Now worn by personnel in the 483rd Terminal Transportation Battalion, the Distinctive Unit Insignia (aka “unit crest or “DUI”) of the 483rd Transportation Battalion was first approved for the 483rd Quartermaster Battalion on 16 January 1943. It was redesignated for the 483rd Port Battalion on 3 June 1944 and subsequently given its current designation 19 September 1969.
Featuring a brick-red background hosting an Age of Sail-era ship, the 483rd Transportation Battalion unit crest incorporates three round, white plates from the coat of arms of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, to denote that this was the state where the original unit in the Battalion’s lineage was first activated. IMPERAT AEQUOR, the unit motto, is a Latin phrase that translates into English as “He Commands The Wide Sea” to express the maritime connection between the original and current organizations.
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 (ASU, Enlisted only) with the base of the insignia toward the outside shoulder seam. More 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.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The 483rd Transportation Battalion was originally constituted as HQ and HQ Detachment (HHD), 483rd Port Battalion, Transportation Corps on 31 July 1942 and activated at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation on 20 September 1942. Though it would undergo several redesignations over the coming decades, it has always retained its numerical designation of 483. It was reorganized and redesignated as HHD, 83rd Port Battalion on 24 January 1944, and in World War II it would fight in the Normandy and Northern France campaigns in Europe (it also earned an uninscribed campaign streamer from the Asiatic Pacific Theater).
Inactivated following the war, the Battalion was allotted to the Organized Reserve Corps in November 1948 (the Organized Reserve Corps because the Army Reserve in July 1952) and in 1950 its HHD was reorganized into Headquarters and Headquarters Service Company as it became the 483rd Transportation Port Battalion. A half-dozen years later it was given its current designation of HHD, 483rd Transportation Detachment; from 1972 to 2006, this was reorganized as HHC rather than HHD.
When not ordered into into active military Service, the 483rd Terminal Transportation Battalion is assigned to the 3rd Transportation Brigade, 377th Theater Sustainment Command, United States Army Reserve. It is stationed in Vallejo, California.