Also known as a unit crest or DUI, a Distinctive Unit Insignia is worn by all Soldiers (except General Officers) in units that have been authorized to be issued the device.
It is worn centered on the shoulder loops of the Army Green Service Uniform (AGSU) and the blue Army Service Uniform (Enlisted only) with the base of the insignia toward the outside shoulder seam. DUIs are not worn on the Dress variations of either uniform, however.
Enlisted personnel wear the insignia centered on a shoulder loop by placing it an equal distance from the outside shoulder seam to the outside edge of the shoulder-loop button. Officers (except Generals) wearing grade insignia on the shoulder loops center the DUI by placing it an equal distance between the inside edge of the grade insignia and the outside edge of the button.
More guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1, Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia" and 21–3(d) and (e), "Beret" and "Garrison Cap," respectively.
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The 397th Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI) was originally approved for the 397th Infantry Regiment on 3 June 1932. It subsequently underwent several redsignations, first for the 397th Parachute Infantry Regiment (December 1948), then the 397th Infantry Regiment, again (August 1952). A typo or grammatical error meant the 1952 designation had to be amended, which it was on 17 March 1954. It was redesignated only once more, on 23 August 1960, for the 397th Regiment, but this change had to be amended twice—first to add a motto and revise the symbolism on 30 December 1969 and then on 3 April 1970 to correct the symbolism.
A blue shield reflects the unit’s origins as an Infantry organization (blue has been the Infantry color since 1903), while the black used for the stylized mountain alludes to the coal region of West Virginia between the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers (symbolized by the wavy bars above and below the mountaintops) where the Regiment originally organized. Besides serving as mountain tops, the three points of the dancette also stand for the three campaigns in which units in the organization’s lineage served in during Word War II.
“Death Before Dishonor” is the Battalion motto.