The 528th Support Battalion is a battalion of the United States Army. The 528th Support Battalion's mission is to provide rapidly deployable CSS and HSS to ARSOF as directed. The 528th Support Battalion's strengths lie in its capability to support ARSOF-unique and low-density weapons and vehicles. The 528th complements [organic] 22 ARSOF CSS, HSS, and signal units. The support battalion consists of a headquarters and main support company (HMSC), three forward support companies and may receive augmentation from Theater Army. As part of Army Special Operations Command the unit, along with the 112th Signal Battalion, is tasked to provide full logistical support to Army Special Operations Forces forming along with several other units what was known as Special Operations Support Command, later reorganized as the 528th Sustainment Brigade. Brigade Troops Battalion includes a wide variety of military occupation specialists: riggers, drivers, medics, mechanics, engineers, fuelers, cooks, etc.
ARSOF Support Historical Overview The history of Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) Support begins in World War II, when the forerunners of today's support units were first activated. Like most ARSOF units, these support units were inactivated after WWII, but their lineage, and their wartime honors, live on today in the 528th Sustainment Brigade, 112th Signal Battalion, and 389th Military Intelligence Battalion. This brief historical narrative explains their evolution. In July 1942, the First Special Service Force (FSSF), an American-Canadian commando unit in the lineage of U.S. Army Special Forces (SF), was activated at Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana. It was made up of three combat regiments, and a separate service battalion, with Headquarters, Maintenance, and Service Companies. After leading the recapture of the Aleutian Islands, the FSSF moved to Italy, where it fought grueling mountain battles with the Germans in late 1943 and early 1944, held the defensive line at Anzio, and was among the first Allied units to occupy Rome on 4 June 1944. The Force spearheaded the amphibious assault on the southern coast of France (Operation DRAGOON) in August 1944, and fought its way inland before being disbanded on 5 December 1944. Elsewhere in the summer of 1942, at Camp Savage, Minnesota, Japanese-American soldiers entered the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) as linguists. One MIS unit, the 389th Translator Team, was activated in February 1945, and fought alongside the Army's 96th Infantry Division on Leyte, Philippines, and Okinawa, earning a Presidential Unit Citation. The 389th Military Intelligence Battalion carries on that lineage today. In December 1942, the 528th Quartermaster Service Battalion was activated at Camp McCain, Mississippi. It first saw action in Sicily in July 1943, as part of Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. Seventh Army. Subsequent operations in Italy, France, and Germany earned the 528th Quartermaster Battalion (QMB) six campaign streamers. It was also awarded two bronze arrowheads for amphibious assault landings on Sicily and southern France.
Since 2008, the 528th Sustainment Brigade has perpetuated the lineage of the 528th QMB. On 14 July 1944, Headquarters, Seventh Army, at Lido de Roma, Italy, activated the 512th Airborne Signal Company, consisting of a wire section, radio section, message center, and Signal Office section. In August 1944, the 512th provided communications to the 1st Airborne Task Force during Operation DRAGOON. It was later merged into the 112th Airborne Army Signal Battalion, which activated on 10 February 1945 and parachuted into Germany with the First Allied Airborne Army in Operation VARSITY on 24 March 1945. The 112th Signal Battalion inherited the lineage of these two early airborne signal units. By the end of World War II, the lineage predecessors of the 528th Sustainment Brigade, and its component battalions (112th Signal and 389th Military Intelligence), had all been activated and seen combat. These units were inactivated following World War II, and none were reactivated for service in the Korean War. The 389th Military Intelligence Detachment was activated in 1962, and attached to the 11th Special Forces Group (SFG) the following year. In 1969, the 528th QMB was reactivated for duty in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), where it supported conventional forces in the I Corps Tactical Zone/Military Region One until 1971. Logistical support for SF in Vietnam was provided by the Counterinsurgency Support Office, located in Okinawa, and by the 5th SFG Logistics Support Center, in Nha Trang, RVN. During the 1980s, ARSOF experienced significant growth and modernization following the failed mission to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran in April 1980 (Operation EAGLE CLAW).
The Army established the 1st Special Operations Command (1st SOCOM), under U.S. Army Forces Command, in 1982 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (NC), as the headquarters for SF, Psychological Operations (PSYOP), Civil Affairs (CA), Ranger, and Special Operations Aviation units. A 1983 Army study validated the need for dedicated ARSOF support units. After this, 1st SOCOM staff officers began planning for the establishment and activation of a Special Operations Support Battalion (SOSB) and Special Operations Communications Battalion (SOCB). Their efforts came to fruition in 1986, with the activation of 1st SOCOM's first dedicated support units. The 13th Support Battalion was activated on 2 June 1986, at Fort Bragg, to provide dedicated administrative, logistical, and maintenance support to 1st SOCOM and, when directed, to other ARSOF. A year later, on 16 May 1987, the 13th was "reflagged" by the U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry as the 528th Support Battalion, but was often referred to as the 528th SOSB. Authorized 12 officers, 5 warrant officers, and 146 enlisted soldiers, it was organized into a headquarters company, and supply, maintenance, and transportation detachments. In 1988, the 528th adopted the motto: "We Support to the Utmost". On 17 September 1986, the 112th Signal Battalion was activated at Fort Bragg, with an authorized strength of 16 officers and 229 enlisted soldiers. Its mission was to provide tactical command and control communications to deployed Army and Joint Special Operations Forces. The battalion focused its efforts toward Special Operations Command, South (SOCSOUTH) and Special Operations Command, Europe (SOCEUR), which belonged to the two Army-supported combatant commands (U.S. Southern Command and U.S. European Command). 112th soldiers quickly identified themselves as "Shadow Warriors", derived from the unit motto Penetra Le Tenebre – Penetrate the Shadows. Initially, both the 528th SOSB and 112th Signal Battalion reported directly to 1st SOCOM, but they were later administratively aligned under the Commander, 4th PSYOP Group. This makeshift arrangement, known as the ARSOF Support Command, was in effect in May 1989, when the U.S. Army Forces Command published an inactivation order for the 528th SOSB, effective 15 September 1990. With the situation in Panama deteriorating in mid-1989, the 528th simultaneously prepared for war and inactivation.
The 528th SOSB and 112th Signal Battalion first entered combat in December 1989, supporting Operation Just Cause in Panama. Then, in late August 1990, both battalions deployed lead elements to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation DESERT SHIELD, remaining there through the end of Operation DESERT STORM in 1991. Spared from inactivation by its superb performance in Panama and the Persian Gulf, the 528th SOSB expanded from fewer than 200 to approximately 400 personnel over the next few years. Additionally, Theater Army Special Operations Support Commands (TASOSCs) were established in 1989-90 at each geographic combatant command (GCC) to coordinate logistical support to deployed SOF elements. In 1995, the Special Operations Support Command (SOSCOM) was activated to provide a brigade-level command structure for ARSOF Support units. That same year, signal detachments (SIGDETs) from the 112th Signal Battalion were permanently assigned to each of the five Theater Special Operations Commands (TSOCs). Special Operations Theater Support Elements (SOTSEs) from SOSCOM replaced the TASOSCs, performing the same coordination mission with a fraction of the personnel. In 2008, these were renamed ARSOF Liaison Elements (ALEs). SOSCOM units were among the first deployed following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. They accompanied Task Force Dagger (5th SFG) to Karshi-Kanabad (K2) Air Base, Uzbekistan, using it as an intermediate staging base for operations in Afghanistan in the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). When the focus shifted to Iraq in early 2003, the 528th SOSB and 112th Signal Battalion were again called on to support SF-led task forces in northern and western Iraq. Meanwhile, SOSCOM Headquarters was operationalized during the early days of [Operation Iraqi Freedom] (OIF), providing command and control for a Logistics Task Force supporting SOF in western Iraq. It was during this initial phase of the Global War on Terrorism that SOSCOM adopted the nickname "Sentinels", to reflect its constant state of readiness. In 2005, USASOC started implementing the ARSOF Logistics Transformation Plan, which shifted support personnel and resources from SOSCOM to the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (USASFC). Accordingly, both SOSCOM and the 528th SOSB were inactivated by year's end. In their place, a provisional Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations) and a Special Troops Battalion (STB) were established. Some 528th SOSB personnel positions were redistributed to help stand up SF group support battalions (GSBs), formally activated in 2009 to provide SFGs with sustainment, signal, and military intelligence capabilities. In December 2008, the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne) was activated, inheriting the 528th SOSB number and lineage. It commanded the 112th Signal Battalion, six ALEs, and an STB consisting of the 195th Forward Support Company (Nebraska Army National Guard), the 197th Special Troops Company (Texas Army National Guard), and a Special Operations Medical Detachment (SOMEDD), with two eight-man Special Operations Resuscitation Teams (SORTs).
In April 2008, the first SORT deployed to Afghanistan (OEF) as a proof-of-concept; its success helped justify a third SORT. From 2012 through 2016, SORTs operated in South Sudan, as part of Operation Observant Compass, the successful ARSOF-led mission to remove Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army from the battlefield. Initially, the 528th Sustainment Brigade had reported directly to Headquarters, USASOC. This changed in July 2014, when USASOC provisionally established the 1st Special Forces Command (1st SFC) as a deployable ARSOF headquarters, replacing USASFC. In 2016, the Commanding General, 1st SFC, directed 528th soldiers to don the SF Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI). This was the same SSI that their predecessors in the 528th SOSB and 112th