The 87th Infantry Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia, also called a unit crest or DUI, was originally approved for the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment on 21 October 1942 and was redesignated for the 87th Infantry Regiment on 13 December 1948. An amendment to correct an error in the translation of the motto and update the description was made on 26 February 2016.
A snow-peaked mountain on the insignia represents both the region where the Regiment first received its highly specialized training as well as the normal domain Mountain troops. The crossed ice-axe and ski pole are items commonly used by Mountain troops, and the horseshoe beneath them is an emblem of the pack element once used by the organization; the 87th’s status as the first organization to receive this specialized training is denoted by the inclusion of a single red horseshoe. VIRES MONTESQUE VINCIMUS is Latin for “We Conquer Powers And Mountains."
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 87th Infantry Regiment was originally constituted in the Army of the United States as the 87th Infantry Mountain Regiment, but apparently the word arrangement was confusing because it was redesignated on 12 May 1942 by swapping the words “Infantry” and “Mountain” to come up with the 87th Mountain Infantry. It was activated (minus the 1st Battalion) on 25 May 1942, and under this designation took part in the Aleutians Campaign that summer. Reorganized and redesignated as the 87th Infantry in February 1944, the Regiment was assigned to the 10th Light Division; in November it would become the 87th Mountain Infantry once again as the 10th Light Division was redesignated 10th Mountain Division. It would fight in the Northern Apennines and Po Valley campaigns before returning to the U.S. and inactivating in November 1945.
Relieved from assignment to the 10th Mountain Division and reorganized as a parent regiment (the 87th Infantry) in the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS), the Regiment’s units would see combat in fourteen of the Vietnam War’s seventeen campaigns and receive four Meritorious Unit Commendations for exceptional service; it would also take part in Operation Just Cause s in Panama. Withdrawn from CARS in 1988 and reorganized under the U.S. Army Regimental System, the Regiment was deployed to Somalia in 1992 for Operation Restore Hope, followed by the 1st Battalion being deployed to Haiti for Operation Uphold Democracy.
Units from the Regiment have fought in the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq on numerous occasions, with the Regiment as a whole being credited with three Valorous Unit Awards and four Meritorious Unit Commendations, totals that do not include awards to a single Battalion or Company within a Battalion, such as the 2nd Battalion’s Meritorious Unit Commendation for service between 2013 and 2014.
As of 2019, the Regiment’s two active battalions, the 1st and 2nd, are assigned to the 1st and 2nd Brigade Combat Teams respectively of the 10th Mountain Division.