Also known as a unit crest or DUI, the 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 (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.
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia."
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The 355th Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia was originally approved for the 355th Infantry Regiment on 20 April 1927. It was redesignated on 26 January 1962 for the 355th Regiment on 26 January 1962. Its blue shield commemorates the unit’s origins in the Infantry branch, while the bend (diagonal bar) with its three alerions (heraldic bird) have been taken from the arms of Lorraine but with the colors reversed.
The alerions allude to the three World War I campaigns in which the Regiment fought: Lorraine, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne. FIDEM PRAESTABIMUS, the unit motto, is Latin for “We Will Keep The Faith.”
Originally constituted on 5 August 1915 in the National Army as the 355th Infantry, the unit was assigned to the 89th Division (redesignated as the 89th Infantry Division in June 1942) and saw combat in France during World War I (see above). It would remain assigned to the 89th Infantry Division during World War II and would earn credit for taking part in two campaigns in the European Theater (Rhineland and Central Europe). Following World War II, the Regiment was inactivated for thirteen months, then allotted to the Organized Reserves when it was reactivated in Januar
When it was reorganized and redesignated as the 355th Regiment in October 1959, it was made an element of the 89th Division (Training), an organizational relationship that would continue for nearly twenty years as the 355th’s Battalions were continually designated as elements of the 89th Division. This ended on 1 January 1975 when the Regiment’s two Battalions, 1st and 3rd, were designated as elements of the 5th Brigade (Training), but the change only lasted two years: those Battalions were inactivated on 15 October 1978 and relieved from assignment to the 5th Brigade.
Nearly twenty years later, the Regiment was reorganized so that it consisted of three Battalions (1st, 2nd, 3rd) that were designated as elements of the 95th Division (Training). As of 2023, the 355th Regiment’s lone Battalion, the 1st, is still a U.S. Army Reserve unit designated as an element of the 95th Division. Assigned to the 1st Brigade, 95th Division and headquartered in Round Rock, its current mission is performing Initial Entry Training (Basic Combat Training) for new enlistees.