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 (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.
Enlisted personnel wear the insignia centered on a shoulder loop by placing it an equal distance from the outside shoulder seam to the outside edge of the shoulder-loop button. Officers (except Generals) wearing grade insignia on the shoulder loops center the DUI by placing it an equal distance between the inside edge of the grade insignia and the outside edge of the button.
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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The unit motto of the 65th Air Defense Artillery Regiment is the Latin word SURSUM, which translates as “Upward”—obviously the direction in which the Regiment’s weaponry is trained, but also shorthand for the desire to excel. And while the motto does not appear on the 65th Air Defense Artillery Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia, it is nonetheless present in the form of an ocelot, a native of Panama that can migrate as far south as Patagonia and is known for climbing trees and clawing and fighting upward to claim its prey. The Regiment’s choice of the ocelot for its insignia was no doubt influenced by the fact that the Panama Canal Zone was the location where the unit was reconstituted on 1 July 1924.
Like all Air Defense Artillery Regiments formed prior to 1968 and the establishment of an official Air Defense Artillery branch, the 65th ADA Regiment spent the first five decades or so of its service life designated as various specialized Artillery units—Coast Artillery, Antiaircraft Artillery, Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons, Antiai1·craft Artillery Searchlight—or simply as Artillery. The Regiment was originally constituted in the Regular Army as the 65th Artillery (Coast Artillery Corps) and served in World War I under that designation, earning credit for participation in three campaigns before being demobilized in February 1919.
During World War II, the units in the Regiment’s lineage, including any units temporarily broken off but eventually reunited, was awarded a total of six campaign streamers, with the one representing Normandy complemented with an Arrowhead Device because the Regiment hit the beaches on D-Day.
The Regiment wouldn’t see action in Korea, but during the Russian Missile Crisis it was honored with a Meritorious Unit Commendation for its mobilization and deployment to Fort Polk. The Regiment added thirteen campaign streamers from the Vietnam War, with its exceptional service being recognized with the presentation of a Presidential Unit Citation and two Valorous Unit Awards.