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 Distinctive Unit Insignia of the Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division was approved for wear on 3 December 2009, nearly fifty years after the unit was originally constituted in the Iowa Army National Guard as the 234th Signal Battalion and assigned to the 34th Infantry Division. Later referred to as the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 34th Infantry Division, the unit deployed to Iraq in 2003, returning home in 2004, and in 2010 it was called to service in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011. The Battalion was inactivated at a ceremony held at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in September 2016.
The two colors (red and yellow) used for the background of the shield portion of the insignia are taken from the Iowa Army National Guard, the Battalion’s parent organization, while the masoned, embattled wall is an allusion to the assimilation of the 834th Engineer Company into the Battalion.
Set upon the wall is a pair of crossed lightning flashes bisected vertically by a single-warded key. The lighting flashes point to the Battalion’s service as the 234th Signal Battalion, and the key is a reference to opening the way to improvement, an image that points to the unit motto of SEMPER AMPLIO, a Latin phrase that translates into English as Always Improve.”