The Brazilian Expeditionary Force or BEF () was a force of about 25,344 men. They were organized as a division of the US Fifth Army. They were delayed in getting started by difficulties in getting organized. Some in Brazil thought the government was not that anxious to send troops into battle. A popular saying at the time was that it was more likely for "snakes to smoke" () than to get the BEF going. It is the same as the saying "When pigs fly", meaning it will probably never happen. When the BEF did enter the war, they proudly wore their arm patch showing a cobra with a pipe in its mouth. They called themselves the "Smoking Cobras". 