December 7, 1941
- Thread starter Ooh-Rah
- Start date
So I was assigned to US Army Pacific at one point in the distant past. I deeply disliked almost everything about that assignment. Petty as it was, one of the things I disliked was our patch (below). To me, it looked like my 12-year-old designed it in Microsoft Paint. Plus, people wouldn't line it up correctly, so in formation you'd have about a 30-degree difference in the orientation of the tip of the red arrow.
One day I was at a major exercise and heard our four-star commander explain the significance of the patch. The blue of course is the ocean, the white are the islands in the Pacific, and we all know what red-white-blue is for. But here is where it gets interesting. If you add up the stars (Big Dipper, North Star, and Southern Cross), it adds up to 7/12/41: Pearl Harbor Day. And if position Hawaii at the bottom end of the arrow, it represents a giant, red axis of advance pointed straight at... Japan.
I still thought USARPAC was a lame assignment after learning this, but the patch seemed a little bit cooler. :)
I tried to link to the USARPAC site to fact-check my recollection of the patch significance, but got a warning that the link was unsafe. Sounds about right.
One day I was at a major exercise and heard our four-star commander explain the significance of the patch. The blue of course is the ocean, the white are the islands in the Pacific, and we all know what red-white-blue is for. But here is where it gets interesting. If you add up the stars (Big Dipper, North Star, and Southern Cross), it adds up to 7/12/41: Pearl Harbor Day. And if position Hawaii at the bottom end of the arrow, it represents a giant, red axis of advance pointed straight at... Japan.
I still thought USARPAC was a lame assignment after learning this, but the patch seemed a little bit cooler. :)
I tried to link to the USARPAC site to fact-check my recollection of the patch significance, but got a warning that the link was unsafe. Sounds about right.
Devildoc
Verified Military
And December 7, 2004, I received my commission. Easy date to remember.
Similar threads
