Also called a “unit crest” or DUI, the Distinctive Unit Insignia of the 240th Military Police Battalion was originally approved on 15 June 1967 and was amended on 12 December 2008 to update the description.
A pair of pachyderms forms the focal point of the 240th Military Police Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia: as mirror images of each other, they are perfectly equal in size, weight, and physical dimensions to symbolize equal justice and fairness. Elephants are used as pack animals and for transportation in the Far East and here represent the strength and capability of the Battalion to perform its assigned mission.
The young shoots and large leaves of the palm trees between the elephants allude to the overall protection Military Police offer, with a gold star in the center serving as a reference to the Battalion’s leadership, guidance, and lofty principles embraced by the unit. The circle with wavy lines is called a “fountain” in heraldry and usually denotes overseas service or amphibious operations; here, it stands for both service abroad as well as the numerous rivers, waterways, and bodies of water in the Far East. “Peace Justice Freedom” is the Battalion motto.
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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Constituted originally with a designation—HQ and HQ Detachment, 40th Military Police Service Battalion—that’s almost identical to the one it now carries, the 40th Military Police Battalion spent its first two decades stationed in the Far East (China, Korea, Japan) or inactive (for thirteen yeas-plus beginning in March 1953).On 30 September 1966 it was redesignated as the HQ and HQ Detachment, 40th Military Police Battalion and then activated on 25 November 1966 at Fort Riley, Kansas, only to be inactivated in Thailand on 30 December 1970.
Its reactivation came concurrently with the transfer of its HQ to U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) on 16 September 1986 at Fort McClellan, Alabama, but on 31 December 1990 it was withdrawn from TRADOC and its HQ inactivated. Nearly twenty years later, the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 40th Military Police Battalion, was activated 16 October 2009 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Since that time, it has taken part in a War on Terrorism campaign (Operation New Dawn in Iraq) and earned an Army Superior Unit Award for service between 2011-2012.
Prior to its inactivation in December 2021, the Battalion was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where it was tasked with oversight of the United States Disciplinary Barracks, the only maximum-security facility for the U.S. military that houses male service personnel convicted for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Its roster of inmates is limited to commissioned Officers, enlisted personnel with sentences more than ten years in length, and prisoners who committed crimes involving national security are held here.