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.
The 44th Signal Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia was approved on 15 June 1967. Below a shield rendered in the Signal Corps branch colors of orange and white (silver) is a scroll with the inscription “OUTSTANDING,” the unit motto. The shield is bisected vertically by a pale charged with a blue sword with a lightning-flash blade, a reference both to the tactical and support mission of the Battalion as well as its determination to defend freedom from oppression. The solid white (silver) portion of the pale recalls the unit’s past mission as a Signal Construction unit.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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That mission began when the Battalion was first constituted 3 February 1944 in the Army of the United as the 44th Signal Construction Battalion. Before it saw action during World War II, it was redesignated as the 44th Signal Heavy Construction Battalion. It earned two campaign streamers from the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater, and one uninscribed streamer from the Asiatic-Pacific Theater, and was inactivated on 6 April 1946. Over twenty years would elapse before the Battalion was redesignated as the 44th Signal Battalion, allotted to the Regular Army, and reactivated. It would go on to see action in eleven campaigns in the Vietnam War and was the recipient of two Meritorious Unit Commendations between 1967 and 1969. It would next see action during the First Gulf War, taking part in all three campaigns in the Southwest Asia conflict and earning another Meritorious Unit Commendation.
In 2006, the unit was redesignated as the 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion. Its service during its 2007-2008 deployment in Iraq was recognized with a Meritorious Unit Commendation, the first of three the Regiment would earn between 2007 and 2011 (not counting MUCs awarded to individual companies within battalions). Today (2023), the 44th Signal Battalion is assigned to the 2nd Theater Signal Brigade and is headquartered at U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz.