The 561st Support Battalion Distinctive Unit Insignia, also referred to as a unit crest or DUI, was originally approved for wear by the 561st Supply and Service Battalion, a designation that the unit would retain until October when it became the 561st Support Battalion. This insignia was also worn by personnel in the 561st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion until its inactivation sometime in 2008 or 2009.
In the center of the insignia is a gold lion’s head with a blue fleur-de-lis emanating from the top of its head, all centered between two buff keys (buff is one of the colors traditionally used in the heraldry of Support units and organizations). The pair of keys is an allusion of the Battalion’s descent from a World War II Quartermaster Battalion, while the fleur-de-lis commemorates that unit’s participation in campaigns in the European Theater. A gold passant-guardant lion, taken from the Provincial Arms of Normandy, recalls the unit’s baptism by fire in the Normandy campaign. “Best Serving The Best” is the unit motto.
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.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The 561st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion was originally constituted on 11 February 1943 in the Army of the United States on 11 February 1943 as the HQ and HQ Detachment (HHD), 561st Quartermaster Service Battalion. Activated on 19 March 1943 and redesignated on 20 September of the same year, the Battalion would take part in three campaigns in the European Theater during World War II—Normandy, Northern France, and Rhineland—before inactivation in June 1946 in France.
More than twenty years elapsed before the Battalion was reactivated in April 1967 after being redesignated the previous month as HHC, 561st Supply and Service Battalion and allotted to the Regular Army. In June 1973, the Battalion was not only redesignated but also converted, becoming the HHD, 561st Maintenance Battalion. Five years later, it would again go through the dual changes of conversion and redesignation when it was transformed to the HHC, 561st Supply and Service Battalion; the HHC was converted to a HQ and HQ Company six years later on 16 August 1984. It was under this designation that the unit would take part in two campaigns in the Gulf War (Defense of Saudi Arabia, Liberation and Defense of Kuwait).
It became the 561st Support Battalion in October 1992 and before the end of the decade was redesignated as the 561st Corps Support Battalion, 101st Division Support Command, 101st Airborne Division. In 2004, it was redesignated as the 561th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion and assigned to the 101st Sustainment Brigade prior to its inactivation in 2009.