and earned one Meritorious Unit Citation and two Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citations during the deployment.
On April 30th, 1952, the 218th Counter Intelligence Detachment was reactivated at Fort Holabird, Maryland, which at the time was the home of the U.S. Army Intelligence School and Counter Intelligence Records Facility. In June of that year, the 218th Detachment relocated to Fort Bragg and remained active there until September 1978. The 218th Detachment would merge with the 525th Military Intelligence Group on June 16th, 1979.
In 1957, the 525th Group moved to Fort Meade, Maryland and took charge of two attached units: the 541st Military Intelligence Platoon and 177th Military Intelligence Detachment, the latter of which specialized in armed forces censorship. Sections dedicated to intelligence education and language training would later join the unit at Fort Meade.
In November 1965, the 525th Military Intelligence Group was assigned to U.S. Army Vietnam. The largest military intelligence organization stationed in the country, the Group was tasked with conducting counterintelligence activities and intelligence collection throughout the entire theater of operations. The Group manned four Combined Intelligence Centers in Saigon in cooperation with South Vietnamese intelligence agencies. Most of the non-tactical intelligence organizations in the U.S. Army were attached or assigned to the 525th Group at some point during the war.
Over the next seven years, sixty Soldiers from the 525th Group would die in Vietnam. The Group earned four Meritorious Unit Citations and participated in nearly every campaign of the war, from the Defense phase to Cease-Fire. In March 1973, the Group returned to the United States and was inactivated until July 1974.
In the early 1980’s, the 525th Group underwent significant organizational changes designed to strengthen its capacity to conduct electronic intelligence activities and engage the Soviet military. In June 1981, the XVIII Airborne Corps G2 established an Opposition Forces (OPFOR) Training Detachment within the 519th Battalion. The detachment provided Fort Bragg units with training on Soviet weapons, equipment, and doctrine. Various other programs designed to incorporate digital imagery and automated intelligence processing into unit operations also came to fruition that year.
The 224th Military Intelligence Battalion (Aerial Exploitation) was activated at Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia and assigned to the Group on October 1st, 1981. The battalion provided the XVIII Airborne Corps with aerial reconnaissance, surveillance, and interpretation. On April 1st, 1982, the 319th Military Intelligence Battalion was assigned to the 525th Group and given the mission of supporting the Corps G2 through intelligence production, analysis and dissemination. The 319th Battalion would also provide the Group an interface with national intelligence agencies.
Elements of the 319th Battalion, 519th Battalion and the Group’s headquarters detachment participated in Operation Urgent Fury, the 1983 mission to protect U.S. citizens and restore a lawful government on the Caribbean island of Grenada. The swiftly executed operation demonstrated the XVIII Airborne Corps’ ability to flexibly engage in combat on a moment’s notice.
On June 30th, 1985, the 525th Military Intelligence Group became the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade. That day, the image of a lightning bolt underneath a yellow and black checkerboard pattern was first approved for wear as the brigade shoulder sleeve insignia. The lightning bolt symbolizes the unit’s communication and electronic warfare capabilities and the checkerboard represents vigilance throughout both day and night. “Lightning” Soldiers continue to wear this insignia today.
The 525th Brigade supported multiple contingency operations throughout the globe in the latter part of the twentieth century, proving itself not only relevant but vital to the post-Cold War Army. In 1989, the brigade conducted critical interrogations of the Panamanian Defense Force as part of Operation Just Cause. During the Persian Gulf War, the brigade deployed to Iraq in support of the XVIII Airborne Corps’ mission to secure the northern flank of the VII Armored Corps against possible Iraqi counterattack. In 1993, select counterintelligence and interrogation teams deployed to Somalia in support of Operation Restore Hope. From September 1994 to March 1995, the brigade deployed as part of Operation Uphold Democracy, the United Nations sponsored mission to reverse a 1991 coup d’état in Haiti. In the late 1990’s various elements of the brigade deployed to support NATO stability operations in Kosovo and in Bosnia.
At the dawn of the Global War on Terror, the brigade started planning for what would become a prolonged presence in Afghanistan while still rotating small elements through the Balkans. By December 2001, the brigade began deploying individual Soldiers and intelligence teams in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In April 2002, Alpha Company, 319th Military Intelligence Battalion became the first full unit in the brigade to deploy to Afghanistan, serving as the Joint Intelligence Support Element for the Commander of Combined Joint Task Force-180 (CTJF-180). Alpha Company, 519th Military Intelligence Battalion deployed in July 2002 to provide human intelligence to CJTF-180.
By 2003, major brigade assets were serving in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Iraq, members of the 519th Battalion conducted long range surveillance and interrogations at Abu-Ghraib prison while the 224th Battalion conducted aerial reconnaissance. In Afghanistan, Bravo Company, 519th Battalion collected human intelligence from the local populace and interrogated enemy combatants. Meanwhile, 319th Battalion established an analysis and control element to provide intelligence support in both countries.
The Soldiers who deployed in 2003 spent the following year recovering from combat while simultaneously training with the rest of the brigade to deploy to Iraq as Task Force Lightning in 2005. Task Force Lightning conducted multi-discipline, all-source intelligence in support of Multi-National Corps Iraq and Multi-National Force Iraq. The task force provided world-class human intelligence collection, signal and imagery intelligence analysis, and long range surveillance that significantly contributed to combat operations and the stabilization efforts in Iraq. The brigade earned a Meritorious Unit Citation for the 2005 deployment.
As a result of the Army’s plan to transform from a division-centric force to one driven by self-sufficient modular brigades, the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade began reorganizing into the Army’s first battlefield surveillance brigade in 2006. As a result of the reorganization, the brigade headquarters revised its mission to conduct full-spectrum operations. The 586th Network Support Company and 29th Brigade Support Company were activated to provide communication and logistical support. The 224th Military Intelligence Battalion was reassigned to the 513th Military Intelligence Brigade at Fort Gordon, Georgia and the1st Squadron, 38th Cavalry Regiment was reactivated to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance.
In 2007, the battlefield surveillance concept was put to the test as the brigade deployed to Iraq’s Jazeera Desert to support Operation Defeat Al-Qaeda in the North. The brigade’s powerful new fusion of cavalry, intelligence and long range surveillance drastically improved situational awareness at higher echelons of command. Another Meritorious Unit Citation was subsequently added to the brigade’s growing list of decorations.
Having mastered the balance of intelligence analysis and combat operations, the brigade excelled in a wide variety of missions during its most recent deployment to Afghanistan from July 2010 to July 2011. The brigade successfully secured a large segment of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, interdicted tons of bomb-making material, and supported major development projects for the Afghan populace. The brigade earned its seventh Meritorious Unit Citation for its accomplishments on this deployment.
Major organizational changes and operational challenges are still on the horizon for the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade. In January 2012, the 29th Brigade Support Company, 586th Network Support Company, and Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company were consolidated into a new Special Troops Battalion. As of spring 2012, the brigade is preparing to send select units back to Operation Enduring Freedom in 2013.