The 470th Transportation Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI), commonly referred to as a unit crest, was originally approved for wear on 20 April 1971. It was subsequently amended to update its description with an effective date of 16 September 2011.
Brick red and golden yellow, official branch colors for the Transportation Corps, are used almost exclusively in the design of the Battalion’s insignia. The golden, seven-spoked wheel that makes up the bulk of the insignia was suggested by the Coat of Arms of the 470th Quartermaster Truck Regiment and denotes the heritage of the unit. A wheel is also symbolic of transportation in general and roadway transportation in particular.
The bottom portion of the wheel rests behind three fleurs-de-lis that are conjoined to form the shape of a chevron, the longtime heraldic symbol for support, and commemorate the unit’s participation in the Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe campaigns during World War II. Below the fleurs-de-lis are two wavy bars, one white and one blue, that simulate water. The green hub is a depiction of a traffic-control system and is an allusion to the unit’s capabilities.
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia."
Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment (HHD), 470th Transportation Battalion was originally constituted in the Army of the United States as HHD, 1st Battalion, 470th Quartermaster Truck Regiment on 9 December 1942 and activated three weeks later. It was redesignated as HHD, 470th Quartermaster Battalion, Mobile before it deployed to Europe, where it (the HHD) fought in four campaigns before being inactivated in France on 12 November 1945.
The Battalion would be converted once, reorganized once, and redesignated three times between before being given its current designation of HHD, 470th Transportation Battalion in July 1955. At the time of its redesignation on 15 February 1949, it was also allotted to the Organized Reserve Corps; it remained a Reserve organization up until its inactivation/redesignation sometime after 2011.
The unit was never called to active military service following World War II, and its last officially listed location was in Elwood, Illinois in 2011. It is no longer listed on the U.S. Army Reserve Web site and has presumably been inactivated, redesignated, or disbanded.
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