The 61st Quartermaster Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI), a device more commonly referred to as a unit crest, was first approved for the 14th Quartermaster Battalion on 22 May 1962. It was redesignated for the 14th Supply & Service Battalion on 24 November 1965 and was given its current designation, along with revised symbolism and updated description, on 16 October 2015.
A shield with a buff background indicates that the unit’s status as a Quartermaster Corps organization, and its division into two sections reflects the dual functions of supply and support. Fourteen gold boxes are a reference to direct support through supplies and services and also point to the organization’s numerical designation at the time the insignia was designed and first approved. A pair of fleurs-de-lis memorialize the Battalion’s two Battle honors earned for service in Europe during World War II. “Foundation For Victory,” the Battalion motto, emphasizes the critical importance of supply and service in achieving mission goals and battlefield victories.
Also known as a unit crest or DUI, the 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. Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia."♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The 61st Quartermaster Battalion was originally constituted under that same designation on 16 December 1940, but it was given a new designation—61st Quartermaster Laundry Battalion—fifteen months later, which somehow managed to still be a half-month before it was even activated on 15 April 1942. The new unit’s HQ and HQ Detachment (HHD) became the HHD, 61st Quartermaster Battalion in August 1943 with its A, B, C, and D companies given numerical designations and new, separate lineages from that point forward. Before being inactivated in Germany in November 1946, the unit took part in the Northern France and Rhineland campaigns.
Over the next twenty-five or so years, the organization experienced several activations and reactivations, as well as a couple of reorganizations and redesignations, first as the 14th Quartermaster Battalion (September 1961) and then as the 14th Supply and Service Battalion (August 1965).
It was subsequently inactivated on 13 October 1972 and would remain so for almost forty-three years until it was activated on 16 October 2015 at Fort Hood, Texas as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 61st Quartermaster Battalion. Fort Hood would go on to be redesignated as Fort Cavazos in 2023.