300th Military Intelligence Brigade (Linguist).

With a humble beginning, the 142d Intelligence Company was organized in February 1960. This company comprised interrogators, analysts, translators, and editors. Twenty-one years later, the company reorganized and became the 142d MI Battalion, which consisted of three companies. Due to the quality of linguists, the 142d Military Intelligence (MI) Battalion gained recognition as a "national treasure," which led to additional Army requirements and the creation of the 300th MI Brigade in 1988. In 1996, the 300th MI Brigade (Linguist) aligned to the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command.

Headquartered in Draper, Utah, the 300th MI Brigade (Linguist) is a "one of a kind" Army unit that responds to the ever-present need for trained Army linguists throughout the world. Today the brigade has six battalions, the 141st and 142d MI Battalions in Utah, the 223d MI Battalion in California, the 260th MI Battalion in Florida, the 415th MI Battalion in Louisiana, and the 341st MI Battalion in Washington. The brigade also has companies in Illinois and Massachusetts and a team in Guam. Its soldiers number approximately 1400 in both the human and signals intelligence (HUMINT and SIGINT) disciplines, with approximately 90 percent of these soldiers being trained linguists. The 300th is built from the bottom up, with five-soldier teams trained in a unique language as well as an MI skill. The Brigade HUMINT skills include collectors, such as interrogators, translators, and interpreters; it includes counterintelligence (CI) agents as well. The SIGINT skills include soldiers trained in voice intercept and those trained as analysts.

The 300th covers 19 documented languages. The focus is heavily oriented toward Arabic, Persian-Farsi, and Korean, but the Brigade includes soldiers that speak regionally important languages such as Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Major conflict languages make up approximately 60 percent of the Brigade force structure.

The mission of the 300th MI Brigade has always been to provide task-organized force packages to support the warfighting commander. The units of the 300th MI Brigade (Linguist) have proven invaluable in U.S. military operations worldwide from the Gulf War to current operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Cuba. Three battalions (141st, 142d, and 223d) have developed intelligence that led to victorious actions in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF), including the capture of prominent figures of the former Iraqi regime including, reportedly, Saddam Hussein. Soldiers from the 223d MI Battalion comprise more than 30 percent of the tactical HUMINT teams and operational management teams available during OIF.

Soldiers from the 300th played a major role in protecting the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, have deployed in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF), Multinational Force Observer (MFO) Sinai, and the Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The battalions of the 300th also support many different exercises throughout the year with language and MI skills. In addition, each year the 300th sponsors a major military language conference.

Symbolism: The colors Oriental blue and silver gray are traditionally associated with U.S. Army Military Intelligence. The scroll and quill allude to research and the study of linguistics. The four arrows refer to the global service of the unit and the processing of information. The gold wreath symbolizes the unit's goal of continued excellence and achievement.

Background: The distinctive unit insignia was approved on 1 December 1988.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Symbolism: The colors Oriental blue and silver gray are traditionally associated with U.S. Army Military Intelligence. The arrows allude to global service and intelligence from all sources, the quill refers to research and the study of linguistics, and the dagger symbolizes the covert and military aspects of the unit's mission.

Background: The shoulder sleeve insignia was approved on 1 December 1988.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]