| 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team | |
|---|---|
86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team shoulder sleeve insignia |
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| Active | 1925– |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | U.S. Army |
| Nickname | The Vermont Brigade (Special Designation)[1] |
| Insignia | |
| Distinctive Unit Insignia | |
The 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) ("The Vermont Brigade"[1]) is an Army National Guard light infantry brigade headquartered in Vermont[2] and subordinate to the 42nd Infantry Division. It was reorganized from an armored brigade into a light infantry brigade as part of the United States Army's transformation for the 21st century. The 86th IBCT utilizes the Army's Mountain Warfare school, co-located at Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vermont, to train in individual military mountaineering skills. This is a capability the army had lost after the 10th Mountain Division inactivated after World War II, except for 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment, which has its subordinate units split between Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
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In the period before World War II, as the army reorganized from "square" to "triangular" divisions, the 86th Brigade was reorganized into the 43rd Reconnaissance Troop. In 1968 the brigade was assigned to the 50th Armored Division. In 1988, the brigade was reassigned to the 26th Infantry Division. When that division inactivated in 1993, the 86th Brigade joined the 42nd Infantry Division. The brigade was deployed with various elements and attachments, to Iraq in 2004–2005 as Task Force Redleg, on a security mission to Kuwait in 2004 as Task Force Green Mountain, redeploying in 2005. In 2006, the brigade was re-designated as the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) and began a transformation from a "heavy" brigade to a specialized light infantry formation, using 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment (Mountain), which was not a subordinate unit of the brigade before that time, as the nucleus. Turning armor formations into infantry and cavalry units while adding 1st Battalion, 102nd Infantry from Connecticut, the brigade slowly formed from 2006 to 2008. The 86th IBCT welcomed the addition of the 1st Battalion, 101st Field Artillery Regiment from the Massachusetts Army National Guard on 14 September 2008. The 86th IBCT mobilized in December 2009 at Camp Atterbury, Indiana and completed a JRTC rotation at Fort Polk prior to deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The 86th IBCT returned home in December 2010 after being replaced by 2nd IBCT, 34th Infantry Division.
42nd Infantry Division [3]