The 81st Armor Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia, referred to as a unit crest or DUI, is rich in imagery celebrating the Regiment’s service in World War II and its commitment to achieving the highest levels of performance. Gold is used throughout the shield and on the scroll containing the unit motto SUPERO OMNIA (“To Surpass All”) to indicate the unit’s affiliation with the Armor branch. A pair of fleurs-de-lis in the upper portion denote the unit’s participation in two World War II campaigns, Normandy and Northern France, while the green chevron (green was once the unofficial Armor color) invokes the battles of the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes-Alsace Campaign.
The key in the lower portion of the shield is an allusion to its frequent use in the coats of arms of town in the Rheinprovinz (the province where the Rhine River was crossed and the Siegfried line was broken) and thus symbolizes the Rhineland campaign—the “Key to Victory” in the European Theater. A Battle-axe is a traditional Teutonic weapon frequently used as a heraldic charge in the Medieval period; here it represents the Central Europe campaign.
This insignias was first approved for the 81st Medium Tank Battalion on 18 April 1953. It redesignated for the 81st Armor Regiment on 31 January 1962.
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The 81st Armor Regiment was activated on 1 October 1941 at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Redesignated the 81st Tank Battalion in 1943, the unit deployed to Europe in July 1944, in time to take part in the Normandy campaign that began on D-Day as well as the Northern France campaign. The Regiment’s 2nd Battalion, designated as Company B, 81st Armor at the time, liberated Luxembourg City before entering Hurtgen Forest and eventually breaching the Siegfried Line and then crossing the Rhine River.
Following a brief inactivation at the end of the war, the Regiment was activated and assigned to the 5th Armored Division from 1948 to 1956. In 1962, three units—the 81st and 94th Tank Battalions and the 505th Replacement Company—were consolidated, reorganized, and redesignated as the 81st Armor in the Combat Arms Regimental System, with its 1st and 2nd Battalions assigned to the 1st Armored Division.
Today, the 81st Armor Regiment is organized under the U.S. Army Regimental System. Two of its Battalions, the 1st and 3rd, are stationed at Fort Moore (formerly named Fort Benning) in Georgia, home of the Maneuver Center of Excellence; the 3rd was named a Provost Battalion (the Army’s first) in 2014, while the 1st Battalion performs One Station Unit Training in a variety of Armor-related Military Occupation Specialties (MOS). The 3rd Battalion, based at Fort Knox in Kentucky, is tasked with One Station Unit Training for Soldiers in the 19K – Tanker MOS.