The 279th Signal Battalion operated under that designation from 1959 to 2008, when it was redesignated the 279th Army Field Support Brigade. Its designation as a Signal Battalion was a result of the 151st Engineer Combat Battalion being consolidated in February 1955 with the 279th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, which had its origins as a Coast Artillery unit constituted in Alaska, and retaining the latter unit’s numeric designation. In May 1959, it was converted and redesignated the 279th Signal Battalion, and was activated for Federal service on several occasions before its eventual conversion and redesignation to an Army Field Support Brigade.
“Strike Fast and Sure,” a motto inspired by the unit’s Artillery and Antiaircraft history, is inscribed on a scroll at the bottom of the Battalion’s Distinctive Unit Insignia, also called a DUI or unit crest; the birdbolts (short arrows with blunt ends used to kill birds without piercing them) also hearken back to its antiaircraft mission. The diagonal wavy band symbolizes the Tennessee River, which flows through the unit’s home state of Alabama close to where the unit was reorganized. And the seal stands for the Coast Artillery role one played by the unit that was activated at Shemya, Alaska in 1944.
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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.
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