103rd Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Battalion The
103rd Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Battalion (
103rd IEW Battalion) is a United States Army
military intelligence and
electronic warfare battalion which serves as a direct subordinate unit to the
3rd Infantry Division. The battalion was activated in Germany and designated as the 103rd Military Intelligence Battalion on 16 September 1981, after the U.S. Army directed the merger of the 851st Army Security Agency Company, and the 3rd Military Intelligence Company. As such, the 103rd Military Intelligence Battalion draws its lineage and honors from these two historical units. In the summer of 1996 the Battalion along with the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), relocated to Fort Stewart, Georgia. The 851st Army Security Agency Company was originally formed as the 3377th Signal Service Detachment which was activated in January 1945 on Luzon in the Philippines. In October 1951 the 851st Communications Reconnaissance Detachment, participating in four Korean War campaigns, including the first United Nations counteroffensive. The detachment was deactivated in Japan in August 1956. That same year it was briefly reactivated as the 851st Army Security Agency Detachment. It was finally designated the 851st Army Security Agency Company and reactivated in July 1974. The 3rd Military Intelligence Company was activated in France in September 1944 as the 3rd Counterintelligence Corps. It was inactivated 2 years later after having participated in four World War II campaigns, including Rhineland and Ardennes-Alsace. In 1949, the detachment was reactivated and served in the Korean War. It participated in 8 campaigns including the Chinese Communist Force Intervention and the second and third Korean Winters. During January 1958, the detachment was reorganized and redesignated as the 3rd Military Intelligence detachment and attached to the 3rd Infantry Division. The detachment was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division in April 1974. The 103rd Military Intelligence Battalion, as part of the 3rd Infantry Division participated in the first iteration of Operation Iraqi Freedom. At the orders of the President of the United States, the 3rd Infantry Division already had a Brigade-sized element in Iraq for a year prior to the start of the war and Company B, 103rd MI BN was part of that Brigade.[5] In late summer/early fall of 2002, the 103rd MI BN sent more forces into Kuwait in anticipation of combat operations. By 27 January the entire Battalion was on the ground and conducting intelligence operations. The Battalion, equipped with the AN/MLQ 40 PROPHET system, began collecting signals intelligence on the Iraqi Forces.[6] On 20 March 2003, the Battalion joined the Division in the attack with its direct support companies (A, B, C) providing support to each of the 3rd Infantry Division Brigade Combat Teams, and Company D, and HHOC providing support to the Division as a whole. The Battalion would participate in a number of operations including seizing OBJ LION (Saddam International Airport), and follow-on operations to Fallujah, Iraq before redeploying in Aug 2003. It was reactivated 16 September 2022, after an 18-year hiatus resulting from the elimination of all division level intelligence units.
319th Military Intelligence Battalion The
319th Military Intelligence Battalion (Operations) traces its lineage to the activation of the 319th Military Intelligence Headquarters Detachment at Bad Schwalbach, Germany, 1 August 1945 where it served as an interrogation unit for German Prisoners of War. In 1946, the unit was sent to Japan and began a long association with the Orient. It was joined by other interrogation units which served in the Philippines in 1944 and later the reformed 319th served in the Korean War. After deactivation in 1968, the battalion was reactivated in 1982 at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as a subordinate unit of the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade to provide both general intelligence support and special communications support to the XVIII Airborne Corps. In October 1983, elements of the battalion deployed to the island of
Grenada for
Operation Urgent Fury. In 1988, battalion personnel participated in the emergency deployment to
Honduras to counter an incursion by Nicaraguan forces. In 1989, the 319th deployed to Panama in support of
Operation Just Cause. The 319th MI Battalion deployed to Saudi Arabia for
Operation Desert Shield as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. In September 1994, the battalion deployed to the island of Haiti in support of
Operation Uphold Democracy. In December 1995 and again in October 1996, the battalion deployed elements to Hungary, Italy, and Bosnia in support of
Operation Joint Endeavor. In March 2003, the Battalion's B Co (TENCAP) deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in support of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force(MEF). The 525th MI BDE consisting of both the 319th/519th battalions deployed in support of Operation Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005 and 2007. The battalion deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as part of Combined Task Force Lightning (525 BfSB). The battalion deployed in July 2010 and returned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in July 2011. While deployed the battalion was headquartered out of the Kandahar City area of RC-South, Afghanistan. In January 2013 the 319th Military Intelligence Battalion again deployed to Afghanistan. This time they operated out of RC-East, Afghanistan. The battalion returned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in October 2013.
519th Military Intelligence Battalion The 519th Military Intelligence Battalion was activated on 15 October 1948 at Fort Riley, Kansas. The battalion's motto is "Strength Through Intelligence." The 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, a subordinate unit of the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, provides tactical HUMINT; long range reconnaissance and surveillance; counterintelligence; interrogation; multi-functional collection and exploitation; and SIGINT support within assigned areas of the division, corps, joint task force (JTF) or multinational force area of operations. Elements of the battalion served in the Republic of Korea from 1951 until 1954, participating in seven campaigns and earning one Meritorious Unit Commendation and two Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citations. The battalion was inactivated in 1954. On 25 January 1958, the 519th Military Intelligence (MI) Battalion (BN) (Aircorn (ACN)) was reactivated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In May 1965, the 519th MI BN (ACN) deployed to the Dominican Republic for Operation Powersack, where it supported the 82nd Airborne Division and the US Marines in combating the communist insurgency on the Caribbean island. In late summer of 1965, the 519th MI BN redeployed back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and subsequently deployed to the Republic of Vietnam in November 1965. During the Vietnam War, the battalion again left the United States and distinguished itself by participating in sixteen campaigns and earning three Meritorious Unit Commendations. In 1972, the battalion returned to Fort Bragg. After several reorganizations, the battalion officially achieved a three-company configuration in September 1978, with Headquarters, Headquarters & Service Company; Company A (Interrogation); and Company B (Counterintelligence). In 1975, elements of the 519th MI BN were used to create the Forces Command Intelligence Training Detachment [FITD], which was formed and commanded by Captain Gregory MLP Davis. Personnel were also drawn from the
1st MI Battalion and the 218th MI Detachment. FITD was in direct support of Forces Command Headquarters, but attached to the 525th Intelligence Group. The FITD mission was to develop and deliver tactical intelligence training to National Guard and Reserve MI units using mobile training teams (MTT) and creating skill sets through hands-on training in the form of both platform instruction and command post exercises (CPX), with the trained unit functioning with the brigade, division, or corps it supported ("bringing training to the unit"). Training was very realistic since it was "all-source" and the materials included "live" orders of battle, SIGINT and COMINT, actual imagery of the region, and POW role players who were actual interrogators responding in foreign languages, plus tactical CI reports drawn from foreign liaison and clandestine operations. The training was so successful and effective that FORSCOM extended the mission to include active duty MI units and intelligence staffs at divisions and corps. In 1977, FITD conducted the largest intelligence command post exercise in the history of the US Army for the III Corps, and included active duty and National Guard divisions as well as active duty and Army Reserve MI units engaged in a classified CPX in which Iraq was the aggressor against Jordan. The training was constantly updated based on problem resolution from each exercise, and the SOPs developed were integrated into the US Army Training and Doctrine Command curriculum. The innovative training included, for the first time, tasking by tactical intelligence units of strategic assets such as USAF SR-71 reconnaissance missions, NRO overhead imagery, and signals intelligence from NSA. The concept of tactical counterintelligence was also introduced, converting CI agents, previously dedicated to conducting security investigations, to the role of tactical agent handlers and case officers. Also introduced was the concept of the rear area operations center in theater commands, which integrated multi-service intelligence and military police personnel into a tactical analysis and rapid response unit to address terrorists and Soviet Spetsnaz commando assaults. FITD was later transferred from FORSCOM to TRADOC, and in 1987, was relocated from Fort Bragg to Fort Huachuca, where it was re-designated the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade. Captain Davis later (1984) formed and directed the operations of the Clandestine Services organization under the DOD HUMINT program. On 16 April 1982, the battalion was reorganized and redesignated the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion (Tactical Exploitation) (Airborne), resulting in the activation of Company C (Electronic Warfare). The battalion participated in combat operations in Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury) in November 1983, Panama (Operation Just Cause) in December 1989, and in the Kuwaiti theater of operations (Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm) and was subordinate to the 525th MI Brigade (CEWI) (ACN) as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps, under 3rd US Army during the deployment in the KTO from August 1990 to March 1991. During the 1990s, the 519th MI BN participated in peacekeeping operations in Haiti (Operation Restore Democracy), Bosnia (Operations Joint Endeavor and Joint Forge) and Kosovo (Operation Joint Guardian). The 519th MI BN also deployed tactical human intelligence teams to Somalia in support of Operation Restore Hope. In 1995, Company C was inactivated and Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment (
Long Range Surveillance) was assigned to the battalion to provide the corps with long range surveillance capability. About 2007, during the reconfiguration of the 525th MI Brigade to a battlefield surveillance brigade (BfSB), Company F (LRS), 51st Infantry Regiment, with its LRS desgnation removed. Was reflagged as Troop C, 1st Squadron, 38th Cavalry Regiment (1–38th CAV) and was removed from the control of the 519th MI BN and reassigned to 1–38th CAV, which is another subordinate squadron in the 525th BfSB. During the Global War on Terrorism, 519th MI BN repeatedly deployed for combat operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The 519th MI BN served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) I, OEF III, OEF IV, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) I, OIF IV and OEF XII. In 2005, some members of the unit were involved in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. The battalion was redeployed back to Fort Bragg, NC after serving in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom XI from July 2010 to July 2011 under the command of LTC Anthony "Jabroni" Hale as part of Combined Joint Task Force 101. While in Afghanistan, the 519th MI Battalion was headquartered at Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan, with its units deployed throughout Regional Command East. In 2015, the 519th and 319th Military Intelligence Battalions were redesignated as expeditionary military intelligence battalions, the first units of their kind in the Army. As part of the transformation, the C Company for each battalion was deactivated. ==Former subordinate units==