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.
Enlisted personnel wear the insignia 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.
The 395th Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia was originally approved for the 395th Regiment Infantry, Organized Reserve on 16 June 1931. It was redesignated for the 395th Regiment on 7 June 1999 with an updated description. The buck’s head on the insignia is used to indicate the allocation of the Regiment to a mountainous region of Pennsylvania where deer are plentiful. VIGILANS ET CELER, the Regiment’s motto, translates into English as “Vigilant And Swift.”
More 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.
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The 395th Regiment was constituted as the 395th Infantry in the National Army on 23 July 1918 and assigned to the 99th Division (99th Infantry Division after July 1942), the start of what was officially a 100-year relationship between the two organizations that included a fifty-three-year stint of inactivity on the part of the 395th. Organized too late to see combat in World War I, the 395th was demobilized on 30 November 1918 but was reconstituted in the Organized Reserves in June 1921 with its old designation and assigned again to the 99th Division.
Ordered into active military service in November 1942, the Regiment would deploy with the 99th Infantry Division to the European Theater and fight in three campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe. The Regiment was awarded a Belgian Fourragere 1940 for being cited twice in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army, with both citations occurring during the Rhineland campaign. Further, two of the Regiment’s individual Battalion were also cited in the Belgian Army Order of the Day, with the 2nd and 3rd both recognized for actions in the Ardennes (the 3rd Battalion was also tapped for a Presidential Unit Citation for its courage and heroism in the Ardennes).
World War II would mark the last time the 395th served in a combat role. Inactivated in September 1945, it was relieved from assignment to the 99th Infantry Division on 29 October 1998 and the following year was redesignated as the 395th Regiment and reorganized to consist of three Battalions (1st, 2nd, 3rd), all elements of the 75th Division (Training Support). At the same time, all the Battalions were concurrently allotted to the Regular army. In November 2008 it was reorganized as a parent regiment under the United States Army Regimental System while simultaneously seeing its Battalions all relieved from assignment to the 75th Division.
As of March Autumn 2023, the Battalions are allotted to the Regular Army and serve as training units. 1-395 serves as a Brigade Engineer Battalion in the 120th Infantry Brigade, First Army Division West, while 2-395 is a Brigade Support Battalion also in the 120th Infantry Brigade. Stationed at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield, the 3-395th conducts Armor training as part of the 188th Infantry Brigade, First Army Division East.