More commonly referred to as a unit crest, the Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI) of the 319th Regiment was originally approved for the 319th Infantry Regiment on 10 January 1925. It was amended to correct the wording used for the description on 22 November 1929 and was subsequently redesignated for the 319th Regiment on 17 August 1969.
The blue shield and scroll denote the Regiment’s Infantry heritage and association, while the gold and black fess (horizontal bar in center of the shield) is taken from the coat of arms of Lord Baltimore, which are also the arms of Maryland, the state to which the 319th Regiment is allocated. Four fleurs-de-lis commemorate the four World War I campaigns which the 319th Infantry fought in: Somme, Meuse-Argonne, Picard, and Lorraine. VOLENS ET POTENS, the unit motto, is a Latin phrase that translates into English as “Willing And Able.”
Distinctive Unit Insignias are 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 (Enlisted only) with the base of the insignia toward the outside shoulder seam. DUIs are not worn on the Dress variations of either uniform, however.
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia."
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The 319th Regiment was originally constituted in the National Army as the 319th Infantry and assigned to the 80th Division on 5 August 1917. Assigned to the 160th Infantry Brigade, 80th Division, the Regiment fought in four campaigns (see above) before returning to the United States and demobilization in June-July 1919.
Like so many Regiments constituted in the National Army, the 319th Infantry was reconstituted in the Organized Reserves under the same designation in June 1921 and once again assigned to the 80th Division. Returning to France, it would again fight in four campaigns (Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe) before the war’s end. Inactivated in January 1946, it was redesignated as the 319th Glider Infantry, an element of the 80th Airborne Division the following July, then redesignated as the 319th Parachute Infantry in September 1946. It was activated in November 1946 in the Organized Reserves with its HQ in Baltimore, Maryland in November 1946.
It was subsequently reorganized and redesignated as the 319th Airborne Infantry from Sepember 1950 until May 1952, when it was redesignated as the 319th Infanty, again an element of the 80th Infantry Division. From 1959 until 1968, the 319th Regiment was organized as an element of the 80th Division, and from 1969 until 2007 it was organized so that its Battalions were elements of the Division. That year, it was reorganized as part of the U.S. Army Regimental System and all its Battalions relieved from assignment to the 80th Division.
As of Spring 2023, the 319th Regiment consists of a single Battalion that is assigned to the 3rd Brigade (Leadership Training), 104th Training Division, 108th Training Command United States Army Reserve.