Patches & Insignias of Vietnam
John Jones - see also HunterKillerrPatches
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Vietnam Unit Patches & Insignias Notes from John Jones: 2025
There are rarely any absolutes in the field of Vietnam unit insignia, anybody, could have anything made, but actual wear, can be clarified by memory and captured images. Due to the 365 day tour, that defines what most veterans can tell you and should be viewed in those terms. Not lightly dismissed, but if you get enough images and enough yearbooks, you can come to some solid conclusions.
The early years show very little in general insignia and zero? pocket patches. The 25th div SSI appears now
and again in full color and plain jackets abound. You seem to get a push towards full U.S.Army, name and
rank, most likely when things came together under the 1st Aviation Bde. The recognizable white circular patches seem to have burst onto the scene in 1969, so it would be most interesting to see who was involved and the commander who gave approval. They reached their zenith by the time the unit changed to F-Troop, with a sharp drop in wear until the unit left vietnam. Of course men had several uniforms in the wear and wash cycle and many would not have had a pocket patch. Group shots are a useful indicator, the largest ratio I have found to date, is 5 men out of a group of 11. Almost exclusively worn on the left pocket, there seems to have been a high take up amongst pilots of the call sign # addition. So far, only 1 crew chief / gunner tail number variation, has
been identified. Next time, I will cover the scrolls and little worn insignia.
The 'triple helicopter' patch above is a head scratcher. Only one patch of this type, (white base) has ever appeared, always with the '3' for operations personal. Its linage goes back to 1973, when it appeared on a dealers sales list.
Noteable back fill here: as the war concluded for the main US involvement, dealers visited SVN to buy up surplus patches that the large base vendors were left with and in some cases, have more made. 🙄 In general, there was no reason to 'invent' patches, but never having seen anotherpatch or image of wear emerge from a veteran, I am on the fence about this one. (Lawerence H. Johnsons book, has a' unattributed' made for collector version. 1973) There most certainly was a semi -subdued version, (OD base) and we have images
of it in wear by operations personel.
Patches from Sandy McLeod: I was a Centaur (Centaur 46) from July, 1970 to June, 1971. I believe I wore the D Trp ¾ Cav patches during my entire tour since I don’t recall changing out my patches when we were redesignated as F Troop, 4th Cavalry, 1st Aviation Brigade o/a February, 1971. Â
Below are photos of patches I kept from my tour. I had 3 or 4 nomex flight suits and one grey one leftover from flight school. Had patches on all of them.  I don’t recall removing patches from all of my nomex suits when I turned them in before DEROSing, but for some reason I had several patches left over that I brought home with me. Obviously they were locally made.Â
