U.S. ARMY 161ST MEDICAL BATTALION UNIT CREST (DUI)

The 161st Medical Battalion (Multifunctional) is a unit in the Alabama Army National Guard that is headquartered in Mobile, Alabama. Its can trace is lineage back to the organization of the Mobile Rifle Company, organized in February 1836 and mustered the following May as the Regiment of Alabama Volunteers to serve in the Mexican War.

Called into Confederate service as Company K, 3rd Alabama Infantry, the unit took part Civil War battles beginning with the Peninsula campaign in 1862 and culminating with Appomattox Courthouse, including such famous tilts as Sharpsburg (Antietam), Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, to name just a few. In the modern era, the unit’s predecessors have served in World War I, World War II (New Guinea and Southern Philippines campaigns) and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Since 1897, the year it became part of the Alabama National Guard, it has been redesignated 15 times before becoming the 161st Medical Battalion in 1996.

Assigned to the 122nd Troop Command, the 161st Medical Battalion was most recently in the news when it was announced in March 2023 that the unit was one of at least 48 National Guard units that would be required to remove Confederate battle streamers from their guidons.

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A large, downward pointing maroon arrow signifying the participation in an assault landing on New Guinea during World War II forms the backdrop of the 161st Medical Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia (also called a DUI or a unit crest) in that several other images are superimposed over it.

The first of these is a saltire, or an “X” shape that has a total of seven star in the four arms of the cross; these stand for participation in seven major campaigns in the Civil War. Placed atop the saltires is a sea lion wielding a Polynesian War club; the sea lion, from the seal of the President of the Philippines, is emblematic of the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the unit’s forebears. At the same time, the war club-and aforementioned downward-pointing arrow are references to hitting the beaches in New Guinea. Atop all these charges (images) is an azalea that recalls the unit’s home statin of Mobile, Alabama and its annual display of azaleas. CONSERVO ET SUPERO, the Battalion motto, is Latin for “I Conserve And Conquer.”

Distinctive Unit Insignias are 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.

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U.S. ARMY 161ST MEDICAL BATTALION UNIT CREST (DUI)