Imperial Brigade by Marc Wolfe
For over twenty years the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade has provided the United States, her allies, and coalition partners with air and missile defense protection. From their home at Fort Bliss, Texas, the Brigade’s “Imperial Soldiers” have deployed globally to protect America’s interests in every major conflict.
This print honors the Soldiers, both past and present, who fought with and supported the “IMPERIAL” Brigade. The four primary weapons systems depicted in the corners: the Patriot launcher, the Avenger, the C-RAM land phalanx weapon system and the new Terminal High Altitude Area Defense launcher represent the lethal firepower resident in this brigade. The background represents the star topped Franklin Mountains of El Paso, Texas, our home, and the snow-capped mountains of Afghanistan, our most distant and barren deployment location. The center of the print features the 11th ADA Brigade Patch: the scarlet and gold colors symbolize the air defense branch, while the two intercepting arrows depict a successful surface-to-air engagement of a threat target. Together, the colliding arrows also form an “X” and an “I” representing the Roman numeral “11.”
The foreground represents the Soldiers who proudly wore the patch, air defenders and support Soldiers alike, in countless deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Republic of South Korea. The far left Soldiers in the original desert combat uniform, “The Chocolate Chip”, and Woodland Battle Dress Uniform “BDU” represent those who deployed during Operations Desert Shield-Desert Storm and to Korea in the early 1990’s. The Soldiers in the center and right wearing the tri-color Desert Camouflage Uniform “DCU” and the Army Combat Uniform “ACU” represent those who deployed in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
The twenty year period from 1990-2010 marks an era of near continuous deployments and combat operations for the Brigade and distinguishes this great unit as one of our Army’s best. As we continue to serve an Army engaged in a prolonged conflict, the Soldiers of the 11th ADA “Imperial” Brigade will remain deployed and ready to execute any mission required to protect our nation and our way of life.
The sun never sets on the 11th ADA “Imperial” Brigade.