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 (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.
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.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The 1st Signal Group was originally constituted as the 1st Signal Service Group and was activated at Camp Crowder, Missouri on 1 February 1946; it received its designation as HHD, 1st Signal Group less than two weeks later. A period intermittent activations followed for the fourteen years, but after being activated on 1 May 1960 in France, the Group remained in active service until it was inactivated and its colors cased for the final time on 15 September 1979 at Fort Hood, the day before the 3rd Signal Brigade was stood up at the same location. (Fort Hood was renamed Fort Cavazos in May 2023.)
The 1st Signal Group Distinctive Unit Insignia incorporates the unit motto “Expectations Exceeded” on a scroll that forms the base of the insignia. Orange and white, the colors of the Signal Corps, are used extensively in the design, while a pair of white lightning flashes are cleverly used to not only connote the speed of Signal operations, but also to form the outline of a single evergreen tree. The tree is an allusion to the western hemlock, the state tree of Washington, which recalls the unit’s former station at Fort Lewis.