Frequently referred to as a unit crest, the Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI) of the 579th Engineer Battalion was originally approved for wear on 20 January 1954. It was subsequently amended to correct the description on 30 August 1954.
A shield partitioned into scarlet and white portions denotes the Battalion’s status as part of the Corps of Engineers. The blue pile (point-down triangle) is an allusion to the Battalion’s descent from an Infantry Regiment (Blue is the Infantry color).
Bookending the pile are a shovel and a bayonet, and allusion to the dual aspects of construction and combat that make up the Engineers’ task. In the pile is a Pacific Right Whale, a symbol of the campaign honors the Battalion earned for service in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during the Second World War. SEMPER LABORANTES, the unit motto, is Latin for “Always Working.”
For guidance on the wear of the DUI, please refer to DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia" and 21–3(d) and (e),
"Beret" and
"Garrison Cap."
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The 579th Engineer Battalion was originally organized and Federally recognized on 6 May 1929 in the California National Guard at Santa Rosa as Company K, 184th Infantry, an element of the 40th Division. It was inducted into Federal service on 3 March 1941 at Santa Rosa (184th Infantry relieved in June 1942 from assignment to the 40th Division; assigned 23 August 1943 to the 7th Infantry Division) and inactivated in Korea on 20 January after taking part in our Asiatic-Pacific campaigns.
On 5 August 1946, it was expanded and redesignated as the 579th Engineer Battalion and assigned to the 49th Infantry Division, an assignment that would end on January 1968. Currently, the 579th Engineer Battalion remains a California Army National Guard unit and is assigned to the 49th Military Police Brigade.
In 2005, the Battalion was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While assigned or attached to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, the Battalion and other units assigned to the Brigade displayed extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy during Operation Founding Fathers, which was being carried out to ensure the first-ever free and democratic national election in Nineveh Province, Iraq. For its service between 5 January 2005 to 15 February 2005, the Battalion was issued a Valorous Unit Award on 10 December 2009.