The 18th Personnel Services Battalion was originally constituted as the 18th Replacement Battalion on 16 October 1942 and activated four days later at Camp Sutton, North Carolina. It was broken up in February 1944, with its Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment (HHD) becoming HHD, 18th Replacement Battalion. Before its December 1945 inactivation, it earned credit for participation in three campaigns based in Italy: Rome-Arno, North Apennines, and Po Valley.
Thirty years would elapse before its redesignation and concurrent activation at Fort Bragg as HHD, 18th Personnel and Administration Battalion, which was allotted to the Regular Army. This unit was inactivated fifteen years later on 17 September 1990 (it did deploy in support of Operation Desert Shield, however), but a little over four years later it was again redesignated and activated as the 18th Personnel Services Battalion. In 2007, the 18th Personnel Services Battalion was reorganized and redesignated as the 18th Personnel Services Company (Human Resources) and assigned to the Special Troops Battalion, 82nd Sustainment Brigade.
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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.
“SERVICE TO THE SOLDIER,” the Battalion motto found on the 18th Personnel Services Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia, is the unit mission, but in providing service the unit must also use leadership abilities that are symbolized by the lighted torch under the motto. A red chevron symbolizes support, and the two wavy lines at the bottom represent the two overseas operations in which the Battalion received campaign participation credits and Meritorious Unit Commendations.
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.