The 540th Quartermaster Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia, also called a unit crest or DUI, was originally approved for the 540th Transportation Battalion. Brick red and golden yellow, the primary and secondary colors of the Transportation, are used for an annulet that suggests a wheel with golden yellow spokes. In the center of the wheel is a hornet busy at work in front of a nest, imagery taken from or inspired by the of the North Carolina Army National Guard Element, Joint Force Headquarters DUI to reflect the Battalion’s parent organization. “Haughty Haulers” is the unit motto, again a reference to the Transportation mission.
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. DUIs are not worn on the Dress variations of either uniform, however.
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia."♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Inactivated at some point of the first decade of the 2000s, the 540th Quartermaster Battalion was headquartered in Lenoir, North Carolina. It was originally organized and Federally recognized in the North Carolina National Guard on 28 April 1923 as HQ Detachment and Combat Training, 3rd Battalion, 117th Field Artillery, an element of the 39th Division.
It would undergo several redesignations as a Field Artillery unit, often as an element of the North Carolina National Guard’s 30th Infantry Division, until it was converted and redesignated as HQ and HQ Detachment, 540th Transportation Battalion and relieved from assignment to the 30th ID. On 1 September 1980, it was converted and redesignated again to become the HQ and HQ Detachment, 540th Quartermaster Battalion.
As a Quartermaster unit, the Battalion was inducted into Federal service on 27 September 1990 and deployed to Saudi Arabia the following month, where it began providing support for Operation Desert Shield while stationed at Log Bag Charlie in Rahfah. The Battalion was based at Rahfah until May 1991 and earned a Meritorious Unit Commendation for its service in all three Persian Gulf War campaigns. Unfortunately, it had the unhappy distinction of becoming the NCNG unit with fatalities when Specialist Bobby McKnight and PFC Kenneth Jackson, both North Carolina natives, died when their truck collided head-on with another truck from the 82nd Airborne Division. In addition to being the NCNG’s only fatalities, the two were also the 19th and 20th casualties of the Persian Gulf War.
The 540th Quartermaster Battalion is no longer active, and the most recent references to it as an active organization come from 2003.
Please contact us if you have any information regarding the Battalion’s status or when it came to be inactivated, redesignated, reflagged, or disbanded.