The 109th Field Artillery Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia, also called a unit crest or a DUI, was originally approved for the 109th Field Artillery Regiment, PA National Guard on 6 November 1929. After several redesignations reflecting the Regiment’s changing status, the insignia was last redesignated on 11 July 1972 for the 109th Field Artillery Regiment, Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
The Pennsylvania Army National Guard’s 109th Field Artillery Regiment boasts a heritage that began nearly a quarter-century ago (as of 2020) with the 11 May 1775 constitution of the 24th Regiment in the Connecticut Militia and its subsequent organization in October 1775 in the Wyoming Valley region of northeastern Pennsylvania; the locale inspired by the unit’s nickname of “Wyoming Valley Guards.”
Since its inception, the Regiment has fought in six wars—the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Civil War, both World Wars, and the War on Terrorism—and has been credited with taking part in a total of twenty-seven campaigns spanning those conflicts, with the possibility of that number being increased for its service in the War on Terrorism. During World War II, the Regiment’s service during the Battle of the Bulge was recognized with a Presidential Unit Citation; it was also selected for Luxembourg Croix de Guerre around the same time.
The unit was not designated as a Field Artillery Regiment until 1916. Like many FA regiments, it was broken up during the first few months after the U.S. entered World War II, with its two battalions being redesignated numerically and organizationally but eventually being rejoined through consolidation in 1956 to form a new unit, the 109th Field Artillery Battalion, that was redesignated as a regiment (109th Artillery) in June 1959. It was redesignated as the 109th Field Artillery on 1 May 1972, then withdrawn from the Combat Arms Regimental System in April 1988 and reorganized under the U.S. Army Regimental System.
Until 2018, the Regiment’s sole active battalion, the 1st, was under the complete command and control of the 55th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard. But in June of that year it was assigned to the 169th Field Artillery Brigade, Colorado National Guard, creating a bifurcated reporting structure for the Regiment: Administratively, it was still classified as a Pennsylvania Army National Guard unit assigned to the 55th MEB, but all of its operational commands would now come from the 169th Field Artillery Brigade operating under the Colorado Army National Guard.