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 (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.
The Distinctive Unit Insignia of the 61st Infantry Regiment was approved on 10 June 1931. In the canton in the upper left is an adaptation of the 7th Infantry Regiment’s own Distinctive Unit Insignia, a cannon on a hill symbolizing the assault on Telegraph Hill at the Battle of Cerro Gordo during the Mexican-American War; its inclusion denotes the fact the 7th provided personnel for the formation of the 61st in June 1917.
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.
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The red lozenge (diamond) on the wavy pale is taken from the 5th Infantry Division Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, reflecting the fact that the 61st Regiment was assigned to that division during World War I. The wavy pale is the Meuse River, commemorated here because of the Regiment’s impressive and effective river crossing near Dun in November 1918.
The 61st Infantry Regiment began its existence as the 61st Infantry, constituted in the Regular Army on 15 May 1917, organized 10 June 1917 at Gettysburg National Park, and assigned to the 5th Division on 17 November 1917. Serving with the 5th Division in France during World War I, the Regiment's battle honors include four campaigns: St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Alsace 1918, and Lorraine 1918. It was inactivated in September 1921 and was relieved from assignment to the 5th Division and assigned to the 8th Division in August 1927. It was subsequently relieved from assignment to the 8th Division was reassigned to the 5th in October 1933, only to be relieved of that assignment in October 1939 and then disbanded on 11 November 1944.
It was reconstituted on 10 August 1950 in the Regular Army as an element of the 8th Infantry Division and activated a week later at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. It would be inactivated on 1 September 1956 at Fort Carson, Colorado and concurrently relieved from assignment to the 8th Infantry Division. Reorganized as a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS) in January 1962. Its 1st Battalion (Mechanized) was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War, and it was also part of the force that took part in Operation Just Cause in Panama. Since that time, the Regiment's units have been assigned to the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, with its only active Battalion, the 1st, conducting Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina as part of the 165th Infantry Brigade. Its motto: “The Best Lead The Rest.”