The 17th Signal Battalion was originally constituted as the 17th Signal Operations Battalion in the Army of the United States on 1 November 1942 and assigned to Headquarters, U.S. First Army. During World War II, the Battalion participated in five campaigns in the European Theater; it would mark the only occasion in which the entire Battalion would earn campaign participation credit. Following the war, the Battalion would be redesignated as the 17th Signal Battalion in 1953 and subsequently inactivated in 1965.
More than fifteen years would pass before the Battalion was activated again on 16 March 1981 in Germany, where it provided Command and Control communications to U.S. V Corps. Although the Battalion deployed in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, only C Company would receive official credit for participating in any of the Southwest Asia campaigns (it took part in all three). The Battalion was inactivated on 17 August 2006.
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The 17th Signal Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia, sometimes called a “unit crest” or DUI for short, features two telephone/telegraph poles bookending a radio tower with five lightning flashes around it that represent both the function of the organization and the number of battle honors. FONS COMMUNICATIONES, the Battalion motto, translates into English as “Fountain Of Communications.”
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 (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.
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.