Originally approved 29 May 1928 for the 131st Field Artillery, Texas National Guard (TNG), this Distinctive Unit Insignia was redesignated for the 131st Field Artillery Battalion, TNG, on 6 August 1942. Nearly twenty years later, it was redesignated for the 131st Artillery, TNG, on 20 July 1960, then for the 131st Field Artillery Regiment on 23 February 1973. Revised symbolism and description led to it being redesignated for the 131st Field Artillery Regiment, Texas Army National Guard in November 1997. It was last redesignated on 10 October 2000 for the 131st Field Artillery Regiment.
The red shield of the 131st Field Artillery Distinctive Unit Insignia—also called a unit crest or DUI—indicates the organization is in the Artillery branch. A fleur-de-lis in the center of the shield is for World War I service in France. The diminished bordure of the shield signifies that the 131st Field Artillery was one of the younger units of its parent organization, the 36th Division. “We Play The Game” is the motto of the Regiment, nicknamed “The Lost Battalion” in honor of its 2nd Battalion, whose personnel were captured by the Japanese in early March 1942 (see below).
Distinctive Unit Insignias 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.
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The 131st Field Artillery Regiment was originally constituted as the 2nd Field Artillery on 5 May 1917 and organized June and July of the same year. After being drafted into Federal service on 5 August 1917, the unit was reorganized and redesignated as the 131st Field Artillery. Assigned to the 361st Artillery Brigade, 6th Division, the unit was awarded an uninscribed World War I victory streamer. (Batteries A and B, 2nd Battalion, are each individually credited with participation in the Meuse-Argonne campaign.) When it was drafted into service for World War II, the Regiment was broken up; HQ was disbanded, 1st Battalion became the 131st Field Artillery Battalion, and the 2nd Battalion was relieved from assignment to the 36th Infantry Division.
Assigned to assist the Dutch in the defense of Java, the 2nd Battalion was captured following Dutch surrender on 8 March 1942, the whereabouts of its 534 surviving personnel remaining unknown for almost 2-1/2 years. Their fate—working as slave laborers on the railway made famous in the movie The Bridge on the River Kwa alongside nearly 370 members of a Navy vessel named the USS
Houston that was sunk during the Battle of Sunda Strait—was revealed by Allied POWS who survived the sinking of two Japanese freighters on 16 September 1944. Eighty-six members of the 2nd Battalion died in captivity; 77 crewmen from the USS
Houston also did not survive the war.
In all, the Regiment was credited with taking part in eight campaigns in World War II: three in Italy, four in France, and one in the Asiatic-Pacific, with Arrowhead devices (for taking part in assault landings) for the Naples-Foggia and Southern France campaigns. The Regiment as a whole was also honored with two Presidential Uni Citations, while the 2nd Battalion is individually entitled to a French Croix de Guerre for action at Voges in Europe.
Today, there are no active components of the 131st Field Artillery Regiment. Its last active unit, the famed 2nd Battalion, was honored with a Meritorious Unit Commendation issued in 2009 for its service between September 2007 and April 2008.