Currently a unit in the 31st CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) Brigade, Alabama Army National Guard, the 131st Chemical Battalion began its service life when it was organized and Federally recognized as Company C, 151st Engineer Battalion in the Alabama Army National Guard on 16 January 1947. Ordered into active Federal service on 14 August 1950, the Company would fight in seven Korean War campaigns and earn a Republic of Korean Presidential Unit Citation before it was reorganized and redesignated 1 October 1953 as Headquarters and Service Company, 151st Engineer Battalion.
It would continue to serve in the Corps of Engineers until the end of the millennium, but from September 1993 until September 2000 its numerical designation was 1343rd Engineer Battalion, starting as a HQ Company Detachment and then a HQ and HQ Company. On 1 September 2000 it was converted and redesignated as HQ and HQ Detachment, 151st Chemical Battalion.
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The 151st Chemical Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia—more commonly referred to as a unit crest or DUI—was originally approved for the 127th Engineer Battalion (Mounted) on 27 April 1926. It was redesignated for the 151st Engineer Regiment on 28 1942 and for the 151st Engineer Battalion on 20 September 1944. It would also be redesignated for the 151st Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Army) on 7 June 1954 and for the 151st Chemical Battalion, Alabama Army National Guard on 1 August 2002.
A scarlet shield pays tribute to the organization’s decades of service in the Corps of Engineers. The charges (images) on the shield—a grapevine countercharged over a white wavy bend, symbolizing a grapevine across a river—are inspired by local folklore regarding Confederate Cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his pursuit and capture of Union Cavalry commander Abel D. Streight. Legend has it that when Streight burned a bridge near Gaylesville, Alabama in order to slow Forrests’ forces, the Confederate Cavalry wizard used ropes and grapevines to pull cannons and empty caissons across a river and eventually bag Streight and his troops.
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 (ASU, Enlisted only) with the base of the insignia toward the outside shoulder seam. 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.Armchair Colonels will of course recognize the phrase “Get There First” as a grammatically correct rendering of part of General Forrest’s homespun advice to military commanders, to wit, “git thar fustest with the moistest,” now often recast as "Getting there firstest with the moistest.” What Forrest
really said, as a response to a woman who queried him on the reasons for his success as a military commander, was “Ma'am, I got there first with the most men.” As famed historian Bruce Catton observed regarding Forrest’s explanation, “Do not, under any circumstances whatever, quote Forrest as saying ‘fustest’ and ‘mostest.’ He did not say it that way, and nobody who knows anything about him imagines that he did.”