Based in Kinston, North Carolina as of December 2020, the 690th Brigade Support Battalion is a unit in the North Carolina Army National Guard assigned to the 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade. It was originally organized and Federally recognized on 21 December 1925 in the North Carolina National Guard as the Service Battery, 117th Field Artillery, an element of the 31st Division.
It would remain an Artillery unit throughout several redesignations up until 1 January 1968, when it (as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 119th Infantry, an element of the 30th Infantry Division) was converted and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 690th Maintenance Battalion and relieved from assignment to the 30th Infantry Division. On 1 September 2006, it was reorganized and transformed as the 690th Brigade Support Battalion, an element of the 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade. It was reorganized under the 113th Sustainment Brigade from October 2008 until October 2013, when it was reorganized under the 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade. It is not clear when it was designated as the 690th Brigade Support Battalion.
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The 690th Support Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia, also referred to as a DUI or a unit crest, was originally approved for the 690th Maintenance Battalion on 28 September 1971. It was redesignated for the 690th Support Battalion on 1 September 2006 with updated symbolism and description.
The colors used for Maintenance units, crimson and light blue, are incorporated into the 690th Support Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia with two crimson hammerheads and a light-blue cog wheel serving as the insignia’s background; these two items symbolize the basic Maintenance unit of the Battalion at the time the insignias was first approved (see below). Resting on the scroll containing the unit motto “Unparalleled” are the top three or northernmost points on a compass that allude to the unit’s location in “The Old North State” of North Carolina, with the scroll also suggesting a river (the Neuse) near the unit’s headquarters at Kinston.
Distinctive Unit Insignias are 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.
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia."