US Army 86th Infantry Division shoulder sleeve patch with a black hawk with spread wings on a red field

Shoulder sleeve insignia of the 86th Infantry Division, United States Army, known as the Blackhawk Division. The monogrammed red shield displays a black hawk with outstretched wings and talons. The Unit, activated in 1917, adopted this insignia in honor of the Native American warrior Blackhawk. Reactivated in 1942, the Unit entered the war in March 1945. It landed in France and quickly advanced into western Germany. The 86th liberated Attendorn, a civilian forced-labor camp in the Olpe District, on April 11, 1945. The Division had crossed the Danube River, and was advancing toward Salzburg, Austria, when Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. The 86th Infantry processed German prisoners of war for the Army of Occupation until it was redeployed to the Pacific Theater of Operations in June 1945. It was inactivated in the Philippines on December 30, 1946.