While the black beret is the standard headgear worn with the blue Army Service/Dress Uniform (ASU), Solders serving in Airborne, Ranger, or Special Forces units or Special Force Assistance Command/Brigades are authorized to wear the maroon, tan, green, and brown berets respectively in its place. Flashes, officially referred to as organizational flashes, are worn centered on the stiffener of these colored berets; Solider not serving in one of these organizations wear the standard Department of the Army flash. Officers wear their non-subdued insignia of grade centered on the flash, while NCOs and Junior Enlisted personnel wear the Distinctive Unit Insignia/Regimental Distinctive Insignia.
Ovals, or background trimming, are worn only by Soldiers who are authorized to wear a Parachutist or Air Assault Badge, which are worn on the Service Coat of the AGSU, the blue ASU, the Service Uniform shirt, or the blue or green Army Maternity Tunic. Badges are centered on the oval, with the star or wreath-and-star “crests” of the Parachutist Badge projecting slightly above the oval.
Currently assigned to the 20th Engineer Brigade, XVIII Corps, the 27th Engineer Battalion was originally constituted on 16 January in the National Army as the 2nd Battalion, 37th Engineer Regiment. Its battle honors (credited campaigns) include two each from the World Wars, and thirteen in Vietnam. Military decorations from those periods of service include a Presidential Unit Citation for the successful siege of Myitkyina in Burman (now Myanmar) in World War II; five Meritorious Unit Commendations from Vietnam between 1966 and 1971, as well as two Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medals, First Class.
More recently, the Battalion was named a recipient of a Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC) for its service in support of Operation Enduring Freedom between December 2009 and December 2010. (Note: the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) Lineage and Honors page for the Battalion credits the unit with two additional MUCS, but these cannot be found on the searchable CMH The War on Terrorism: Unit Award Orders & Citations Web page.)
OMNES RES BENE FACERE, Latin for “To Do All Things Well,” is the Battalion motto.