Although constituted more than a decade after the end of World War II as the 258th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, Alabama Army National Guard, the 1203rd Engineer Battalion's military honors include campaign streamers from both World War I (without a specific campaign inscription) and the Second World War (Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe) because those campaigns were credited to the existing units that were used to organize the Battalion’s Headquarters Company between 31 October and 28 November 1956.
In May 1959, the Battalion was reorganized and redesignated as the 3rd Automatic Weapons Battalion, 203rd Artillery and ordered briefly into Federal service between the 11th and 16th of June, 1963. It was redesignated as the 3rd Battalion, 203rd Artillery on 15 January 1968, and just under two years later it was given its current designation on 1 December 1969. The Battalion would be broken up 1978, with its HQ and HQ Company becoming HQ and HQ Company, 1203rd Engineer Battalion and it’s A and B Companies becoming the 1204th and 1205th Engineer Companies, respectively, with each beginning a separate lineage at that point.
After being called into active Federal service from June 2007 to July 2008, the HQ and HQ Company, 1203rd Battalion was reorganized and redesignated as the 1203rd Engineer Battalion at the same time the 1204th Engineer Company was reorganized and redesignated as the Support Company, 1203rd Engineer Battalion.
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“Topographers In Action,” the unit motto, is a reference to a subset of the Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, in existence for the quarter century from 1838 to 1863. The saltire behind the encircled fleur-de-lis is a reference to the Alabama state flag, while the fleur-de-lis is an allusion to the fact that Alabama was once a French possession. Four compass points are an allusion to the compasses used during the surveying of new territory. Red and white are the Corps of Engineers branch colors.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 (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.
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.