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.
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.
The 17th Engineer Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia was approved on 19 May 1941 and consists of the shield and motto from the Battalion’s coat of arms. A mailed fist holding aloft one of the portable ramps it installed indicates both the power and one of the primary functions of the unit. “We Pave The Way,” the unit motto, also describes one of the Engineer Battalions’ functions as a vital component for victory.
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There is shockingly little information regarding the lineage and history of the 17th Engineer Battalion readily available to the general public, with the vast majority being recycled from a Wikipedia entry that is obviously focused more on the 2nd Armored Division, the unit to which it was assigned, than on the battalion itself.
During World War I, the 17th Engineer Regiment was one of the first of nine Engineer Regiments to arrive in France, and after the French government gave the U.S. control of wharfage to incoming American units, it constructed additions to docks, built docks, and laid new railroad lines. In World War II, the Battalion served in North Africa, North Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany, earning two Presidential Unit Citations and a Belgian Fourragere with two citations in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army, one for action in Belgium and another for Ardennes.
The Battalion did not deploy to a combat zone again until Operation Just Cause in 1989, where it provided support for the invasion that culminated in the capture and eventual trial of Panamanian strongman General Manuel Noriega. Its last action came in the Southwest Asia campaign, more commonly referred to as the First Gulf War, where it served in two campaigns (Defense of Saudi Arabia, Liberation and Defense of Kuwait).
The Battalion was inactivated in 1995 at the same time as the 2nd Armored Division, the parent unit with which it had served for decades.