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.
The 42nd Field Artillery Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia was originally approved for the 42nd Field Artillery Battalion on 7 May 1942 and was redesignated twice as the unit’s designation changed to 42nd Artillery Regiment (2 November 1958) and to its current designation (1 September 1971). FESTINA LENTE, the unit motto inscribed at the bottom of the insignia, is Latin for “Make Haste Slowly.” The scarlet field signifies the unit is in the Artillery branch, with the four shells indicating the organization’s function; they also denote the unit’s numerical designation when combined with the two bendlets.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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For the first forty-plus years of its existence, the 42nd Field Artillery Regiment—nicknamed "Straight Arrows"— was actually a unit in the now-defunct Coast Artillery Corps. It was originally constituted as 1st Battalion, 42nd Artillery (Coast Artillery Corps) in the Regular Army on 29 June 1918 and organized the following August. Unlike many Artillery units formed this late in World War I, the Battalion did see combat in France in the Alsace campaign. Inactivated in 1921, it was redesignated in February 1924 as the 1st Battalion, 42nd Coast Artillery. Though the Battalion was disbanded on 14 June 1944, the Regiment’s history includes battle honors for five World War II European campaigns, a Presidential Unit Citation, and a Belgian Fourragere 1940 because they were earned by units that subsequently became part of the Regiment’s lineage.
The unit was reconstituted on 28 June 1950 in the Regular Army and consolidated with the 42nd Field Artillery Battalion, with the new units given the latter’s designation and made an element of the 4th Infantry Division. It was relieved from assignment to the 4th Infantry Division when it was designated the 42nd Artillery, a parent regiment in the Combat Arms Regimental system (CARS), in 1957. It would be redesignated the 42nd Field Artillery in 1971 and then withdrawn from CARS and reorganized in the U.S. Army Regimental System in 1996. During that period, the unit fought in fourteen Vietnam War campaigns, earning a Meritorious Unit Citation for actions between 1968 and 1969.
Since the launch of the War On Terrorism, the Regiment’s only active Battalion, the 4th, received two Meritorious Unit Commendations (one while a component of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division) and a Valorous Unit Award. Prior to that, the 4th Battalion’s non-wartime service was recognized with an Army Superior Unit Award for the period 1996-1997.
The battalion deactivated on 17 March 2014 at Fort Carson, Colorado.