The 60th Air Defense Artillery Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia—also called a unit crest, or DUI for short—was first approved for the 60th Coast Artillery Regiment on 31 May 1924. Other designations for which it was approved included the 60th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, 60th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (Automatic Weapons), and the 60th Artillery Regiment.
An embattled horizontal line, representing defense, divides the shield portion of the insignia in half. The bottom half is red to denote Artillery, while the black and gold in the upper half denote the Orient, where the unit had its original combat service. A golden searchlight piercing the black stands for the unit’s vigilance in searching the skies for enemies. The star has two meanings: one is for the Lone Star State of Texas, where the unit was reorganized following World War I, and another is to denote the sky or heavens which is the unit’s battleground. COELIS IMPERAMUS, the unit motto, is Latin for “We Rule The Heavens.”The Distinctive Unit Insignia is worn by all Soldiers (except General Officers) in units that have been authorized to be issued the device. 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 60th Air Defense Artillery Regiment was originally constituted on 23 December 1917 as the 60th Artillery (Coast Artillery Corps) in the Regular Army, and would be sent to France where it would take part in two campaigns (St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne). Demobilized after the war, it was expanded, reorganized, and redesignated as the 60th Coast Artillery in July 1924 with its 1st Battalion organized at Fort William McKinley in the Philippines.
By 1941, all of the Regiment’s active battalions were activated in the Philippine Islands, but were no match for the Japanese invasion force that struck in December 1941. The Regiment had no choice but to surrender on 6 May 1942, but its valiant defense was recognized with three Presidential Unit Citations and a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation. Reorganized and reactivated following World War II, the Regiment was made into an Antiaircraft unit in the 1950s with several different (and lengthy) designations, but in 1959 was redesignated as the 60th Artillery under the Combat Arms Regimental System.
Under this designation, the Regiment’s 4th Battalion was deployed to Vietnam, where it fought in 132 campaigns and was awarded two Meritorious Unit Commendations for its service between 1967 and 1969 (inactivated in 1972). Other battalions served as part of the Army Air Defense Command’s “ring of steel” protecting U.S. cities from possible nuclear-missile attacks during this period, and others were deployed to Germany. Four of the Regiment’s eight battalions were inactivated between 1972 and 1974, and by 1990 all had been inactivated.