The Distinctive Unit Insignia (also called a DUI or a unit crest) of the 201st Support Battalion was originally approved for wear by the 8th Medical Regiment on 2 March 1934. It was redesignated for the 8th Medcal Battalion on 28 November 1939, then redesignated yet again for the 1st Medical Battalion on 6 August 1940. It remained unchanged following that flurry of activity for nearly 30 years, and even when it was modified on 16 June 1967 it was simply to add the motto IM OMNIA PROMPTUS, which translates into English as “Ready For Everything.” Another twenty years would elapse before it was altered yet again, this time on 5 June 1987 to amend the description and symbolism so it would apply to the 201st Support Battalion, the latest unit to wear the design.
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The 201st Support Battalion, also known as the 201st Brigade Support Battalion while assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division (2010 to mid-2014), was originally constituted on 17 December 1917 in the Regular Army as the 8th Sanitary Train and assigned to the 8th Division. Organized in January 1918, the unit was part of the 8th Division that was deployed to Siberia in August 1918 in support of the anti-Bolshevik forces in Russia and earned no World War I campaign credits before returning to America and being demobilized in February 1919.
On 2 October 1939, it was reconstituted in the Regular Army as the 8th Medical Battalion and activated three weeks later at Fort Hoyle, Maryland. It was redesignated in July 1940 as the 1st Medical Battalion and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, and it would go on to take part in eight campaigns as part of The Big Red One, earning three arrowhead devices for taking part in assault landings in Africa, Sicily, and France before the end of World War II. It was also the recipient of two French Croix de Guerre with Palm awards, a French Fourragere 1940, and a Belgian Fourragere 1940 (for its two Citations in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army).
Still serving as the 8th Medical Battalion, it would remain a part of the 1st Infantry Division when it was deployed to Vietnam. The Battalion took part in eleven of the conflict’s named campaigns, earning three Meritorious Unit Commendations, a Republic of Vietnam (ROV) Cross of Gallantry with Palm, and an ROV Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class.
Inactivated 15 May 1985 at Fort Riley, Kansas, the unit was redesignated one last time on 1 May 1987 as the 201st Support Battalion, an element of the 1st Infantry Division, and activated at Fort Riley. Under this new designation, it took part in all three campaigns of the Persian Gulf War and earned another Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC). It was awarded its fifth and final MUC for its support of Operation Iraqi Freedom between 2004 and 2005.
The Battalion was subsequently assigned to the 1st Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Teamand was inactivated along with the 3rd BCT in May 2014.