The 323rd Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI), or unit crest, was first approved for the 323rd Infantry Regiment on 19 September 1925 and was redesignated for the 323rd Regiment on 5 August 1960. A lynx head in the center of the shield recalls the Regiment’s service as part of the 81st Division (the Division’s nickname is “Wildcats”), while the Lorraine Cross behind it commemorates service in France during World War I (see below). “Le Bon Vouloir Servir Le Pays,” the unit motto, is French for “The Good Will To Serve The Country.”
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. For Enlisted personnel, the insignia is centered on a shoulder loop by placing it an equal distance from the outside shoulder seam to the outside edge of the shoulder-loop button. Officers (except Generals) wearing grade insignia on the shoulder loops center the DUI by placing it an equal distance between the inside edge of the grade insignia and the outside edge of the button.
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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The history of the 323rd Regiment can be divided into three parts. The first begins when the Regiment was originally constituted in the National Army as the 323rd Infantry Division on 5 August 1917 and was assigned to the 81st Division, which would serve as the Regiment’s parent organization (except during brief periods of inactivation) until the Regiment was reassigned to the 108th Division in 1952.
In World War I, the Regiment made up half of the 81st Division’s 162nd Infantry Brigade and saw combat in France in the Meuse-Argonne and Lorraine 1918 campaigns. It would see combat again while assigned to the 81st Division—now designated as the 81st Infantry Division—during World War II, where it would take part in the Western Pacific and Leyte Campaigns and earn a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.
Inactivated from January to November of 1946, the Regiment was reactivated in the Organized Reserves (later called the Organized Reserve Corps and finally the Army Reserve in 1952) with its HQ at Clemson, South Carolina. Its longtime association with the 81st Division ended in March 1952 when it was reassigned to the 108th Division, and the second leg of its service history began in earnest in 1959 when the Regiment was reorganized and redesignated as the 323rd Regiment, an element of the 108th Division (Training), and tasked with training new recruits.
For almost the next fifty years, it would be organized so that either it or its Battalions were an element of the 108th Division. In October 2007, it was relieved from assignment to the 108th Division—in a way. The 108th Division had become the 108th Training Command, and though the 323rd's Battalions were no longer Divisional elements, they were assigned to Training Divisions, such as the 78th and 98th, that were under the control of the 108th Training Command. In July 2017, the 1st Battalion, 323rd Regiment, assigned to the 98th Training Division, was inactivated, leaving the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Battalions.
At the start of Spring 2022, the 2nd Battalion, 323rd Regiment is headquartered in Lumberton, NC and assigned to the 78th Training Division, 84th Training Command, while the 3rd and 4th Battalions are both assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 98th Training Division.