The 97th Engineer Battalion was originally constituted as the 56th Engineer Battalion (Separate) in the Regular Army on 1 October 1933, but was redesignated as the 97th Engineer Battalion (Separate) on 1 January 1938. More than three years passed before it was activated at Camp Blanding, Florida on 1 June 1941, followed by a reorganization and redesignation as the 97th Engineer Regiment (General Service) on 1 March 1942; just five months later it was redesignated as the 97th Engineer General Service Regiment.
The Regiment took part in the New Guinea campaign in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during World War II, and it also earned a World War II American Theater campaign streamer and a Meritorious Unit Commendation for its work on the AlCan (Alaska-Canadian) Highway, a 1700-mile highway that ran from British Columbia to Alaska.
Following the war, the unit was redesignated as a battalion in 1946 while retaining its numeric and titular designations, but was then inactivated at Manila in the Philippine Islands on 15 March 1948. It was redesignated as the 97th Engineer Construction Battalion in September 1950 and activated at Fort Leonard Wood the next month, then received its final redesignation on 7 December 1953 when it became the 97th Engineer Battalion. This redesignation came during the middle of the unit’s deployment in France from 1951 to 1967. It would subsequently be relocated to Germany, where it would serve from 1967 to 1968. The Battalion was inactivated on 22 October 1971 at Fort Riley, Kansas.
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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 (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.