The New York Times profiles a book which peers into the often loopy world of black programs and their associated morale patches. Included are some which the author believes are tied to a place called “Groom Lake”:
“Oderint Dum Metuant,” reads a patch for an Air Force program that mines spy satellite images for battlefield intelligence, according to Mr. Paglen, who identifies the saying as from Caligula, the first-century Roman emperor famed for his depravity. It translates “Let them hate so long as they fear.”
Wizards appear on several patches. The one hurling lightning bolts comes from a secret Air Force base at Groom Lake, northwest of Las Vegas in a secluded valley. Mr. Paglen identifies its five clustered stars and one separate star as a veiled reference to Area 51, where the government tests advanced aircraft and, U.F.O. buffs say, captured alien spaceships.
It’s all very well, but call me when you see a patch showing where they’re holding Elvis.
Must be an airdale thing. We had coffee cups instead.
I think I want to work on that there “Rodeo Gal” project… Apparently it’s all about training killer whales to carry giant nekkid women. What’s not to like?
You mean like….?
That’s funny. Two nights ago as I was triple-checking that there was absolutely nothing on the tube I paused on C-SPAN to watch a few minutes of a book review in some nondescript place with twelve people in attendance. The author (loose term) was talking about something which initially sounded interesting, then turned goofy (oh! the secrets!), then turned preposterous (black programs and their patches).
Three good laughs then off to sleep.
Jeff,
We tried coffee cups, but they kept falling off of our flight suits…
Fortuna favet fatuis.
I always knew VX-4 at Mugu was up to something nefarious, LOL.
I thought the Army went in for those big ol’drinking coins. Almost weapons category like a throwing star!
We had logoed zippo lighters, ball pens, unit ball caps and patches! With puking dogs, smoking shulls and such. Them old short ceramic coffee cups w/logo are passe now I think.
b2
Tastes like chicken?
Brilliant
There has been at least two cases I’m aware of where black program patches did in fact revel useful information about their program.
One best not be discussed, but the other was the B-2. A few weeks before the official announcement a patch incorporating the distinctive B-2 top view silhouette into the design was released to the public by Northrup. It wasn’t obvious to the untrained eye until the rollout, when the shape immediately jumped out at you.
Yep, just look up the patch for the Boeing “Bird of Prey” – the airplane is the grip and hand guard on the sword
I’ve also seen some of the unit patches for the SAR dudes out at Groom – cool stuff
As a former Boy Scouter, “Patches R’ Us” would have been our motto. Patches for this, patches for that, patches for everything!
Now, this is the patch I wear, in honor of my son!
http://www.submarinestore.com/images/products/patches/c5214.jpg
On some forum I read once they had a picture of a Nellis SAR group patch that had Elvis. The motto was “If he’s out there, we’ll find him” or something similar.
Another favorite was a French “special weapons” squadron patch whose motto was “we bring power and light”.
The Elvis motto was our cruise patch in the Seabats. “If he is out there we will find him”-and we must have searched every bar between Rota and Tel Aviv looking for him.
Elvis
http://www.christoph-29-hamburg.de/Patches/USA/USCG%20Elvis%20if%20youre%20out%20there.jpg
when I mentioned the “chicken” one over at the Donovan’s, as my favorite, Boquisucio immediately came back at me, correcting the bad Latin.
http://www.elvissightingsociety.org/
Cheers
Nice to see that Lex is a devotee of the weekly Tuesday’s “Science Times”, but one would think that as a classicist and Navy man he would have linked to a companion piece “The Ancient Mechanics And How They Thought.” The latter deals with simple mechanics, and which spot might be the best if you were a galley slave. But I digress, at the end of the Science Time’s article is a link to patches that were created for the team effort of individual spy satellites shots. That narrative is fascinating, as are the pictures of the individual patches. Recommended!!!
I used to work with some paranoid folks. We had a patch with some sort of Medieval Enchanter over a sort of fungus.
Maybe.
I am probably fibbing. Memory is a fleeting thing.
My ship’s motto was Sic Semper Tyrannis (Guess the ship!), but I would have preferred “Sic gorgiamus allos subiectatos nunc”
Best patch I ever saw was one a pilot from a B-52 unit out of Barksdale wore. Showed a head-on view of a buff with a mushroom cloud in the background and the words, “CAUTION: WAKE TURBULENCE, DEPARTING B-52.” Love it!!
Steve,
Quote is the state motto of your vessel’s namesake, the land of the Virgin Queen, one of the Commonwealths, and the home of more presidents than any other state in the Union.
State: Virginia
Vessel: USS Virginia
And the other is the Addams Family motto. “We feast on those who would destroy us.”
Not bad for a Jarhead, huh?
My personal motto and all time favorite is …
” Per Favore …non rompa le mie palle”… great for the old BP…Best