The 704th Maintenance Battalion’s Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI), or unit crest, is somewhat unique in that it shares an identical design with the unit crest of the 704th Support Battalion—not surprising, since the 704th Support’s lineage goes back to the 704th Maintenance.
Originally constituted as a Light Maintenance Company in July 1943 and assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, the 704th was activated on 4 August 1943 at Fort Dix in New Jersey. It was redesignated an Ordnance Maintenance Company in December 1945 before being inactivated just three months later at Camp Butner in North Carolina. Allotted to the Army and then activated in June and July 1948 respectively, it was subsequently reorganized and redesignated as HQ and HQ Detachment, 704th Ordnance Battalion in 1953.
A decade later it was again reorganized and redesignated, this time as the 704th Maintenance Battalion, a title it held until its inactivation at Fort Carson, Colorado in April 1985. It received its current designation as the result of conversion to an entirely new branch and redesignation as the 704th Support Battalion and again made an element of the 4th Infantry Division. In 2004, it was relieved from assignment to the 4th Infantry Division and was assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, itself an element of the 4th Infantry Division.
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Also known as a unit crest or DUI, the 704th Maintenance Battalion’s Distinctive Unit Insignia first approved in July 1954 was the unit was designated as an Ordnance Battalion; the motto “Skilled And Steadfast” was approved and added that October. The unit crest was redesignated for the 704th Maintenance Battalion in November 1963 and updated in 1972, then finally was redesignated for the 704th Support Battalion with the description of the symbolism revised on 2 June 1987.
In the insignia, the five strange devices surrounding the lion are fireballs, a centuries-old ordnance device; they represent the Battalion’s participation in five World War II Campaigns. The lion rampant is drawn from Belgium’s Coat of Arms and is symbolic of the Battalion’s service in that region.
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. Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia."