Sometimes referred to a unit crest, the Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI) of the 353rd Regiment was approved on 7 August 1968 and amended to update its description on 8 October 2008. Taken from the Regiment’s coat of arms, the DUI is a shield-shaped insignia with a blue background to denote the unit’s past service as an Infantry organization (blue is the branch color of Infantry).
In the upper left of the shield is a double-barred cross known as the cross of Lorraine; here it is emblematic of service in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offenses of World War I, both of which took place in Lorraine in France.
The insignia’s other image, a sunflower, is an allusion to the state of Kansas, the “Sunflower State” that was home to almost all of the Regiment’s original enlisted personnel. In fact, while the 353rd Regiment was assigned to the 89th Division and stationed at Camp Funston, it was publicized as the “All Kansas Regiment.”
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignit insignia" and 21–3(d) and (e),
"Beret" and
"Garrison Cap," respectively.
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The 353rd Regiment was originally constituted as the 353rd Infantry in the National Army on 5 August 1917, organized at the aforementioned Camp Funston less than two weeks later, and assigned to the 89th Division. It fought in three campaigns during World War I and earned a French Croix de Guerre with Palm inscribed “ST. MIHIEL.” Following demobilization at Camp Funston in Kansas in June 1919, the unit was reconstituted just over two years later in the Organized Reserves—precursor of the Army Reserve—and assigned once again to the 89th Division. It would take part in two campaigns in the European Theater during World War II before being inactivated in December 1945.
Activated in January 1947, the Regiment was reorganized and redesignated more than a dozen years later on1 October 1959 as the 353rd Regiment (Basic Combat Training), an element of the 89th Division (Training), with Headquarters at Wichita, Kansas. Although it has undergone numerous reorganizations and redesignations, including being taken from the Army Reserve and being allotted to the Regular Army in 2008, it’s been a Training unit ever since.
On 2009, its 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Battalions were activated 1 March 2009 at Fort Polk, Louisiana and organized as the 162nd Infantry Brigade and given the advisory training mission previously held by the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, which was reorganized as a deployable formation.
As of 2023, only the Regiment’s 3rd Battalion remains active. 3rd Battalion, 353rd Regiment comprises a HQ and HQ Company and the 52nd Translator Interpreter Company, all stationed at Fork Polk in Louisiana.