The 167th Infantry Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia, frequently called a unit crest or a DUI, was approved 21 May 1971. Its shield is white, the color of Infantry at the time the organization was birthed in the Alabama Militia in 1836. Thirteen blue stars represent the thirteen campaigns the Regiment took part in as part of the Confederate forces during the War Between the States, and the blue is the color of Infantry since 1903.
At one time, the 167th was the 4th Alabama Infantry, an organization that served in the 42nd Division during World War I; five World War I campaigns with the Division are symbolized by five fleur-de-lis on the rainbow (the 42nd was famously nicknamed the “Rainbow Division”). A large, embattled red cross commemorates the capture of the entrenched Croix Rouge (French for “Red Cross”) Farm below Fere en Tardenois during the Soisson Offensive, 26-27 July 1918. SIGNA INFEREMUS, the unit motto, is Latin for “We Shall Drive Forward.”
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The 167th Infantry Regiment was originally organized as the Regiment of Alabama Militia in January and February 1836 and was called into service almost immediately to take part in the Seminole Indian campaign. A dozen years later, it would be called into Federal service for the Mexican War, earned the Regiment its second campaign streamer—uninscribed due to a series of reorganizations and reassignments that kept the requisite number of companies from participating in any single battle or campaign of the war.
Mustered into service in the Confederate Army in May 1861 as the 4th Regiment Alabama Infantry (basis of the Regiment’s nickname “Fourth Alabama”), the organization would fight in a total of thirteen campaigns, including the action at Appomattox Courthouse that led to its surrender along with the rest of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
As the 4th Infantry regiment, it was drafted into Federal service on 5 August 1917 and reorganized and redesignated as the 167th Infantry. It fought in six campaigns during World War I while assigned to the 42nd Division before returning stateside and being demobilized 19 May 1919. The Regiment was reorganized as the 4th Infantry, Alabama National Guard on 1 July 1919, but was redesignated as the 167th Infantry on 16 December 1921 and assigned to the 39th Division. The unit would serve as part of the 39th Division—redesignated as the 39th Infantry Division in 1942—in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during World War II, earning three campaign streamers (with Arrowhead devices for the New Guinea and Western Pacific campaigns indicating participation in an assault landing) and a Presidential Unit Citation.
The Regiment did not see action during the Korean War, and in 1959 was reorganized as a parent regiment in the Combat Arms Regimental System to consist of 1st and 2nd Battle Groups, elements of the 31st Infantry Division; in 1963 it was reorganized to consist solely of the 1st Battalion, still an element of the 31st Infantry Division.
Since the launch of the War on Terrorism, the Regiment or one or more of its component Companies has been deployed to the Middle East on three occasions: 2005, 2007, and 2012. Company C, 1st Battalion was deployed in 2007, and six years later its exceptional service as recognized with a Meritorious Unit Commendation (inscribed SOUTHWEST ASIA SEP 2007-APR 208). The 1st Battalion as a whole deployed as Task Force Centurion in support of the NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan and was subsequently honored with a Meritorious Unit Commendation for successfully providing freedom of maneuver for both NTM-A and regional command assets. As of Winter 2023, the Regiment is represented solely the 1st Battalion, which is headquartered at Talladega, Alabama.