Combat patches: Are they for show or do they really mean something??

A combat patch means you have been to an area that the U.S. is actively engaged in armed combat or an area where you could be fired upon. Now what does it REALLY mean?
Ok, it means you didn't duck deployment. It means you know what a J-list is. It means you know the feeling of getting off a C-130 or C5 and being scared on what you will see when the door opens. It means there's a possibility you helped plan a deployment and know what you will need and the things you wont need because when you got to your deployed site, you found out there was a bunch of crap that you didn't need you brought with you. It means you have experience. It means you EARNED something.

If you are authorized to wear SSI-FWTS it should mean something. Even if you didn't actually participate in "combat" you deployed in support of an operation and in support of your country. If you have multiple SSI-FWTS each one has a different meaning to you, different experiences, different people you interacted with.

You should be proud and wear it proudly!!!

Don't worry about what others think. Just do your job to the best of your abilities.

To me, the combat patch more recently labeled the Combat Service Identification Badge only carries the meaning that we allow it to have. I think after 13 years of combat operations, the meaning of the word "combat" and thus the badge as changed several times. For the first couple years I was in, combat patches were rare to see. It meant that those wearing one were around during an elevated time of security and were involved in actions that the rest of us weren't. Then following the attacking on 9/11 which the increase of combat deployments, those without a patch became rare. Now we sit in this weird limbo-isk state where there are still a lot of people walking around with combat patch but maybe just as many without. Personally, I think the combat patch means more to the glory seekers than it does to those of us just trying to do our jobs. The majority of us here aren't looking to considered heroes or anything crazy but yet some in our ranks can't be happy with their performance until they have some sort of patch on their right arm.

Personally, I'm very proud of my combat patch. It was a huge honor to receive the 101st Airborne Division patch as my combat patch. It means I served with some of the best men and women the military has to offer. It also gave me pride because it was the same combat patch my grandfather received on D-1 Day when he when into France on the gliders. But the patch doesn't sum me up. It's merely something that shows I did my job, I did it well and whom I did with.

Lions do not need to roar. If your internal assessment of your own value and accomplishment is not enough, no patch will make up for that. If you are awarded a patch and you deserve it, you will wear it with pride, but it will never in and of itself be the source of your pride. It is my experience that those warriors that have really been in a soup sandwich, are the least likely to want to speak about it.

If you earned a combat patch in Kuwait then it does not mean anything to me. I wouldn't wipe my ass with it. It is not really a "COMBAT" patch. Now a combat patch that was earned in a place that actually has combat means something. I know this statement is going to open a can of worms about support troops, but if you did not support in a combat zone you should not receive a combat patch.

So the combat patch in my eyes has two meanings. These meanings won't be found in regulation

SSI-FWTS is one meaning. I normally never vocalize this but this is what I consider when I hear people describe their deployment and they sat on that fob. Could order pizza to their barracks room. Worked in that office. Etc etc.... I don't say this to downplay any means each played a vital role however insignificant an individual may have felt

Combat patch is another.

I wear a combat patch.

That small bit of fabric that is on my shoulder has significant meaning to me, if someone told me it means nothing.... Well I'd have some choice words lacking tact for them.
It is a memory I wear and display to the days of lacing up them boots, throwing on a plate carrier, picking up my rifle and aid bag, and going out for stroll. From patrols simply to go out and look for trouble, or escort a VIP to a meeting, or delivering some sweet American freedom from the skies in a big bellied chinook. Sitting waiting on EOD... Or worse recovery... Being stuck in a mountain sick of MRE so a goat magically appeared on the dinner menu for a BBQ. It's a testimont to the memory of every soldier who was with me, who will remain always with me, until our next final great reunion. Brothers not of blood but will remain the closest relationships we may ever know. Deeper relationships than what we will develop with family and even a spouse. If something like that has no meaning to a person, then they need to get their heads checked.

Like I tell my younger soldiers when they mention deployment patches... It doesn't qualify a person for job profiency nor makes me any better of a soldier than they are. All it means is that I've been fortunate enough to have had such an experience. To be called upon to go do that job. If they're lucky there time will come too.

They don't until they do. We've been in two theaters for a VERY long time, and so when I see a SFC or above or a MAJ or above without one, I notice.

What does it mean beyond that? Depends on the individual. Are they competent? Are they pleasant (or at least not unpleasant) to work with?

Of course it means something. Many of our Soldiers earned the right to wear a combat patch. We have fought side by side creating a brotherhood in arms. Some have even lost fellow Soldiers fighting for this country and that unit. This shouldn't even be a discussion.

I've always felt that the term combat patch is misleading. It's more like an overseas service patch than anything else. I was awarded two from Iraq and honorarily given some by the people I've worked with (not authorized for wear, of course). The problem is that you have people going about judging people for being so called "slick sleeves" when the circumstances of being awarded those patches change and change again. Just because you don't have a shiny bit of embroidered velcro under your flag patch does not mean anything much about your service as a soldier.

Also, Hi from Buehring
F co, 3/126th AVN

[Edit]
My issue with the term combat patch derives from the word combat. If it is truly representative of combat, then why do I - as Air Traffic Control - have one when I am essentially a fobbit? There are other chesticles that people legitimately earn for their actions and experience in combat. They should have the honor of being associated with a combat award, not me. As far as I know, the official term for it IS Overseas Service Patch

[Correction]
According to the AR 670-1, It's called the "Shoulder Sleeve Insignia - Former Wartime Service" or "SSI–FWTS" If you're talking about the hoop look fastener patch I was thinking you were talking about. Otherwise, the colored ones pictured are called the "Combat Service Identification Badge" AKA CSIB and are worn on your ASUs. (Thanks to SSG Rob Cline for pointing out that one)