Army shoulder patches....

[Bob Wright]

Units of the US Army, regiments and divisions have a long and proud history. Current practice is that the division or regimental patch that the soldier is currently serving with is worn on the left sleeve. The unit he (or she) served with in combat is worn on the right sleeve.

The Army is the only service to wear such insignia on their uniforms. My question is, why don't the other services do this? Certainly the Air Force has some very distinguished units, i.e the Eighth Air Force, and the Marines have some honored divisions, such as the First Marine Division.

Seems to me it would go a long way in establishing and maintaining espris de corps.


Bob Wright

 

[Jeepnik]

Don't know if they still do it, but the USAF used to have patches worn on the left breast pocket of fatigues. For instance, I still have TAC (Tactical Air Command) George AFB, California, 40th ARRS (Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron) Detachment 1 Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, USAFE (United States Air Forces Europe) Torejon, Spain and Systems Command (they did testing and development of, you guessed it, aircraft systems) Eglin AFB, Florida patches.

Though my prized patch is a 6th Armored (Super Sixth) Division that was one of my Dad's units in WWII.

 

[blackhawknj]

The Marines wore shoulder patches in WWII, the then Commandant discontinued them in 1947 probably because they were associated too much with the Army.

 

[toysoldier]

Do you know what the patch was (before WWII) for the 45th infantry?

 

[bobski]

navy enlisted have whats called rockers on the right shoulder.....dress uniform only. it helped SP in returning drunk sailors to their ships. in the old days, tattoos did this.
the practice was discontinued during war when sailors in port could be identified by spies. they could tell what ships were in port.
army wears them to return wounded men to their command if lost in combat. it gave leaders an idea as to who they had, and, if needed they were reassigned if a sqd/unit was wiped out. it gave them an idea as to his background for admin reasons.
patches, truck i.d's, etc...played an important role in confusing Nazi's in ww2. fake cmd's were told to just drive around Europe making them think some huge brigade was here/there everywhere.

 

[blackhawknj]

Yes, there was FUSAG-First United States Army Group. Part of the D-Day deception operations. Based in Kent under Patton.
In the Navy sailors wore the name of their ship on the headbands of the old flat "Donald Duck" hat.

 

[BlkHawk73]

My father would know this. He collected the insignia for 40 years. Organized by branch, regiment, unit, etc. Has them going back as far the Civil War.

 

[reuben_j_cogburn]

In my unit our garrison fatigues and dress uniforms, (not khaki’s) had unit patches, but our field fatigues were encouraged to be sterile. It was considered opsec to reveal to much info I guess....
I recall having to cut patches off and re sew them a number of times.
As far as combat patches go. Few in my unit had them. Only the guy's who were in vietnam, (my senior NCO's), and eventually the few that made it all the way to Grenada.,

 

[blackhawknj]

Yes, the shoulder patch for the 45th Infantry Division was changed in 1938 because it had THAT symbol on it. Patches were worn on the old long sleeve khaki shirt but that was discontinued in 1966, a year before I enlisted. Don't recall any units taking off shoulder patches for OPSEC reasons in my day. In Vietnam a fully badged up jungle fatigues jacket was the mark of a rear echelon type, with us grunts it was just the division patch.

 

[Bob Wright]

Do you know what the patch was (before WWII) for the 45th infantry?

If I'm correct it was the swastika emblem, then changed to the Thunderbird?

Both American Indian symbols.

Bob Wright

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Yeah, the Nazis managed to foul an almost universal symbol of religious faith.

(I say "almost" because I don't know if it was ever used in Australia, but it was used just about everywhere else, starting only God knows when).

 

[Bob Wright]

When I first posted this, I had in mind what used to be called the "Class A" uniform, the uniform worn into town on pass or leave.

My first patch, after basic and advanced training, was the Red Diamond of the Fifth Infantry Division. After that was deactivated, no left shoulder patch, then wore the Seventh Infantry Division patch. A couple of men in my outfit wore the big yellow First Cavalry Division as right shoulder patches, and a number of WW II patches were seen.

My brother wore the Eighth Air Force patch as during WW II the Air Force was a branch of the US Army. My sister's husband wore the Third Marine Division patch, also of WW II era.

Bob Wright

 

[bobski]

hey bob, look what I found? I looked over on the wall and there it was.
one of my rockers.