11th Signal Brigade (United States)

11th Signal Brigade
11th Signal Brigade Shoulder Sleeve Insignia
Active	1964–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army
Type	Communications
Role	EAC Communications
Part of	Army Signal Command
Garrison/HQ	Fort Hood
Nickname(s)	"Thunderbirds" (Special Designation)
Motto(s)	"Flexibility, Dependability"
Engagements	Operation Desert Storm Operation Restore Hope Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Iraqi Freedom
Insignia
Distinctive Unit Insignia

The 11th Signal Brigade ("Desert Thunderbirds") of the United States Army is an element of Army Forces Command. It is based at Fort Hood, Texas. The unit mascot is the Thunderbird, a hawk-like bird perched upon a globe shooting thunderbolts out of its eyes. Soldiers in this unit call themselves "The Thunderbirds."

Designated Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 11th Signal Group, 4 September 1964, to support the Joint Chiefs of Staff worldwide contingencies. The 11th Signal Group was originally assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, as part of STRATCOM, the U.S. Army Strategic Communications Command. The group became a regular participant in exercises in Alaska.

On 25 April 1966 the group was reorganized and redesignated Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 11th Signal Group. The following December, the group was reassigned to Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

As the 11th Signal Group the unit contained: HQ, HHQ, and five companies, 505th, 521st, 526th, 557th, and Mobile Operations Signal Companies.

Units of the group participated in Operation Power Pack in 1965.

The group was designated 1 October 1979 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 11th Signal Brigade.

After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, the 11th Signal Brigade (minus two companies that remained to execute other contingency missions) deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

The 11th Signal Brigade deployed some of its Signal personnel to East Timor in 1999 supporting the U.S. contingent with INTERFET.

On 7 June 2013, the unit cased their colors for the last time on Fort Huachuca and was unfurled on 26 June 2013, at Fort Hood, Texas.

The 11th Signal Brigade deployed shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks to support ARCENT in its position as CFLCC. During OEF in 2002, the 11th Signal Brigade had soldiers and civilian personnel supporting CFLCC Forward in Uzbekistan, the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division in Bagram, Afghanistan and Task Force Rakkasan (3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division), in Kandahar, Afghanistan. They also had soldiers deployed to Djibouti, Africa in support of Combined Joint Task Force, Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA). The "Thunderbird Brigade," successfully performed its mission of providing Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Internet (C4I) services to the warfighter but soon deployed back home to Fort Huachuca, Arizona shortly after establishing tactical communications networks for coalition forces.