The 385th Transportation Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia, also called a DUI or a unit crest, was first approved for the 385th Port Battalion, Transportation Corps on 23 January 1943. After being amended on 19 February 1943 to change the description, the insignia was subsequently redesignated for the 385th Transportation Battalion with an effective date of 16 June 1998.
A highly detailed image of an ocean freighter plowing through a stormy sea means there’s very little chance of a viewer failing to grasp that the 385th Port Battalion’s job was the prompt overseas delivery of men and materiel. The triangular area where the freighter is displayed is called a “pile,” and it visually conveys the notion of a wedge driven into enemy territory by the Battalion’s successful work. “We Give Our All,” the unit motto, expresses the unselfish nature of the Battalion’s personnel.
Distinctive Unit Insignias are 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. More 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 385th Transportation Battalion was constituted in the Army of the United States as the 385th Quartermaster Battalion on 14 June 1942. Converted and redesignated as the 385th Port Battalion, Transportation Corps in July 1942, the unit was converted and redesignated yet again before it saw action, with its HQ and HQ Detachment being reorganized and redesignated as HQ and HQ Detachment, 385th Port Battalion and all of its component alphabet Companies starting new lineages with numeric designations. It was under this new designation that the Battalion would earn credit for participation in the Rhineland campaign in Europe before being disbanded on 20 June 1945.
Reconstituted in March 1948 in the Organized Reserves as HQ and HQ Detachment, 385th Transportation Port Battalion, the unit would be redesignated once more before receiving is current title of HQ and HQ Detachment, 385th Transportation Battalion on 16 September 1955; it was activated under that designation on 1 November 1955. Following three-and-a-half years of active Federal service, the unit began a nearly forty-year period of inactivation on 1 May 1959. It ended on 16 June 1998 when the Battalion was reactivated at Tacoma, Washington. Since the launch of the War on Terrorism, the Battalion or some of its elements have been ordered into active military service on at least two occasions.