Commonly called a unit crest or DUI for short, the 125th Field Artillery Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia features a shield whose chief (top third) is red for Artillery and whose bottom is blue to denote the organization’s origins in the Infantry branch. Wartime service in France as a Field Artillery regiment is denoted by the fleur-de-lis in the red chief. The three charges in the bottom are a sheathed Roman sword for service as Infantry in the War With Spain, an Indian quiver with arrows for the Leach Lake Indian uprising, and a prickly pear cactus for service along the Mexican border. Not seen on the insignia is the unit motto ("Faithful"). This design was originally approved on 18 May 1929.
Distinctive Unit Insignias are 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 (ASU, 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.Full 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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Today’s 125th Field Artillery Regiment—consisting only of the 1st Battalion, assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division—was originally organized as the 3rd Infantry Regiment in the Minnesota Reserve National Guard on 15 April 1887 (its official Special Designation is "Third Minnesota"). It was reorganized and redesignated as the 14th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry upon being mustered into Federal service for the War With Spain on 4 May 1898 and was mustered out in November 1898. It was reorganized in 1900 in the Minnesota National Guard as the 3rd Infantry and still had that designation when it was mustered into Federal service on 30 June 1916 to perform Mexican border service; it was mustered out of Federal service on 19 December 1916.
The unit would be given its current designation of 125th Field Artillery when it was converted from Infantry to Artillery on 1 October 1917. Assigned to the 34th Division for the first of many times, the unit was awarded an uninscribed World War I streamer for contributing replacement troops for units that had suffered casualties on the front lines.
The Regiment would be drafted into service during World War II, but would be broken up when its HQ was disbanded on 1 February 1942 and the 1st Battalion transformed into the 125th Field Artillery Battalion, an element of the 34th Infantry Division; the rest of the Regiment began new lineages from this point onward. Before the unit was restored to Regiment status in 1959, it would earn credit for participating in six campaigns in the European-Africa-Middle Eastern Theater, from Tunisia to the Po Valley in Italy, and earn a French Croix de Guerre. (Two batteries of the current 1st Battalion, B and C, were individually credited with two additional campaigns, Rhineland and Central Europe.)
After World War II, the 125th Field Artillery Battalion underwent three organizational changes common to almost all units that eventually wound up as Field Artillery Regiments. First, it became a parent regiment, the 125th Artillery, in the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS). Second, it was redesignated from 125th Artillery to 125th Field Artillery in 1972. Lastly, it was withdrawn from CARS in November 1988 and reorganized under the U.S. Army Regimental System, with 1992 seeing it reorganized to consist of the 1st Battalion (1-125th Field Artillery Regiment), an element of the 34th Infantry Division. As of Summer 2023, the 1-125th Field Artillery Regiment is assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division.