Is wearing a combat patch required? Did you feel you earned it in a support MOS?

I'm not infantry, but I've earned my patch I have performed your duties In theater just like they performed theirs.

Now I don't know much about patches but for me by you doing your job as well as you did, it cleared the minds of those in the forward position because you truly was watching their backs. Think about it, my focus needs to be on what is coming at me not what is coming from behind me and doing your job is support gives me that confidence to focus forward and not worry about the rear.

If you left the wire to perform your job than be proud of the "Patch".. Our Maintenance company left the wire many times to fix our vehicles or to pull a vehicle out of a small canal because the road gave way on the top... So if you did any of those things then Hell Yeah!!! You deserve it!!

I think the deployment patch is significant because it shows that you have been outside of the U.S. and served in a "Combat Theater" whether you saw combat or not. Personally, I would be proud to wear a patch on the right sleeve because it shows that you sacrificed time away from friends, family, civilian life/work. Deployments can be stressful for any MOS and you should be proud to display your sacrifice; ultimately the choice is yours.

Being a support MOS and having been in combat in several different types of units, I feel as though I earned my patch the same as the guys to my left and right. It is a group effort and if you have ever been in a unit where someone didn't pull their weight it drastically effects the mission all around. Don't discredit your input into the overall mission just because you are not seeing "combat".

Wear it with pride, I have the same issue when my base in Souda Bay, Crete, Greece was awarded Kosovo Air Campaign, we did support the units that were doing the bombing of Kosovo and surrounding area. We supported aircraft and sent ordnance to that area via aircraft.

To me, the combat patch shows that when told to potentially put yourself in harms way, you did. I'm sure you had the movement of shock and fear of going like the rest of us, and you spent that time away from your loved ones. You did what many troops avoid (with every bit of pull they have). The CAB shows combat, the patch shows you were willing to... but that's just me.

How about we just quit calling it a "Combat Patch"? Call it a "Deployment Patch" and it'll clear up all the confusion. Seems easy enough.

I re-enlisted the first time because I was going to get out without being deployed or (seeing combat) the second time because I loved being airborne I was a mechanic also over there (Iraq) though it's wherever they need you I was a mechanic,DHAA Seargent of the guard & in charge of detainee transport. ALL THE WAY

I always wore the first one I was issued (18th Aviation), even after my SGM in 3CAB kept telling me to replace it with the broken TV. Actually several times he removed it and put a 3id patch in its place.