Commonly called a unit crest or DUI for short, the Distinctive Unit Insignia of the 274th Regiment approved originally for the 274th Infantry Regiment on 7 November 1955 and was redesignated for the 274th Regiment on 8 August 1960. Its diagonally divided shield is in blue and white, the colors of Infantry, to commemorate the unit’s genesis in the Infantry branch. A blue cross of Lorraine commemorates the Regiment’s first battle honor, awarded for service in France during World War II.
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. DUIs are not worn on the Dress variations of either uniform, however.
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An axe-wielding badger recalls the unit’s home state of Wisconsin, but the “Badger State” did not get its nickname because of an abundance of the critters, but rather from the influx of miners seeking to capitalize on the state’s plentiful lead resources: these miners would actually live in hillside tunnels they had dug rather than erecting houses and were derisively called “badgers.” The axe is an allusion to the Regiment’s service while assigned to the 70th Infantry Division, whose personnel wore a Shoulder Sleeve Insignia featuring an axe head. “L’Avant Garde,” the unit motto, is French for “The Vanguard.”
After serving in World War II as part of the 70th Infantry Division, the 274th Infantry Regiment was assigned a training mission in which it and/or its Battalions were organized as elements of one of the Army’s Training Divisions. In 1952, the 274th began its relationship as a source of instructional units for the 84th Training Division, a structure that apparently continued up until the transformation of the Division began in the mid-2000’s; by 2010 (and likely earlier) none of the 274th Regiment’s units were assigned to or elements of what was by then the 84th Training Command.
As of Summer 2023, there are no records that suggest the 274th Regiment has any active units, and in fact the Regiment itself may have been inactivated, redesignated, or disbanded.