A Legacy of Support: The 528th Sustainment Brigade

On 16 December 2008 Lieutenant General John F. Mulholland approved the redesignation of the Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne) (Provisional) as the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne). While the designation is new, it is only the latest step in the unit’s evolutionary history of providing support to Army Special Operations Forces. This article provides a short historical primer on the 528th Sustainment Brigade. A secondary purpose is to solicit historical campaign vignettes from former and current ARSOF support soldiers.1 The lineage and honors of the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne) stretches back to World War II.

The 528th Quartermaster Service Battalion was activated on 15 December 1942 at Camp McCain, Mississippi. Trained as a non-divisional service battalion, the 528th could use its four companies (each with 160 soldiers) as a manual labor force for a wide variety of missions: transportation and distribution of supplies (Classes I, II, III and IV; food, clothing and equipment, petroleum and general supplies), operation of supply depots, and supervision of civilian or prisoner of war labor. After its initial training, the unit supported the invasion and campaign in Sicily, as part of Lieutenant General (LTG) George S. Patton’s Seventh Army. Transferred to the Fifth Army in Italy, the 528th provided combat service support to the Allied forces as they moved up the Italian “boot.” The 528th Quartermaster Battalion’s service on the Italian peninsula ended with the liberation of Rome.2

Although not activated as an ammunition unit, the 528th Quartermaster Battalion ran six major Ammunition Supply Points (ASP) throughout the I Corps area. The ASPs supplied everything from small arms to 8-inch howitzer ammunition to American and Allied forces.

On 15 August 1944, seven Allied combat divisions conducted a combined amphibious and airborne invasion of Southern France (Operation DRAGOON). The 528th was among the myriad of support units involved in the invasion and subsequent move north. As a service unit the 528th Quartermaster Battalion unloaded supplies and supported units throughout the U.S. VI Corps area, and continued to support the VI Corps and other Seventh Army units for the remainder of the war. By the end of World War II, the 528th had earned six campaign streamers, to include two with arrowheads for assault landings in Sicily and Southern France. After the war the battalion served in the Army of Occupation in Germany until deactivated in 1947 in France. For the next twelve years the battalion was in an organizational limbo. It underwent several redesignations, inactivations, and activations, in both the active and reserve forces, as a quartermaster and transportation unit.3 The Vietnam War brought the unit back on the active rolls.

I Corps heavy artillery required the 295th Ordnance Company cranes — I Corps heavy artillery required the 295th Ordnance Company (528th QM Bn) cranes to move ammunition in large quantities.

Beginning a new chapter in its history, the 528th Quartermaster Battalion was reactivated on 25 September 1969 at Phu Bai, in the Republic of South Vietnam. Organized as a Corps-level command and control headquarters for petroleum and transportation companies, the battalion was assigned to I Corps, the northernmost military operational area in South Vietnam. Although organized as a petroleum supply battalion the 528th instead assumed the ammunition supply mission for I Corps. In that capacity the 528th Quartermaster Battalion inherited three ordnance (ammunition) companies, a transportation detachment, and four explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) detachments.4

The withdrawal of the majority of U.S. combat troops in 1971 ended the requirement for the 528th Quartermaster Battalion in Vietnam. During its year and a half service in Vietnam, the 528th Quartermaster Battalion was awarded four additional campaign streamers. Without ceremony, on 15 April 1971, at Da Nang, Vietnam, the colors were cased and the unit once again inactivated. The 528th would remain inactivated until 1987, when Army Special Operations required dedicated support units.5

The 1st Special Operations Command (1st SOCOM) was provisionally established on 1 October 1982 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with the mission to exercise command and control of all Army active duty Special Operations Forces. The 1983 Mission Area Analysis of Combat Service Support requirements for 1st SOCOM eventually led to the creation of a Special Operations Communications Battalion and a Special Operations Support Battalion. But it was 1986 before the two units were activated to fill the gap between organic unit support to Corps and Theater-level support assets. As separate units, the commanders were rated by the 1st SOCOM Deputy Commanding General, but performed under the direction of the appropriate 1st SOCOM staff directorate. As a new unit the 528th was a one of a kind organization that had to be developed from scratch.6

Originally designated the 13th Support Battalion, the 1st SOCOM G-4, Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Louis G. Mason worked with a planning cell of several officers and NCOs to change the unit’s designation to the 528th, based on the battalion’s service in World War II and Vietnam. “The [13th] number [designation] was randomly picked by someone in Washington, but there was no historical significance. We worked to change the designation over eight to ten months to the 528th … I went to the Heraldic Department [Institute of Heraldry] in Washington DC. As a coincidence my father-in-law [Colonel James Cook] had commanded the Heraldic Department years before. I was able to meet with the director, Dr. Opel Landrum, who had once worked for my father-in-law, and we created the crest, motto, and coat of arms,” remembered Mason.7 The battalion was on the inactive rolls for sixteen years before LTC Louis G. Mason took command of the new 528th Support Battalion at Fort Bragg on 17 May 1987.8 The soldiers of the battalion immediately began supporting exercises and operational missions.

Lieutenant Colonel Mason and his planning cell developed a table of organization and equipment (TO&E) for a unit dedicated to support ARSOF. Working with a ceiling of 163 personnel slots, the battalion was organized “as a Headquarters and Headquarters Company, with a staff that included a medical capability, and three detachments; transportation, maintenance, and supply,” recalled Mason.9 The 528th commander and staff would task organize teams or elements to support 1st SOCOM units. For example, if the 1st Ranger Battalion required additional support for an exercise, the 528th would develop a support team for that mission.10

For the next several years there were a myriad of internal organizational changes within 1st SOCOM to better support special operations. The three detachments became companies, organized as supply (A), maintenance (B), and transportation (C) as the 528th Support Battalion reorganized and grew in strength. New equipment increased capabilities for fuel handling and transportation. Most of the 528th Support Battalion deployed to Panama (Operation JUST CAUSE) in December 1989, supporting 7th Special Forces Group, the 75th Ranger Regiment, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Group, and Joint Special Operations units. The summer of 1990 the entire unit supported ARSOF during Operations DESERT SHIELD (the defense of Saudi Arabia) and DESERT STORM (the liberation of Kuwait). In less than three years (1989 – 1991) the 528th earned three campaign streamers for these operations. However, the organization was inefficient and left gaps in the support structure.11

With the establishment of U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) as a major army command (MACOM) on 1 December 1989, the 528th Support and the 112th Signal Battalions continued to provide support for the entire command. However, taskings grew as two Reserve and two National Guard Special Forces Groups were added to the command. Lieutenant General (LTG) Wayne A. Downing, the USASOC Commanding General 1991-1993, seriously considered creating a headquarters to coordinate the two support units. The next USASOC Commander, LTG James T. Scott, summarized the problem: “One of the organizational deficiencies discovered when we reviewed who we and what we were…was that we did not have an entity to coordinate support for our deployed special operations forces. We had two great battalions equally good at providing all aspects of signal and combat service support to our units, but had no overarching headquarters to plan, coordinate and determine what our priorities might be for that support.”12 The need to improve the support drove a command and control capability for ARSOF.

LTG Scott directed the provisional formation of the Special Operations Support Command (SOSCOM). Established as a coordinating headquarters on 29 June 1995, SOSCOM’s mission was to provide combat service and signal support of ARSOF units throughout the world. This arrangement was refined during exercises and operational deployments. However, the coordinating headquarters had limitations.13

As the ISB at K2, Uzbekistan grew, the 528th had to find covered storage space for supplies.

Organized as a Table of Distribution and Allowances (TDA) unit, the SOSCOM headquarters was not designed as a deployable unit. The 528th and 112th supported the 5th SFG (Task Force Dagger) and other SOF units in Afghanistan during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF). The 528th grew to 400 soldiers and reorganized as a Headquarters and Main Support Company (HMSC) and two Forward Support Companies (FSC). Each FSC, with augmentation, had the capability to build and support a Special Forces Forward Operating Base (FOB) with fuel, food, and supplies.14 The 528th Support Battalion task organized Alpha FSC, with augmentation from HMSC to support TF Dagger.

The company had a daunting task; establish Task Force Dagger’s intermediate staging base at Karshi Kanabad, Uzbekistan (soon called “K2” by the soldiers). The dilapidated ex-Soviet air base became a beehive of activity as support, Special Forces, aviators, and Air Force pitched in to create the base.15 The unit established initial supply, food service, ammunition, water, and fuel points and contracted for additional supplies from local sources. The K2 base expanded beyond Alpha FSC capabilities and was taken over by the 507th Corps Support Command. Alpha FSC deployed to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan to support the ARSOF.16 The SOSCOM headquarters provided augmentees to the TF Dagger staff, but it did not deploy. This changed in 2003.

In western Iraq logistics soldiers unload humanitarian rations and water for a village near a forward operations base.

During Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF), Colonel (COL) Kevin A. Leonard, the SOSCOM commander, was tasked as the command and control headquarters for Logistics Task Force-West, which supported Special Operations Forces (SOF) in western Iraq. The majority of the SOSCOM headquarters deployed to meet this requirement. “At the height of combat operations, when the heavy [conventional military] units were moving up the Euphrates River Valley toward Baghdad, we were in seven different countries supporting ARSOF,” said COL Leonard.17 For a second time, Alpha FSC supported 5th SFG (TF Dagger) in Kuwait and western and southern Iraq. In the northern Iraq campaign, Bravo FSC supported 10th SFG (TF Viking).18 Throughout OEF and OIF the 528th supported other special operations forces that included U.S. Navy and Allied units. “Transformation” and “Modularity” became the “buzzwords” guiding the reorganization of the Army following its initial combat experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As the Army reorganized, LTG Philip R. Kensinger, Jr., the USASOC Commanding General, approved the ARSOF Logistics Transformation Plan on 11 April 2005. This called for the creation of a Special Operations Sustainment Brigade, five regionally aligned Special Forces Group support battalions, and three Ranger Battalion support companies. Instead of just being a force provider for ARSOF logistics, the sustainment brigade became a coordinating headquarters. The SOSCOM headquarters and the 528th Special Operations Support Battalion were designated as the “bill payers” for the creation of the new logistics units in USASOC.19

COL Duane A. Gamble places the new 528th Sustainment Brigade SSI on the uniform of CSM Charles M. Tobin, during a ceremony on 30 June 2009.

On 2 December 2005, the ARSOF logistics transformation began at Fort Bragg when the SOSCOM and the 528th Special Operations Support Battalion were officially deactivated. At the same ceremony the Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne) (Provisional) and the Special Troops Battalion (Airborne) (Provisional), were activated as part of the ARSOF logistics transformation plan.20 The new Sustainment Brigade (SB) became a deployable headquarters instead of a garrison organization. The commander, COL Edward F. Dorman III, noted the changes to the unit: “Unlike other sustainment brigades in the Army, The Sentinels [the nickname for the SOSCOM and the new Sustainment Brigade] have a global mission; [we] synchronize the sustainment of the SOF Warriors of U.S. Army Special Forces Command, the 75th Ranger Regiment and other joint SOF elements throughout the world as they prosecute the war on terror.”21 The provisional Sustainment Brigade was composed of the Brigade Headquarters, the 112th Special Operations Signal Battalion, six ARSOF Liaison Elements (ALE), and the new Special Troops Battalion (which includes the Army National Guard 195th Forward Support Company and the 197th Special Troops Company). The ALEs coordinated ARSOF logistics requirements and plans for deployed forces in a Geographic Combatant Command region. The new brigade also provided ARSOF with a unique medical capability; two Role II units called “SORT” (Special Operations Resuscitation Team).22 The provisional Sustainment Brigade would provide combat service support and combat health support planning and execution coordination for USASOC units for three years until it was redesignated the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne).

The new 528th Sustainment Brigade continues the history, lineage, and heritage of the 528th Support Battalion. As a separate brigade-sized unit, it merited its own shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI, or “shoulder patch”). COL Duane A. Gamble and his staff designed their SSI, which was approved in March 2009, by the Institute of Heraldry. During the official activation ceremony, on 30 June 2009, the Special Troops Battalion soldiers received the new patches. The formal 528th Sustainment Brigade activation ceremony took place on 17 July 2009, in conjunction with the change of command of COL Duane A. Gamble to COL Lenny J. Kness.23

The newly designated 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne) continues a legacy of service to Army special operations. This short historical primer on the evolution of the 528th Sustainment Brigade is not intended to be a definitive, all-inclusive history of the unit. The contributions of ARSOF support soldiers are taken for granted; getting “chow” on time is considered normal, but not getting it is long remembered by combat soldiers.24 With its roots dating to World War II, the 528th Sustainment Brigade (A) has a long legacy of Army SOF support.

ENDNOTES

Headquarters, 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne), Operations Order 09-01, 22 January 2009, Fort Bragg, NC, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, USASOC Permanent Orders: 353-1 directs the discontinuation of the Sustainment Brigade (SO) (A) (Provisional) effective 15 December 2008; USASOC Permanent Orders: 353-2 directs the activation of the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne) effective 16 December 2008. ^[return]
Erna Risch and Chester L. Kieffer, United States Army in World War II. The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume II (Washington DC: Center for Military History, 1983), 286; War Department General Order 70, 20 August 1945 for the Sicilian landings, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; William F. Ross and Charles F. Romanus, The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War against Germany (Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1965), 78. ^[return]
War Department General Order 70, 20 August 1945 for the Sicilian landings, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Ross and Romanus, The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War against Germany, 78 and 120; War Department General Order 70, 20 August 1945, USASOC History Office Classified Files; Department of the Army, U.S. Army Center for Military History, Statement of Service for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 528th Sustainment Brigade, dated 9 April 2009, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; The battalion earned a campaign streamer and assault arrowhead for its participation in the invasion and another three campaign streamers—Rhineland (15 September 1944–21 March 1945), Ardennes-Alsace (16 December 1944–25 January 1945), and Central Europe (22 March 1945–11 May 1945). ^[return]
General Orders 744, 16 September 1969, Department of the Army, Headquarters, U.S. Army Support Command, Da Nang, copy in USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; General Orders 766, 20 September 1969, Department of the Army, Headquarters, U.S. Army Support Command, Da Nang; General Orders 772, 22 September 1969, Department of the Army, Headquarters, U.S. Army Support Command, Da Nang, copy in USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; General Orders 773, 22 September 1969, Department of the Army, Headquarters, U.S. Army Support Command, Da Nang, copy in USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; “History,” 9; The 40th Ordnance Company (Ammunition), U.S. Army Reserve, 295th Ordnance Company (Ammunition), 571st Ordnance Company (Ammunition), and the 263rd Transportation Detachment. The four explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) detachments were the 59th Ordnance Detachment (EOD), the 133rd Ordnance Detachment (EOD), the 287th Ordnance Detachment (EOD), and the 269th Ordnance Detachment (EOD). Each detachment consisted of one officer and nine enlisted men; Cherilyn A. Walley, “Conventional Excellence: The 528th Quartermaster Battalion in Vietnam,” Veritas: the Journal of Army Special Operations History, Volume 1, Number 2, 2005. ^[return]
General Orders 8, 10 January 1971, Department of the Army, Headquarters, U.S. Army Support Command, Da Nang, copy in USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; The campaigns were Summer-Fall 1969, Winter-Spring 1970, Sanctuary Counteroffensive, and Counteroffensive, Phase VII. ^[return]
Retired Colonel Louis G. Mason, interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe and Major James W. Bogart, 23 February 2006, digital recording, Fort Bragg, NC, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; The two new support units would be designated the 112th Signal Battalion and the 528th Support Battalion. ^[return]
Retired Colonel Louis G. Mason, interview by Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Jones, Jr., 19 August 2009, interview notes, Fort Bragg, NC, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. ^[return]
Mason interview, 23 February 2006; Mason interview, 19 August 2009; The 13th Quartermaster Battalion spent the majority of World War II as a laundry unit at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana; Richard W. Stewart, Stanley L. Sandler, and Joseph R. Fischer, Command History of the United States Army Special Operations Command: 1987-1992, Standing Up The MACOM (Fort Bragg, NC: USASOC Directorate of History and Museums, 1996), 10; Department of the Army, USASOC, “Army Special Operations Forces Combat Service Support Review, 31 January 1991,” Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Fort Bragg, NC. ^[return]
Mason interview, 23 February 2006; Mason interview, 19 August 2009. ^[return]
Mason interview, 23 February 2006; Mason interview, 19 August 2009. ^[return]
Between 1989 and 1991 the 528th was awarded three additional campaign streamers for Panama (Operation JUST CAUSE) and Operations DESERT SHIELD for the defense of Saudi Arabia and DESERT STORM for the liberation of Kuwait; Unit level support was handled by the Special Forces Group Support Companies (GSC) or the small support platoons in the Ranger Battalions, but they had limited capabilities. ^[return]
Stewart, Sandler, and Fischer, Standing Up The MACOM, 2, 10, and 17; The Army Reserve SFGs were the 11th and 12th and the Army National Guard SFGs were the 19th and 20th; The 1st Special Operations Command (1st SOCOM) was the predecessor of U.S. Army Special Forces Command; Scott R. Gourley, “U.S. Army Special Operations,” Army, March 1996, Volume 46, 23-24; Department of the Army, US Army Special Operations Command, “United States Army Special Operations Command Reorganization Briefing, 15 February 1995,” Fort Bragg, NC, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Department of the Army, USASOC, “Army Special Operations Forces Combat Service Support Review, 31 January 1991,” Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Fort Bragg, NC, 1. ^[return]
Brian J. Burns, “The Army Special Operations Support Command,” Army Logistician, May-June 2001, www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/MayJun01/MS657.html; Retired Lieutenant Colonel Eugene G. Piasecki, interview by Dr. Charles H. Briscoe and Major James W. Bogart, 23 February 2006, digital recording, Fort Bragg, NC, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. ^[return]
Department of the Army, US Army Special Operations Command, “Special Operations Support Command (SOSCOM) Command Briefing,” 6 March 2002, Fort Bragg, NC, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Major Mark A. Ferris, “Supporting Special Operations Forces,” Army Logistician, September-October 1998, http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/SepOct98/MS292.htm, accessed 7 June 2009, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; With 133 soldiers the multifunctional Forward Support Company (FSC) was almost as large as the original TO&E of the 528th. Each FSC provided combat service support: class I (subsistence), III (petroleum), V (ammunition), water production, Role II medical, and engineer support (base camp construction) to ARSOF units. The FSC could also establish and operate an intermediate staging base (ISB) for SOF. The unit was equipped with MK19 machineguns, .50-caliber machineguns, and M249 squad automatic weapons for force protection and base defense. ^[return]
Jennifer J. Eidson, “Soldiers Work to Make Conditions Bearable during Operation Enduring Freedom,” Sine Pari Magazine, http://www.soc.mil/News/SinePari/528th.shtml, accessed 7 June 2009, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Charles H. Briscoe, et al, Weapon of Choice: Army Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2003), 72-73. ^[return]
Brigadier General Kevin Leonard, interview by Major James W. Bogart, 23 February 2006, digital recording, Fort Bragg, NC, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Briscoe, Weapon of Choice, 373-374 and 389. ^[return]
Brigadier General Kevin Leonard, interview by Major James W. Bogart, 23 February 2006, recording, Fort Bragg, NC, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Charles H. Briscoe, et al, All Roads Lead to Baghdad: Army Special Operations Forces in Iraq (Fort Bragg, NC: Department of Defense, U.S. Army Special Operations Command History Office, 2006), 100-101. ^[return]
Briscoe, All Roads Lead to Baghdad, 90-93; A. Dwayne Aaron and Cherilyn A. Walley, “North by Northwest: Combat Service Support in Northern Iraq,” Veritas: the Journal of Army Special Operations History, Volume 1, Number 1, Winter 2005, 26-31. ^[return]
Colonel Edward F. Dorman III, interview by Lieutenant Colonel Robert W.
Jones, Jr., 8 November 2005, digital recording, Fort Bragg, NC, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Ronald R. Ragin, “Transforming Special Operations Logistics,” Army Logistician, November-December 2005, www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/NovDec05/specop_log.html; The Group Support Battalions are organic to the respective Special Forces Groups and the Ranger Support Companies are under the command of the respective battalions. Additionally a Ranger Support Operations Detachment (RSOD) was created to support the 75th Ranger Regiment headquarters. ^[return]
Sergeant Joe Healy, “USASOC reorganizes medical, signal, logistical units,” USASOC News Service, 2 December 2005, http://news.soc.mil/releases/News%20Archive/2005/05DEC/051202-01.htm; Originally the Special Troops Battalion was called the “Brigade Troops Battalion.” ^[return]
Bonita Riddley, “ARSOF Sustainment Brigade Changes Commander,” USASOC News Service, 20 July 2007, http://news.soc.mil/releases/News%20Archive/2007/July/070720-02.html. ^[return]
The Special Troops Battalion consists of the Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company and two National Guard companies. With an assigned strength of 141 soldiers, the 195th Forward Support Company (Nebraska Army National Guard) has medical, food service, supply, maintenance, transportation, and engineer platoons. The 197th Special Troops Company (Utah Army National Guard) includes airdrop, medical, food service, supply, maintenance, transportation, mortuary affairs, and engineer capabilities. The medical section includes a Role II capability. The 197th also includes a 58-man staff augmentation platoon for the brigade headquarters; For more information see Kenneth Finlayson, “SORT(ing) Out the Casualties: The Special Operations Resuscitation Team in Afghanistan,” Veritas: the Journal of Army Special Operations History, Volume 5, Number 1, 2009; Headquarters, 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne), “June 2009 Newcomer’s Briefing,” 24 June 2009, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Ragin, “Transforming Special Operations Logistics;” U.S. Army Special Operations Command, “Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne),” U.S. Army Special Operations Command Public Affairs Office http://news.soc.mil/factsheets/SOSCOM_fact%20(F).pdf. ^[return]
Headquarters, 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne), Operations Order 09-01, 22 January 2009, Fort Bragg, NC, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; The 528th Special Operations Support Battalion was inactivated on 17 October 2005. The headquarters was provisionally redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 528th Sustainment Brigade on 18 October 2007. Shortly thereafter, the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne) was officially activated on 16 December 2008 at Fort Bragg, NC, but the official ceremony did not take place until 17 July 2009. ^[return]
Headquarters, 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne), Operations Order 09-01, 22 January 2009, Fort Bragg, NC, copy in the USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, USASOC Permanent Orders: 353-1 directs the discontinuation of the Sustainment Brigade (SO) (A) (Provisional) effective 15 December 2008; USASOC Permanent Orders: 353-2 directs the activation of the 528th Sustainment Brigade (Airborne) effective 16 December 2008. ^[return]
Erna Risch and Chester L. Kieffer, United States Army in World War II. The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume II (Washington DC: Center for Military History, 1983), 286. ^[return]
War Department FM 101-10, Organization, Technical and Logistical Data, 1 August 45, 161-78; Risch and Kieffer, The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume II, 279. ^[return]