112th Infantry Unit Crest (Strive Obey Endure)

The 112th Infantry Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia, also called a unit crest, was originally approved on 2 January 1930 and was amended in 1951 to show additional war service. Another amendment on 16 May 2008 updated the insignia’s description. “Strive Obey Endure,” the unit motto, has been part of the insignia since it was first approved.

Though light blue has been the official Infantry color since around 1903, white is often used for Infantry units who history extends back into the 19th Century, precisely the case with the existing units that were used to form the 112th Infantry Regiment’s earliest predecessor, the 16th Infantry Regiment, when it was organized on 22 November 1878. (Most notably, the HQ Battery, 2nd Battalion, had a history that included five Civil War campaigns, represented by the cross patée.)

When it was mustered into Federal nearly twenty years later for the War with Spain, it was redesignated the 16th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a moniker that inspired the unit’s Special Designation of “Sixteenth Pennsylvania;” its service in that was is noted on the insignia by the image of the Spanish Castle. Inducted into Federal Service as the 16th Infantry Regiment on 5 August 1917, the unit was consolidated with the 8th Infantry Regiment and reorganized and redesignated as the 112th Infantry. Assigned to the 28th Division, the Regiment would earn battle honor for six World War I campaigns; World War I combat is symbolized on the insignia by he bridge which represents the crossing Vesle River at Fismes, France, site of some of its most ferocious fighting.

It would remain assigned to the 28th Division during World War II, where it fought in five campaigns in the European Theater and was honored with Presidential Unit Citation and a Citation in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action in the Ardennes, as well as a Luxembourg Croix de Guerre. During the Korean War, the 112th Infantry, Pennsylvania National Guard was called into service and fought in seven Korean War campaigns before being released from Federal service in 1954. After the war, it was reorganized as a parent regiment in the Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS), and in 1975 was reorganized to consist of the 1st and 2nd Battalions.

It was withdrawn from CARS in 1988 and reorganized under the U.S. Army Regimental System, under which it was again reorganized in 2004 to comprise the 1st and 2nd Battalions, elements of the 28th Infantry Division, then redesignated from 112th Infantry to 112th Infantry Regiment in 2005. While both Battalions were deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as part of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team and were awarded Meritorious Unit Commendations, these decorations did not apply to the Regiment as a whole.