Red Bull Rising: Iowa Logistics Soldiers Sport Modern Combat Patch

22 July 2013

Iowa Logistics Soldiers Sport Modern Combat Patch

Friends and families who earlier this month welcomed home from Afghanistan the 1034th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion (C.S.S.B.) may have noticed the soldiers are sporting a modern-looking patch on both their left and right sleeves.

There's a new combat patch in town!

The new patch was approved by the U.S. Army's Institute of Heraldry in April 2012, and first issued in an August 18 ceremony that same year. On that date, all soldiers of 734th Regional Support Group (R.S.G.)—the 1034th CSSB's higher headquarters—began wearing the patch on the left sleeves of their combat uniforms. On such uniforms, bright colors are subdued to black, brown, and sage.

Later in 2012, while deployed to Afghanistan, some 60 citizen-soldiers 1034th CSSB were additionally authorized the patch as a right-shoulder "combat patch." The unit returned to Iowa Sat., July 13, 2013.

To review: Left-shoulder patch equals the individual soldier's unit. Right-shoulder patch equals the unit with which (or under which) the soldier deployed to a combat zone.

Look closely, and you can make out the distinctive silhouette of the Red Bull "olla" (often described as a "Mexican water jug"), as well as the profile of a hawk. Each symbol connects to the histories of the Iowa Army National Guard and 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division. In a more formal description found on the heraldry institute's website:

The shield illustrates the defender displaying the stylized Mexican flask, is adapted from the Iowa Army National Guard shoulder sleeve insignia and the hawk’s head and symbolizes the heritage of the unit and the location of the Group. Solider red denotes the logistical responsibilities of the unit. The black arrowhead suggests readiness, alluding to World War II service campaigns and awards.

A combat sustainment support battalion is designed to command and control logistics units—including fuel, maintenance, transportation, water purification, and other units—in a given area of operations. The soldiers of the 1034th CSSB mobilized in August 2012, and deployed to Northern Afghanistan. According to an Iowa National Guard press release:

Completion of more than 310 combat logistics patrols; Ran the Life Support Area (LSA) Lightning’s mayor cell, consisting of two dining facilities providing more than 2,000 meals per day, operated two fitness centers, a 180-bed living quarters and a Morale Welfare and Recreation [M.W.R.] facility; supervised seven projects providing $1.1 million worth of assistance for more than 500,000 Afghans, through the Commander’s Emergency Response program; and carried out area maintenance for six Forward Operating Bases ["FOB"] in [Regional Command-North].