Since the 134th Field Artillery Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI), also called a unit crest, was originally approved on 10 February 1930, it has been redesignated numerous times to reflect the organization’s changing status. These redesignations include for the 134th Field Artillery Battalion, Ohio National Guard (ONG, November 1944), the 174th Field Artillery Battalion, ONG (March 1951), 134th Artillery Regiment, ONG (November 1960), and 134th Field Artillery Regiment (September 1993).
The red shield of the insignia denotes the unit’s allocation as an Artillery unit, and the blue saltires indicates the unit’s Civil War service in the Union army. Three alerions on the saltire are adapted from the arms of Lorraine and signify World War I service in France. The motto FIDES ET AUDAX is Latin for “Faithful And Bold.”
Distinctive Unit Insignias 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. Full 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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As might be expected for a National Guard unit whose heritage can be traced to 1839 and the organization of the Gun Section, Cleveland Grays in the Ohio Militia, the lineage and organizational history of the 134th Field Artillery Regiment is extremely complicated, especially when trying to track all the components that were broken apart but reformed at later dates, so this overview will be limited to broad brushstrokes focusing on the service history of the major units.
Mustered into the Union Army as the 1st Regiment, Ohio Light Artillery for just a few months in the spring of 1861, the unit was reorganized and remustered by batteries. By war’s end, the campaigns these units fought in that counted as Regimental rather than just individual battle honors came to nineteen. By the time it was drafted into Federal service following U.S. entry in World War I, it was designated as the 1st Field Artillery, Ohio National Guard, but was reorganized and redesignated on 15 September 1917 as the 134th Field Artillery. Assigned to the 37th Division, the Regiment would earn credit for the Lorraine 1918 campaign and return home in April 1919 for demobilization.
Reorganized just four months later in the Ohio National Guard once again as the 1st Field Artillery, the regiment was expanded, reorganized, and redesignated on 1 July 1921 as two regiments, the 134th and 135th Field Artillery; beginning in 1942, these two would be broken up, redesignated, reassigned, inactivated, and consolidated in myriad ways. Consequently, the total number of World War II campaigns that are credited as Regimental is not only fairly high (eight), but consist of three streamers from the Asiatic-Pacific Theater (New Guinea, Northern Solomons, and Luzon with an Arrowhead device for an assault landing) and five from the European Theater. Regimental military honors include a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation and a Citation in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action at St. Vith (the 987th Field Artillery Battalion is the unit cited). Before the Regiment was officially re-formed in 1959, the units in its lineage served in seven Korean War campaigns, and earned the Regiment a Meritorious Unit Commendation.
The modern version of the 134th Field Artillery Regiment was created in September 1993 through the consolidation of former elements of the 134th Artillery and the Howitzer Battery, 3rd Squadron, 107th Armored Cavalry with the 136th Field Artillery; a parent regiment under the United States Army Regimental System, it was called the 134th Field Artillery consisted at that time of the 1st Battalion, an element of the 28th Infantry. In 2005, it was redesignated 134th Field Artillery Regiment, and in 2007 its lone battalion was defined as an element of the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team; while serving as part of it, the Battalion was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation for a deployment to Afghanistan in 2011-2012.
In 2018, the Regiment was reorganized again in the Ohio, Michigan, and South Carolina Army National Guard while still consisting of the 1st Battalion, an element of the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.