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66th
Military Intelligence Brigade |
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| History | ||||||||||||||||
 66th Military Intelligence Bde DI |
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| 1945 - 1961 | ||||||||||||||||
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(Source:
66th Military Intelligence Group History, 14 June 1962.)
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| The 66th CIC
Detachment served In Western Europe and was awarded the Northern France
campaign credit. Near the end of World War II, it became a part of the 12th Army Group under the 418th CIC Detachment. Organisation Order No. 276, Headquarters, European Theater of Operations (ETO), dated 25 Apr 45, inactivated the 418th CIC Detachment and created the 970th CIC Detachment, with 10 May 45 the effective date. On 14 Jul 45, the 970th CIC Detachment, which had its headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany, moved to Frankfurt am Main, Germany. On this date ETO was changed to USFET (United States Forces European Theater). On 12 Nov 45, the 66th CIC Detachment, which had apparently accompanied the 66th Infantry Division to the United States, was inactivated at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. On 1 Dec 45, USFET took over operational control of all former tactical CIC Teams through the 970th CIC Detachment. In February 1947, the Third Army CIC in Germany consolidated with the 970th CIC Detachment which still had its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Deccan. On 20 Jun 48, the 970th CIC Detachment was inactivated. On the same date, it was reorganized and became the 7970th CIC Group. A T/D was authorised under Headquarters European Command (EUCOM), T/D 303-1341-B, effective 15 October 1949. (From 14 Jul 45 to 29 Aug 49, the 970th and the 7970th operational headquarters were located in the IG Farben Building, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany with the administrative headquarters located in Bad Hamburg, Germany.) On 29 August 1949, the 7970th CIC Group moved its headquarters to Wallace Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. 0n 10 November 1949, the 66th CIC Detachment was activated in the United States and assigned to EUCOM. In the Fall of 1949, a request by the 7970th CIC Croup to become a TO/E unit was approved. The change became effective on 10 November 1949 in consonance with EUCOM GO 102, dated 4 Nov 49. The unit designation was changed with this GO to the 66th CIC Detachment. The 66th CIC Detachment was designated a Regular Army Unit on 5 Dec 51. As of 20 December 1952, the 66th CIC Detachment was reorganized and redesignated as the 66th CIC Group, per USAREUR GO 38, dated 8 Dec 52. The new Group undertook the task of completing thousands of background investigations of refugee applicants for immigration to the United States under the Refugee relief Act of 1953. A separate T/D division administering over 700 DAC and indigenous personnel was established to accomplish the mission. On 1 January 1960 the 66th CIC Group was reorganized and redesignated as the 66th Military lntelligence Group. On 25 July 1961 the 66th Military Intelligence Group was reorganized and redesignated the 66th INTC Group (per USAREUR GO 212, dated 18 Jul 61). |
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(Source:
Chapter 7: The Cold War and Korea, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE by John
Patrick Finnegan, ARMY LINEAGE SERIES, 1998)
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Much of the work of the Counter Intelligence Corps was performed
abroad, as American occupation forces in Europe and the Far East
first attempted to root out the remaining vestiges of Nazism and
militarism and then faced the task of countering Communist subversion.
In Germany, all Army counterintelligence assets were consolidated into a single large unit, the 1,400-man-strong 970th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment, which blanketed the American Zone of Germany with a network of regional and field offices. In 1948 this was converted into the 7970th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment, organized under a table of distribution (TD) as a one-of-a-kind unit to perform a specific mission. The change brought about difficulties in obtaining personnel, however, and as a result the 7970th was superseded by a new TOE outfit, the 66th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment, in 1949. Counter Intelligence Corps operations overseas faced their own special problems. Some higher commanders abroad objected to the idea of CIC agents living in civilian clothes apart from the structure of the Army as a whole and sought to remilitarize the operations. At one point, all counterintelligence personnel in Germany were put back into uniform and ordered into Army billets with considerable loss of operational effectiveness. Another problem was that some CIC personnel acclimatized themselves to life overseas all too well and had married foreign wives. In June 1950 the CIC chief issued an order that any CIC member marrying a foreign national without grant of a waiver would be terminated. Finally, operational necessity drew the corps into unfamiliar activities. In Germany, for example, CIC agents helped crack down on the black market. In most overseas commands, Cold War needs forced Counter Intelligence Corps units to engage in positive collection of intelligence. With no mechanism for gathering human intelligence at its disposal outside of the attache system, the Army was forced to misapply its counterintelligence assets to fill the void. NOTE: For Army lineage purposes, the distinction between TOE and TD units lies in the fact that TOE units are permanently placed on Army rolls and are activated and inactivated as needed, whereas TD units are organized on a one-time basis for a particular mission and are not perpetuated after discontinuance. A typical example of a TOE unit would be an infantry battalion, while a typical TD unit would be an Army garrison. Because of the peculiar demands of intelligence work, many intelligence personnel have historically served in TD (later TDA, or table of distribution and allowances) units. |
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(Source: INSCOM Journal, Spring 2001) |
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| 18th Military Intelligence Battalion | ||||||||||||||||
 18th Military Intelligence Bn DI |
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| 1983 | ||||||||||||||||
(Source: INSCOM Journal, August 1983) |
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The 18th MI Battalion traces its history back to the closing days of WWII. In the spring of 1945, the U.S. Army took control of DULAG LUFT, just outside of FRANKFURT (OBERURSEL). During the war, this camp was used as a German Interrogation Center for captured Allied Air Force personnel. The Collection and Interrogation Battalion (C&I Bn), one of several units assigned to the camp, was tasked with its first post-war mission: debriefing major German war criminals prior to their trials at NÜRNBERG. Later, the C&I Bn was tasked with debriefing German POW's returning from captivity in the Soviet Union. In Mar 1966, the unit was redes the 18th MI Battlion. Two years later it was reassigned to the 66th MI Gp and shortly thereafter relocated from OBERURSEL to MUNICH. |
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| Newspaper articles | ||||||||||||||||
| (Source: Military Intelligence, April-June 1983) | ||||||||||||||||
| The History
of the 66th Military Intelligence Group By Mr. Danny Johnson Danny Johnson is a Reserve captain and is a manpower specialist with the Directorate of Intelligence Resources Management, OACSI at the Pentagon. |
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| The 66th Military
Intelligence Group began its history on July 1, 1944, when it was
activated at Camp Rucker, Ala. as the 66th Counter Intelligence Corps
Detachment. The 66th CIC Detachment was attached to the 66th Infantry
Division and assigned to IX Corps. The 66th was relieved from assignment
to IX Corps and assigned to XXIII Corps in September 1944. The 66th CIC Detachment did not remain long at Camp Rucker. On Nov. 23, 1944, the unit departed for the New York Port of Embarkation at Camp Shanks, New York for overseas shipment. The unit shipped out for England aboard the "Brittanic" arriving in Southampton on Dec. 12, 1944. After a short period of training, the 66th CIC Detachment arrived in France on Dec. 27, 1944. Once in France, the 66th Infantry Division came under the control of the 12th Army Group. The mission of the 66th Infantry Division was to contain the enemy near the St. Nazaire and Lorient pockets. Refugees in these areas needed thorough screening, and food and shelter. The 66th CIC Detachment served in France and Germany until the end of hostilities. After a brief tour of occupation duty the unit departed for Marseilles, France in June 1945. The 66th Infantry Division was assigned the task of guarding the staging areas while troops returned to the United States. Finally, the 66th CIC Detachment departed France aboard the "USS Exchange" for the United States on Oct. 30, 1945. The unit arrived at the NYPE on Nov. 10, 1945 and was inactivated at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey two days later. The 66th GIG Detachment is credited with participation in the Northern France campaign during World War II. The 66th CIC Detachment was reactivated in Stuttgart, Germany, on Nov. 10, 1949, and assigned to U.S. Army, Europe. The 7970th CIC Group was discontinued and the 66th CIC assumed its functions and personnel. Upon activation, the mission of the 66th was to perform counterintelligence for the Commander-in-Chief, European Command. The organization was divided into 12 Regions. |
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| The 66th CIC
Detachment was reorganized and redesignated in December 1952 as the
66th Counter Intelligence Corps Group and remained assigned to U.S.
Army, Europe. By July 1953, the 12 Regions had-been reduced to seven.
In December 1955, the 66th Group was temporarily designated as the 7945th USAREUR Liaison Group which later became the U.S. Army Liaison Group Europe which was deactivated in January 1960. The 66th Group was never really redesignated. In May 1956, the 66th Group was further reduced from 7 Regions to 4. In January 1958, the 4 Regions became Detachments A, B, C, and D. In November 1959, USAREUR divided the counterintelligence and field operations intelligence/area intelligence missions on a geographical basis between the 66th Group and the 513th MI Group. The 513th Group had the area of northern Germany including Berlin and the 66th had the southern area of Germany. In January 1960, the 66th reorganized and redesignated as the 66th Military Intelligence Group. In July 1961, the 66th MI Group was redesignated the 66th Intelligence Corps Group. The 66th was again designated the 66th Military Intelligence Group which remained assigned to U.S. Army, Europe and Seventh Army. Due to reorganizations and consolidation of intelligence resources in Europe, the 66th was relocated from Stuttgart to Munich in September 1968. Between 1968 and 1969, the 66th took over the personnel and missions from the 513th MI Group. The formal inactivation of the 513th took place on June 25, 1969 at Munich. The 66th took over the facilities formerly held by the 513th in Munich. The 66th MI Group was relieved from assignment to U.S. Army, Europe and Seventh Army and was assigned to U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command in February 1977, as part of a worldwide reorganization of Army Intelligence resources. Headquarters, 66th MI Group is currently located on McGraw Kaserne in Munich. Elements of the 66th MI Group are located in 63 cities in eight European countries. Units assigned to the 66th MI Group include the 18th Military Intelligence Battalion also located in Munich. The 511th Military Intelligence Battalion is located in Nuremberg with elements in Northern Bavaria and Baden Wuerttemberg. The 527th Military Intelligence Battalion is headquartered in Kaiserslautern. Detachment D, 66th MI Group is stationed at Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy. The 165th MI Battalion is located near Frankfurt. The 766th MI Detachment is located in West Berlin. The 502d Intelligence and Security Battalion is located on Flak Kaserne in northwest Augsburg. |
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| (Source:
Military Intelligence, July-September 1983) In a letter to the editor of Military Intelligence, a reader added the following information to the above history. |
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| The article "History
of the 66th MI Group" in the April-June issue of Military
Intelligence is essentially correct in the main points despite
some small errors and ommissions. The final regional structure of
the 66th MI Group consisted of five, not four, regions (I, III, IV,
XI and XII). Region XII relocated from Augsburg to Kaiserslautern following the Peace Treaty and assumed responsibility for Rheinland-Pfalz (formerly a part of the French Occupational Zone). The five regions were subsequently re-designated Field Stations (with the same numbers) until July 1962 when they became, respectively, the 6th, 165th, 503rd, 511th and 527th MI Companies. Later transfer of the 6th MI Company to Fort Meade, Md., and inactivation of the 503rd MI Company left the three that today carry "battalion" designations. Another present group unit which historically descends from the old region structure is the 766th MI Detachment. In the early 1950s, Region IX (Bremen) relocated to Orleans, France, and assumed support for Headquarters USAREUR COM-Z. Its former AOR was absorbed by Region X (Bad Wildungen). Region IX was later redesignated the 766th CIC (later MI) Detachment and returned to Germany when USAREUR COM-Z was disestablished in 1966. The many reorganizations, administrative designations and changes of operational control (and missions) of the 66th MI Group have been far too numerous for any brief history, but they have resulted from, or in, many lessons learned (and sometimes re-learned) over the long years. A full operational history would fill a very large book that would be very instructional for those in the HUMINT field. I appreciate the article and would like to see future articles on the other groups and battalions, including illustrations of their insignia. |
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