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 (Enlisted only) with the base of the insignia toward the outside shoulder seam. Enlisted personnel center the DUI 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.
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The 46th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) was originally formed in the Regular Army as the 47th Surgical Hospital on 21 December 1948, but it was redesignated as the 47th Portable Surgical Hospital before deployment to the China-Burmese theater in support of American and British soldiers and activated 7 June 1943. It would earn credit for the China Defensive and China Offensive campaigns before inactivation on 3 November 1945.
Redesignated as the 47th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) on 24 November 1952, the unit would be activated at the start of February 1952 in Korea and deployed to support U.N. forces defending the Republic of Korea, where it earned a Meritorious Unit Commendation while redesignated as the 47th Surgical Hospital (March 1953). It remained in Korea as part of a peacekeeping force until 1957, when it began a eleven-year period of inactivation that ended with its reactivation at its current home of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. In May 1973, it was given its current designation of 47th Combat Support Hospital.
The 47th Combat Support Hospital was deployed in support of First Gulf War, participating in all three campaigns and earning another Meritorious Unit Commendation. During the War on Terrorism, the Hospital has been on three tours (2003, 2005, 2010), with its superior service recognized with two Meritorious Unit Commendations.
On 10 September 2021, a ceremony was held at Watkins Field on Joint Base Lewis-McChord to commemorate the redesignation of the 47th Combat Support Hospital as the 147th Field Hospital and the activation of the 29th Hospital Center
The 47th Combat Support Hospital (re-designated the unit as the 147th Field Hospital and activated the 29th Hospital Center during a ceremony at Watkins Field here, Sept. 10, 2021. It also marked the end of an era in Army Medicine: the unit was the last active CSH in the Army.