The 59th Ordnance Brigade was composed of 8 battalion-sized units: 2 ordnance battalions, 5 artillery groups, and a headquarters support battalion. Consisting of more than 6,500 personnel, Brigade units were located in 35 cities and towns throughout the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands. The ordnance battalions supported U.S. units, while the artillery groups supported the NATO countries of the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands, exercising interoperability on a daily basis to accomplish the common mission. The 59th Ordnance Brigade combined two missions, the ordnance and the artillery, and performed a mission that was the backbone of the NATO alliance.
Brigade units had histories spanning 3 conflicts and 20 campaigns. Units of the Brigade also earned 35 unit decorations and 177 campaign credits. Two units hit the beach in Sicily and one was a participant in the D-Day landings in Normandy. In Korea, one company took part in the Inchon landings, and still others saw service in Vietnam.
The 59th Ordnance Brigade once served as an integral part of the United States' commitment to her NATO friends, and the Brigade was one of the major deterrent forces within the NATO alliance.
On 15 October 1992, the brigade was officially deactivated according to Headquarters, U.S. Army, Europe, and Seventh Army Permanent Orders 129-3. It officially reactivated, however, on 1 October 1994 at Redstone Arsenal,when it merged with the U.S. Army Ordnance Missile and Munitions Center and School (USAOMMCS) to become the U.S. Army Ordnance Missile and Munitions Center and School/59th Ordnance Brigade.
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