The organizational flash and Airborne background trimming for the 127th Airborne Engineer Battalion were approved on 29 September 2015. Authorized for wear by all members of the Battalion regardless of any individual Airborne qualifications they might possess, the flash is worn centered on the stiffener of the maroon beret that denotes the unit’s Airborne status—a classification it was given when the Battalion was originally constituted with the exact designation it holds today back on 12 November 1942.
Officers wear their pin-on, nonsubdued insignia of rank centered on the flash, while NCOs and Junior Enlisted personnel wear the 127th Airborne Engineer Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia.
More commonly referred to as an “oval” (for obvious reasons), Airborne background trimming is only authorized for wear by Battalion personnel who have earned their Parachutist or Air Assault qualification and been awarded the corresponding badge. The main portion of the badge (i.e., excluding the star and wreath of the Senior and Master Parachutist badges) is centered on the oval, with the two items counting as a single device when determining placement and uniform badge limits.
Ovals are worn by authorized male and female personnel on the coats of the AGSU and ASU (including the Dress variant of the ASU) and the shirt of the Class B ASU (no badges are worn on the Class B AGSU), while females may wear them on either the blue or green Army Maternity Tunic. Correct placement of these badges on Service Uniforms can be tricky; full instructions are found in
paragraph 22–16 of the January 2021 edition of DA PAM 670-1, with
highly detailed instructions beginning on page 307.
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