The 58th Signal Battalion was inactivated in October 2012 as part of the United States Army’s "Manning the Force" initiative, bringing eighty-five years of service to an end. Self-billed as “Team Five Eight” and with a motto of “Spirit, Speed, Strength, the unit was originally constituted on 18 October 1927 in the Regular Army as the 58th Signal Battalion and activated 10 February 1941 at Camp Peay, Texas. During World War II, the Battalion took part in the New Guinea and Luzon campaigns and was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation and a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.
Reorganized and redesignated in September 1949 as the 58th Signal Battalion, Corps for a brief period—it was inactivated on 26 June 1950 in Japan—the unit would be given its old designation of 58th Signal Battalion on 2 March 1967 and be reactivated at Fort Lewis, Washington on 26 May 1967. It was subsequently inactivated from 1 February 1980 until 16 October 1992, when it was reorganized and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 58th Signal Battalion and activated in Japan. It would spend the two decades stationed at the U.S. Army Garrison on Okinawa before its October 2012 inactivation.
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The 58th Signal Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia (also called a unit crest, or DUI) was approved on 20 October 1967, replacing an earlier version that had been approved on 26 November 1941. Two circles with wavy blue and white (silver) lines represent the two campaigns in which the Battalion took part during World War II. The silver spliced wires allude to the Battalion’s function of cable construction, with the wires crossing from black into the bright orange symbolic of the light of information made possible by communications. A pair of lightning flashes in the upper area emblems of modern Signal 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 (ASU, 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.