101st unit rescinds “no combat patch” policy
I noticed a lot of activity on a post that I wrote last year about a 4th Division Brigade commander in Colorado who had a brain fart and was tempted to make his combat veterans remove their earned combat patches from their right shoulders to make the newbies feel better about themselves. Now I find that folks were confusing my post with events at the 101st Division where another officer listened to the Good Idea Fairy and wanted to make a Brigade in that division more inclusive according to a link sent by Sparky;
According to a news release from the 101st Airborne Division, soldiers from the 3rd BCT, while completing a gunnery exercise at Fort Knox, were told to remove their combat patches to “build cohesion.”
On Thursday, 101st officials said no such directive was given from brigade leadership. The directive, according to the release, came from somewhere else in the brigade.
The soldiers will now be permitted to wear their combat patches during training.
“This was a well-intended action taken by a leader that was not well thought out and was quickly corrected,” said Brig. Gen. Scott E. Brower, acting senior commander of the 101st, in a news release.
When my battalion came back from Desert Storm, we had a change of command at the battalion and at brigade, both of the incoming commanders were slick-sleeves who hadn’t deployed to our little adventure, somehow they didn’t feel a need make us take off our combat patches or our CIBs to feel included in our activities.
Category: Army News
Being a Navy type, I always thought that it was neat seeing Soldiers with combat patches on their uniforms… kind of like the old saying, “been there, done that” without having to say it.
Seeing someone who had a qualification that I didn’t have didn’t make me feel bad or less included. It made me want to put in the effort to earn the same.
Thank the Lord that I am retired. I wouldn’t be able to take today’s SJW military.
I’m with you on that…
Makes me wonder what the little sparkle ponies would do if they were treated like nubs (non-quals) on the boat.
Back in my day being treated like a nub was what turned sailors into submariners. Hearing about stuff like being asked not to display a badge of honor because it may make someone feel inferior makes me worry about what happens if and when push comes to shove.
I’m with you on the… I wake up every morning with a smile on my face now, because I don’t have to deal with this crazy SJW BULL SHIT
Heeee Hawwwwwwwww ! ! ! !
#PrivateLivesMatter
Where do they get those sniveling, whiny a.h.’s that are making these decisions? SCREW the newbies, give them something to work toward! damn has our whole country become a bunch of cowardly whining pussies?
I see it as more of the “Happy-happy-joy-joy-everyone gets a hug, teddy bear and a trophy” with Smurfette getting cornholed by a unicorn Social Engineering bullshit being forced down the Military’s throat.
In my time, long ago, combat patches were something I admired, honored, looked up to for their experience and aspired to. They were and still are a designation of hard earned accomplishment and something for “newbies” to look up to, learn from and give due respect to.
Whomever the class clown was who ordered this PC policy for the purpose of “inclusive feelings”, should be stripped of his, if that is he has any.
I’m 99% sure the person who gave the order does NOT have one, which is why they gave the order in the first place.
Gotta take exception to the whole “This was a well-intended action taken by a leader that was not well thought out and was quickly corrected,”. It was a stupid idea to begin with, and everyone figured that out, why else the whole effort to make it seem like it was “well-intended”?
Relativism: the truly inane concept that there is no distinction between sh!t and Shinola.
There is indeed a difference; some concepts have merit, while others are simply damnfoolishness. And the sooner we quit pretending that all ideas are worthy of the same degree of respect, the better.
In terms of relativism’s definition . . . this idea wasn’t Shinola.
Yeah. I’d guess the hash tag #dumba**ideasmatter just ain’t gonna trend very well.
Worst. Idea. Ever. The SSI:FWS is a symbol of experience and pride. It’s like making riflemen of the 95th wear redcoats instead of their greenjackets.
I wonder what the “well intentioned” leader had on his right sleeve?
Baby puke??
What do expect when the SJW a-holes are forbidding all initiations in the military. Tacking on crows and warfare pins, nope. Shellback initiation, unh unh. Chiefs initiation, forget about it.
When I qualified in Subs it was a great feeling of earning something and to be a contributing member of the unit.
Next up:
No ribbons or decorations worn on Class A’s. Don’t want someone to feel left out and sad over not having an NDSM.
come on! Back in the 90s when I was rocking FOUR ribbons (ARCOM, AAM, NDSM, & ArmyServ) I felt awesome laughing at the new LTs with just their Rainbow Brite ribbon.
Went to CML school in 1984. Our entire platoon was prior service (two VN vets, active, reserve, guard and even some Air Force). We had only ONE Class A inspection during the entire time.
Our Training Company Commander, an O3, had two ribbons. The lowest “private” in our platoon had 4. No more Class A inspections…
Great times.
nbcguy54ACTUAL:
“Don’t want someone to feel left out and sad over not having an NDSM”:
William Joseph Gainey, 1st SEAC of the JCS: Are you reading this, “Brother”? Yes, YOU, SGM (Ret) Joe Gainey of the Gainey Cup Tournament. You, Gainey, born in 1956, graduated from High School in 1975, came on Active Duty AFTER the qualifying time period for the NDSM for the Vietnam Conflict Era..
you just HAD to go award yourself that NDSM..and now claiming falsely, 3 NDSMs. You, PV9 Gainey, are just as phony as your Phony POW Buddy, Michael Killam of Tarrant County, Texas.
So see, nbcguy54ACTUAL..there ARE despicable folks such as Joe Gainey, 1st SEAC of the JCS, Gainey Cup Guru, who would feel sad and left out if that one NDSM was taken away from him.
Obviously Gainey was one of those kids whose mother awarded him with a trophy every time he successfully shit in his diaper and therefore had a rough adjustment period as an adult.
^^^^^
LIKE!!
☆☆☆☆☆
I always felt bad about myself when others had a combat patch so i was glad when the grown ups them take them off. ugh….
I can’t make any sense of all those snowflake badges anyway. US Army has too much swag. It’s like the adult version of Girl Scout badges.
Given the fairly large number of badges shown here as currently authorized by the USMC, I’m not sure the USMC has much room to talk about “badge overkill”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badges_of_the_United_States_Marine_Corps
Circles, did it ever occur to you that maybe the Army might not have so much “swag” if we didn’t train them in so many ways to fight and then order them to do it so frequently?
Dude needs this combat nutsack banging against his chin.
And the Army keeps fucking it up along….
WTF why are they or anyone even worried about a damn. combat Patch there are bigger issues right now in the army and this is not it ! ! ! ! Holy Shit ! ! ! !
Hell I came in in 84 when all you really saw were a few old Vietnam patches, especially MACV. Didn’t really start seeing more until after DS, but to expect someone who deployed in the last 15 years to take off the patch because it might upset some delicate flower is ridiculous. We seemed to do all right seeing scattered patches before OIF/OEF.
Yeah but remember, we came from a different era. We were raised differently than today’s generation. Walking barefoot, 3 miles to school, uphill both ways in the snow made us tougher and less susceptible to Combat Patch Envy Syndrome.
CPES is probably the next VA recognized disability…
I was in in 84. Guys from our unit had Grenada patches. The only other patch was our Top’s 101’st from Vietnam.
When I went through jump school at Ft. Campbell in December 1959, (Yes, they had JS at Campbell) one of my toughest instructors was SFC Cannon who wore his WWII Eagle looking backwards and had five combat jump stars on his jump wings. It was quite inspiring to know you were being taught the basics by one of the real heroes of that war, a man who’d jumped into combat five times.
We had plenty of others around wearing 101st, 82d 11th and 17th Airborne combat patches. There were lots of Rakkasan combat patches from Korea as well, especially down in the 187th troop area. It was a great time to be a young aspiring trooper with all those combat veterans leading our units.
I ran into SFC Cannon at an Airborne conference in Atlanta in 1990 and he was still one lean, mean Airborne Trooper.
I came in when the only ones with combat patches were Gulf War veterans and a few senior leaders were Vietnam veterans. We looked up to those men and wanted to be like them. I didn’t earn my combat patch or my CIB until I was a Staff Sergeant. F these whiney Privets.
I didnt wear any badges or tabs during my gruelibg 58 day marathon in the Army. I dont feel included anymore now that I talk about my tabs in my speaker bios.
John “Faker 6” Giduck
I would be surprised to find a combat arms battalion or brigade commander or CSM in the Army right now that didn’t have multiple combat tours under their belt. Plus, this seems pretty dumb to me. I simply can’t imagine a CSM letting this happen. So, I did a little research. I found another link on this story in additioon to the one Jonn provided:: http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/careers/army/2016/03/03/101st-airborne-leaders-deny-rumors-they-forced-soldiers-remove-combat-patches-training/81276522/ In both stories, it is pretty clear that no one can seem to find any official order from brigade or battalion leadership. In other words, we are relying on ‘the word’ as it was passe between Soldiers on the US Army WTF page, which has becomoe the Army’s ‘offocial’ Rumor Control Center. But, I looked up all the senior leaers involved: The brigade commander and CSM are both wearing CIBs. The 2-506 CSM is wearing a CIB, and the battalion commander has a CIB with a star and is Ranger and SF qualified. The Engineer battalion commander and CSM both have combat patches, and the LTC was awarded the CAB (and is both Ranger and Sapper qualified). The ony guy that is not obviously wearing a combat patch is the 1-33 CAV commander, and again I would be very surprised to see a combat arms commander with no combat experience these days. I was a ”Double Eagle’ in the 101st (when I got to the 82nd we callled it a ‘Chicken Sandwich, but that is another story). Not only did nothing like this every happen, but we actualy put guys with combat patches in the first rank and right file for parades so we would show off what is arguably the coolest shoulder patch in the Army. I did notice that this all came out of 3rd Brigade- the Rakkasans. There is just a little unit rivalry in the 101st because the 187th (Rakkasans) were originally a Glider outfit in the 11th Airborne and were then a separate Airborne Regimental COmbat Team during Korea (where they made the only combat jump). 2-506, on the other hand, was deactivated for many years and was brought… Read more »
Red, when I reported in to HHC, 2d Brigade/82d at Bragg in ’67, I was wearing Double Eagles as well and I can say that in spite of the long standing rivalry between the two divisions, I was shown plenty of respect by my fellow NCO’s and officers, most of whom had yet to see combat as the 82d still had not deployed to Vietnam.
The reason was that up until the 60’s, the only troopers with an 82d patch on the left shoulder and a 101st on the right had been WWII veterans.
I also was a “Double Eagle” for the 71-74 timeframe.
Am proud to say that never once during my time with the 101 did I wear a subdued patch on either shoulder.
Those were the days, my friends.