Commonly called a unit crest or referred to by the initials DUI, the Distinctive Unit Insignia of the 178th Infantry Regiment was originally approved for the 8th Infantry Regiment on9 9 November 1925. It was subsequently redesignated for the 184th Field Artillery Regiment on 28 December 1940, then for the 184th Field Artillery Battalion on 6 April 1950. It was last redesignated on 13 June 1961 for the 178th Infantry Regiment.
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.
The blue shield denotes the organization as belonging to the Infantry branch, with the white fess rompu (broken white horizontal band) standing for the Hindenburg Line, which was broken by the 370th Infantry, a predecessor unit represented by the gold wedge breaking through the white band. According to The Institute of Heraldry, “the seme-de-lis is for the Oise-Aisne Operation which was in that province of France whose arms are a blue field with gold fleurs-de-lis – the tinctures on the wedge being reversed so as not to get a blue pile on a blue field; the pellet with the helmet is the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 93d Division and indicates the service of the 370th Infantry as a unit of this Division during World War I, the gold Roman sword is taken from the Spanish War medal for non-combat duty, while the cactus represents duty on the Mexican Border.”
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The 178th Infantry Regiment was originally organized in 1878 in the Illinois State Militia as the 16th Battalion with Headquarters at Chicago. When mustered into Federal service on 12-21 July 1898, the unit was expanded and reorganized as the 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, thus inspiring the organization’s official Special Designation as the “Eighth Illinois.” By the time it was mustered into Federal service for World War I, it had been redesignated as the 8th Infantry. Reorganized and redesignated as the 370th Infantry, the unit was assigned to the 185th Infantry Brigade; it would not receive the 178th Infantry Regiment designation until 1947.
It has of course undergone numerous reorganizations in the decades since that time, with its most recent (2006) defining the Regiment to consist of the 1st Battalion, an element of the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team; it was for exceptional service during a deployment with the 33rd IBCT that the Battalion was later awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation.
The Regiment’s list of battle honors include two World War I campaigns, two World War II campaigns, and a single campaign from the Afghanistan Theater in the War on Terrorism. However, the Regiment is authorized to display the three World War II battle honors of the 370th Armored Infantry Battalion as “a challenge and a trust.” Additionally, two Companies from the 1st Battalion—HQ and Company D—are individually entitled to a total of eight more campaign streamers from the War with Spain, World Wars I and II, the War on Terrorism; you can view all these at the U.S. Army Center of Military History’s
178th Infantry Regiment Lineage and Honors Web page.