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 (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.
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The 13th Engineer Battalion’s lineage officially begins with the redesignation of the 3rd Engineers as the 13th Engineer Railroad Regiment on 13 July 1917. Arriving in France within two weeks of that date, the Battalion took part in the Meuse-Argonne campaign the next year and received its first campaign streamer in recognition of its service; it was deactivated the following month.
In 1921, the 13th Engineer General service regiment was created from the core of the 5th Engineers, and for 15 years would serve at the Engineer School in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. During World War II, the unit served in the South Pacific and took part I four campaigns (Aleutian Islands, Eastern Mandates, Leyte, Ryukyus), and in the Korean War the Battalion’s quick deployment from Japan (where it was serving occupation duty) meant it would end up fighting in all ten of that conflict’s named campaigns. The Battalion’s last combat service came during Operation Just Cause, the 1989 invasion of Panama. Less than five years later, the Battalion was inactivated at Ford Ord, California in April 1994, having famously lived up to is motto of “Service And Fidelity.”
The unit’s descent from the 5th Engineers can be seen in the canton in the upper left of the 13th Engineer Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia—it is the crest of that Regiment’s coat of arms with the colors reversed. Inside the canton is a five-bastioned fort, a reference to the 5th Engineers and the Santiago campaign during the War With Spain. Inside the fort is a crescent moon, an allusion to the Moro rebellion during the Philippine Insurrection. The green in the lower half of denotes the Battalion’s service as a school Regiment in Virginia.