U.S. ARMY 51ST MILITARY POLICE BATTALION UNIT CREST (DUI)

The 51st Military Police Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia, also known as a unit crest or DUI, was approved in 1971, just three years after it had become an Military Police (MP) unit after more than four decades of service as a Coast Artillery, Antiaircraft Artillery, and Infantry unit.

Green and yellow are the branch colors of the MP Corps. The white crescent in the top is adapted from the South Carolina state flag to reflect the unit’s location and assignment in the South Carolina Army National Guard. It also denotes growing illumination and, combined with the golden crisscrossed rays, is an allusion to the Battalion’s investigative and crime-prevention duties. The rays simulate searchlights, a reference to the Battalion’s beginnings in the Coast Guard Artillery. Superimposed on the beams are maces, weapons that were used by Soldiers and Guards, to represent the protective services provided by the Battalion.

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. 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.

As mentioned above, the 51st Military Police Battalion’s origins are in the Coast Artillery; it was fist formed on 16 December 1926 in the South Carolina National Guard at Florence as Battery A, 263rd Coast Artillery Battalion. Over the next forty-two years, it would undergo numerous redesignations and reorganizations, assigned to the Artillery and Infantry branches at different unit level, until it finally was designated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment (HHD), 51st Military Police Battalion on 1 January 1968.

A subordinate unit of the South Carolina Army National Guard’s 59th Troop Command, the Battalion remains stationed at Florence as of Summer of 2023 and is still comprised of its HHD and three MP companies.