The 378th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion is a United States Army Reserve unit assigned to the 301st Regional Support Group, 316th Expeditionary Sustainment Command and headquartered in Annville, Pennsylvania. It was constituted 13 January 1945 in the Army of the United as HQ and HQ Detachment (HHD), 592nd Quartermaster Battalion on 13 January 1945. Activated 10 February 1945 in Egypt, it was redesignated as HDD, 592nd Quartermaster Service Battalion on 28 March 1945 and was later awarded a European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Streamer (without inscription) and a Meritorious Unit Commendation for its World War II service. It was inactivated 10 October 1945 in Egypt.
In May 1947, it was allotted to the Organized Reserves under a new designation—378th Quartermaster Battalion—and activated on 25 June 1947. The Battalion was inactivated between August 1950 and March 1963, when it was reactivated at its current home location of Annville. Just under five years later, the Battalion was broken up and all of its units beginning new lineages at that time save one: its lineage continued with the HHD that was reorganized and redesignated as HQ and HQ Company (HHC), 378th Supply and Service Battalion.
It would undergo two more reorganizations and redesignations, one in April 1994 as the HHD, 378th Support Battalion and another in October 2006 as HHC, 378th Support Battalion, before becoming the 378th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. Its post-WWII military decorations include a Presidential Unit Citation (2003) and a Meritorious Unit Commendation for service between 2011 and 2012 in Iraq; its participation in War on Terrorism campaigns is yet to be determined.
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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. 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.The 378th Support Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia was first approved for the 378th Quartermaster Battalion in November 1965. It was thereafter redesignated twice, on 25 June 1968 for the 378th Supply and Service Battalion and on16 April 1994 for the 378th Support Battalion.
An ankh, the Egyptian symbol for life and subsistence, forms the basis of this insignia and alludes to the unit’s activities when it was activated in Egypt during World War II, with winged cross arms referring to the predecessor unit’s previous assignment to U.S. Army Forces, Middle East. The blue in the scroll stands for water, specifically the Nile River and overseas service, and the red at the top of the ankh commemorates the Meritorious Unit Commendation the unit earned while in Egypt. “To Serve, Supply, Sustain” is the unit motto.