OIF/ OND Theatre Made Patches

[GIKyle]

From May 2011 until December 2011 I was deployed to Northern Iraq and Kuwait. Between switching jobs and our mission requirements, I did quite a bit of base-hopping, spending some time at Al Asad Air Base, Joint-Base Balad, COS Warhorse, COB Speicher, in Iraq and Camps Buehring, Arifjan, and Virginia Kuwait. Each of these bases had their own “Embroidery/ Alterations Shop” as they were officially called. While run by AAFES, each shop really had a personality of its own depending on the people that ran it. I generally observed that simply by talking to these guys, they would quickly remember you and be much more willing to help you out either making patches or cutting a good discount in purchases – throwing a tip their way every now and then didn’t hurt either! I want to be up front in saying that everything typed below in this thread is based solely on my own observations, and probably are not indicative of theatre made patches made everywhere in Iraq. At peak, there were over 500 bases of some size in Iraq, which shows how truly limited this write-up is in terms of scope. Also to be considered is the changeover from DCU to ACU, base openings/ closure, and worker turnover. What makes this write up worthwhile and me somewhat ‘qualified’ to write this is that my pool of patches numbers over 500 from the above-named bases. Throughout the deployment, I kept the patches separated by base in order to preserve the unique aspects patches from each base bore. I have looked through the ASMIC website to see if they would be interested in publishing this but was unable to find a point of contact. At any rae, I figured the forum could benefit from this. All I ask is for my work to be cited if someone wants to use this elsewhere. Anyways, I divided this up into a few general categories to provide some initial focus. Later in the thread, I will post more patches and other items from each base in hopes more common themes may be addressed to further the collective knowledge on this subject. Well let’s get it started!

 

[GIKyle]

Machine Made (L) vs. Handmade ®

 

 

 

My first patch contact occurred when I befriended Kawsar, a man from Bangledesh who had worked at the FOB Warhorse patch shop since 2004. Many units, particularly National Guard, had come through there throughout the years. As a result, his selection, particularly old DCU patches, was pretty extensive.

 

[GIKyle]

As I picked through, he noticed I had an affinity for the handmade patches. He began sorting through some of them very quickly, discerning which were handmade, and which were machine made. I asked him how he could tell so easily, even when a supposedly handmade patch was done pretty well. He pointed out that he looked for the stitched borders, which, if present throughout the patch, indicated it was constructed by machine - ‘computerized’ he called it. Take a closer look at the desert patches from Warhorse, and the SF patches from COB Speicher- Note that the machine made patches have a very distinct border around each shape, while the hand-guided patches either do not have a very heavy border, or the different color threads blend into the base thread.

 

 

 

 

[GIKyle]

This is not to say that a ‘handmade’ patch is literally made by a guy sitting there with a needle and thread. What it does mean, is that going off a drawing, a previously made patch, or just a whim, the guy is doing the best he can. I suppose ‘hand-guided’ ought to be the proper term. This is also not to say ‘handmade’ patches are completely absent of these tightly stitched borders. Look at the stitching that creates the border between the beak and head of these 101st patches. I can say with confidnce that these are definitely handmade because I personally witnessed their construction.

 

 

 

[GIKyle]

How was this hand-guided process done so that each individual patch was created without major deviation? From what I saw, the patch guys used a process not unlike the process to paint A-2s during WWII. They use a sort of powder to trace the design onto the base material. When a patch is ordered, one will sketch it and designate what colors go where. Here is an example of a half-complete guidon, showing the powder trace. Other patches sometimes showed this powder trace upon completion, but between sun fading or a good washing it would no longer be noticeable.

 

[GIKyle]

Using this tracing, the man will set it into the machine and go to work. The eyesight of the guy working and the quality of the machine are generally what cause the slight imperfections in a design, the letters to be crooked, or any number of ‘mistakes’ that make the patch unique. Some great examples are below from Warhorse.

 

[GIKyle]

Now with DCU patches, either the powder wasn’t showing up or this method wasn’t perfected at that point in the war. As a result, a more archaic method was used: The purple laundry pen. I imagine this is not a permanent ink since I have not seen any such marks on issued patches as opposed to these fresh out of the store. Here are some DCU patches still bearing some of that pen marking from Warhorse and Arifjan.

 

[GIKyle]

An interesting thing I learned at Speicher: I asked if the shop had any 101st patches, since there were none in the cases. The man replied there were not, and said that the shop was no longer receiving deliveries of patches from Kuwait. I asked for clarification, and he said that all of their stock patches came out of Kuwait. This makes sense, as I have seen (at least in ’08 and now), an attempt of sorts to ‘standardize’ the local-made patches. This was primarily seen at the larger bases. These patches are generally spitting images of their US-made counterparts and do not show any deviations from patch to patch. Here are a couple examples of such from COB Speicher and Camp Buehring, Kuwait:

 

[GIKyle]

These bulk-produced patches come in long rolls, and are cut as needed, given Velcro, and sold off. An example of some 82nd patches is shown here.

 

[GIKyle]

I personally saw these bulk-produced patches for sale at Al Asad, Speicher, Camp Liberty, Camp Buehring, and Camp Arifjan, but not at Warhorse or JBB. It should be noted that these stock patches were not available for all units, only the most common. An example would be these USASOC patches that were at Speicher and Buehring, respectively, and yet are quite different from one another.

 

[GIKyle]

Skill badges

 

 

The BDU/ DCU era allowed for the sewing on of skill badges. When the ACU was introduced, only pin on skill badges were allowed. As a result, skill badges could still be found in DCU at some patch stores, examples are shown below (Warhorse, Army Aviator and Jump Wings from Arifjan).

 

 

[GIKyle]

On 14 June 2011, the Army brought back sew-on skill badges for wear on ACUs as well as sewing down rank and nametapes. However, by this time many bases were drawing down, and patch shops were closing 30-60 days of the final closure. I had my patch guy make a handful of CIBs and jump wings in ACU at Warhorse, but he did not make any for general sale to my knowledge. Those are shown here.

 

[GIKyle]

On the back of these Warhorse patches – note the use of old Stars and Stripes in the sewing process similar to some Vietnam-made patches.

 

[GIKyle]

There were no skill badges available at Speicher before it closed in September. In fact, the only people we saw wearing them in Iraq were members of the CLPs that came out of Kuwait. Once in Kuwait, it was found that the patch stores here were already selling them. Like their patch brethren, these skill patches were massed produced –Shown below (Buehring).

 

 

 

There were a couple exceptions to that rule – as Soldiers came in asking for Senior Jump Wings, or combat jump stars to be added. In those cases, they were added by hand, as shown below (Buehring).

 

[GIKyle]

Transitional:

 

In 2004/2005, as the ACU replaced the BDUs and DCUs, the patches and nametapes were not manufactured and distributed at a pace commensurate with the uniforms. Thus, Soldiers resorted to cutting off their BDU nametapes and patches, getting them velcroed, and using them with their ACUs. I believe the below patches are a result of that time period. These were not common at all, and appeared to have been languishing in their respective sew shops for some time as the correct ACU patches became available and, in turn, produced locally. This color of thread is still available, but not used to make patches because there is no demand for them anymore.

 

 

[GIKyle]

Errors

 

There were a couple errors observed: incorrect borders, and reversed colors. Below are two reversed color patches: 45th ID and 36th ID, both found at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.

 

 

Some additional errors: 1SG rank missing a rocker (a throwback to 1942?!) (Warhorse), an eagle patch with an ACU border (Speicher), and a 44th Med. BDE patch with extra stitching in the center star (Buehring).

 

 

Patches with incorrect borders: SF Tab (Warhorse), Special Forces patch and 18th AB Corps (Camp Arifjan)

 

[GIKyle]

Tabs:

 

I firmly believe that the tabs will be remembered next to porta-john graffiti as the methods of personal expression during the war. With the Velcro ACU pocket flap, Soldiers could get anything they wanted to wear underneath that flap without notice. Aside from the basic Airborne, Ranger, Special Forces tabs that were massed produced, an untold number of others were made by enterprising Soldiers for themselves, their unit, and countless other things. Certain tabs, such as Chuck Norris, Jack Bauer, Window Licker, IED Hunter, etc. were so popular they were eventually produced en masse as well. Below are the commonly-encountered tabs from Al Asad COB Speicher.

 

 

 

 

Here are some of my favorite tabs that were found along the way from each base:

 

 

A couple of instances where something common was made incorrectly – An oversized Ranger Tab (Speicher) and from Taji in 2008, a 101st patch with a 1 piece Airborne Ranger Tab.

 

[GIKyle]

Especially with custom tabs or patches, it was always prudent to check their work before you left, as spelling was sometimes an issue!

 

[GIKyle]

Custom Patches:

Another popular enterprise was making patches. These were predominately unit patches or a variation of a unit patch that commemorated their tour of duty. These were really only limited by imagination and the amount on one’s Eagle Cash Card. Here are a couple unit patches from an unknown FA unit (Speicher), my company C/1-502 IN (Warhorse), and an unknown EOD unit (Speicher):

 

 

Some additional unit patches 3/2 ID, 1/25 ID Dog PLT, and 3/ 4 ID (Warhorse) along with a Navy Corpsman patch. (Buehring)

 

[GIKyle]

My favorite custom patch: A Special Forces with the Airborne and Special Forces arcs written in Arabic!

 

[GIKyle]

Souvenir Patches:

Most of these were made in some sort of quantity to sell to Soldiers wanting to commemorate their tour. They were generally made anywhere from 3-5” in diameter, with some being larger. A couple examples below from Warhorse and Speicher.

 

 

Here are a couple larger commemoration patches from Speicher

 

[GIKyle]

I am also going to add the unauthorized patches into this category to show them off. This will include your mirrored patches so they face forward on the combat side like this Screaming Eagle from Al Asad and 173rd example from Camp Buehring

 

 

Also some downright goofy ones such as the infamous ‘Secret Squirrel’ and Zombie Hunter among some others from Speicher

 

[GIKyle]

Nametapes:

 

Looking back, I would have bought a couple nametapes from each base, because the ones I do have are distinctly different from base to base. The size of the letters, the font, and even the base material are unique to each location, which probably goes back to the individual workers at each base. Here are examples from Buehring (Top) Speicher (L) and Warhorse ®.

 

[GIKyle]

I cannot remember if the nametapes were made with the same lettering, but the letters on tabs found at JBB were distinct, in that there was a sort of flare at the bottom of each letter. This may help narrow down some unknowns, but again, maybe not.

 

[GIKyle]

On the same bases, when asking for lettering to be done, the font is really up to guy doing the sewing. Take these two stock Cav patches. Both were done at Buehring, but by two different guys: