Though now a part of the Army Reserve, the 244th Engineer Battalion was originally formed in the Regular Army as an Engineer (Combat) Battalion in February 1943 and activated in October of the same year at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Attached to the 9th Army during World War II, the Battalion earned credit for participation in three campaigns (Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe) before the war’s end and its inactivation in New Jersey in 1946.
It was redesignated as the 444th Engineer Construction Battalion and allotted to the Organized Reserve Corps in 1948, and underwent a series redesignations and reorganizations; it received its 244th designation again on 10 July 1959. The Battalion was ordered into active Federal in February 2003 and again in January 2015. While assigned or attached to the 14th Engineer Battalion, the 244th’s C Company was recognized with a Valorous Unit Award for service in Iraq in January 2004 as it lived up to the Battalion's motto, "Construction Conquers."
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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.
For Enlisted personnel, the insignia is 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.