Today marked an important day for my deployment to Afghanistan. Today we were awarded our “combat patch”. The combat patch or more appropriately called the shoulder sleeve insignia-former wartime service, but almost every Soldier calls it a combat patch.
When I enlisted in 2000 only a spackling of Soldiers had combat patches from service in Panama or Desert Storm. For obvious reasons since 2001 the number of Soldiers eligible for a combat patch has increased significantly, but it’s still something not everyone has.
On the Army uniform, the patch on our left sleeve designates our current unit and our right sleeve is where you can wear your combat patch. For almost eleven years, my right sleeve has sat empty, but after today I am able to wear a combat patch.
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| All smiles a few minutes after receiving my combat patch |
Our unit patch (left sleeve) is not authorized to be worn as a combat patch and thus we are able to wear the patch of our next higher unit. Our next higher unit is a Brigade from the 101st Airborne Division, and thus we are able to wear the 101st Airborne patch as our combat patch.
Personally, I could not be happier to wear the 101st “Screaming Eagle” on my sleeve. The history behind the 101st is something that I’m proud to wear. It’s the division that jumped into Normandy during D-Day. It was the division featured in “Band of Brothers”. The division has seen service in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan.
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