U.S. ARMY AIR DEFENSE ARTILLERY CENTER AND SCHOOL UNIT CREST (DUI)

Also known as a unit crest or DUI, a Distinctive Unit Insignia is 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. Current regulations do not permit the DUI to be worn on the Dress variations of either uniform, however.

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.

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The U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School traces its origins to the establishment of the Antiaircraft Training Center in 1940 at Fort Bliss, Texas. In July 1946, the War Department formally established the Army Air Defense Center, comprising the U.S. Army Air Defense School, Army Training Center Antiaircraft Artillery, Guided Missile Brigade, Antiaircraft Artillery Group, Army Air Defense Board, and the Offices of Special Weapons Development. That same year, the Army established the headquarters for the Antiaircraft Artillery and Guided Missile Center AAGMC, and a decade later it was repositioned as the U.S. Army Air Defense School.

Almost another decade would elapse before the School was given a Distinctive Unit Insignia (the U.S. Army Air Defense School DUI was approved on 4 May 1965). On 19 June 1981, wear of the unit crest was authorized for personnel assigned to the U.S. Army Air Defense Center; the insignia was redesignated for the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery school on 1 January 1983.

The insignia consists of two design components, an escutcheon (the name for shield used in heraldry) and an attached scroll with the organization’s motto, “Militant,” inscribed upon it. Imagery and colors on the escutcheon is designed to symbolize the coordinate activity of the different elements and aspect of Antiaircraft Artillery. A red base denotes the organization’s inclusion in the Artillery branch; thunderbolts symbolized the use of electrical power; a white (silver) triangle rising upward from the conjunction of the lightning bolts into a blue field suggests a searchlight piercing the a blue nighttime sky.

But some of the symbols have dual meanings. Besides suggesting a searchlight, for instance, the white shaft of light also is an illustration of truth through knowledge piercing the darkness of ignorance, and the blue sky is a symbol of the limitless regions of the upper atmosphere that is the domain of Antiaircraft Artillery in the 21st century. The winged ordnance speeding upward also represents the spirit of the Air Defense Artillery School, indomitable as it rises to new heights of achievement.

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U.S. ARMY AIR DEFENSE ARTILLERY CENTER AND SCHOOL UNIT CREST (DUI)