The 51st Infantry Regiment, Company E and F organizational flash (sometimes called by the accurate but incomplete name “beret flash”) and Airborne background trimming, or “oval,” were both approved for wear on 6 March 1990. Both Companies were designated as Long Range Surveillance units while stationed in Germany in 1986, with Company F carrying that designation while assigned to VII Corps in Germany and Company E assigned to V Corps; Company E was inactivated.
Interestingly, the design of the flash and oval invert the colors used for the Regiment’s coat of arms and Distinctive Unit Insignia, which features a blue field with a yellow/gold bend dexter (horizontal band running from viewer’s upper left to lower right). “I Serve,” the Regimental motto, is found on the Regiment’s Distinctive Unit Insignia.
Flashes are embroidered headgear insignia worn on berets; the standard blue flash is worn only on black berets and do not represent a discrete unit, while all other flashes are called “organizational flashes” because they point to a specific, discrete unit or organization and worn only on the colored beret authorized for that classification of unit.
As members of Airborne-designated units, the Soldiers in 51st Infantry Regiment’s E and F Companies wear this flash on the maroon berets approved for units designated as Airborne “by structure, equipment, and mission” by Department of the Army HQ. Personnel in these two companies who have earned a Parachutist or Air Assault badge are also authorized to wear the oval beneath them, creating an embroidered trim around the badge except for star and wreathed star on two Parachutist badges.
Instructions on these insignia can be found in three sections of DA PAM 670-1:
General wear and guidance of both devices: “Distinctive items authorized for other than infantry personnel,”
Chapter 21-32, subsections (a) and (b).
Placement of devices on beret flashes: “Headgear guidance,”
Chapter 4-10, subsection (e).
Placement of ovals and badges: “Wear of nonsubdued combat and special skill badges and special skill tab metal replicas,”
Chapter 22-16 (b).
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