Bayonet and grenade patch...

[effengee]

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but THR always has the quickest response time, and as it does have an edged weapon on it, it should still qualify

I bought a large lot of military patches online and one has really stumped me. I have been unsuccesful in identifying it. It has a bayonet and a hand grenade on it. It is red and white with the bayonet in white on a red field and the grenade in red on a white field. They are placed diagonally opposed on the patch. It is about 3"H X 2"W with a black border and is rounded on top and bottom.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

FNG

 

[kBob]

We used the term Newbee more often than your handle. But if a recent arrival was FUBAR-ed then he got your title.

I have no idea what unit that patch may be for. You did not say what kind of grenade and what kind of bayonet. I assumed you meant a MkII frag and acut down M1905 like say on the Infantry school patch.

I wonder if it might have been some sort of unit award for the right pocket or a school award of somesort like the Recondo arrowhead. It may be that some unit cooked up the patch as a unit award for performance on a unit created assault course or some such.

There were actually "shingles" or "bars" for one's marksmanship qualification badge labels "BAYONET" and "GRENADE" that were given for having a certain amount of training in either and a qualifying time and performance on an "assault course" for either. TO prevent folks from looking like "Chinese Admirals" most units forbid the wearing of more than two or three of the shingles under a qualification badge. If the person had a marksmanship badge and safe driver badge with enough shingles underthem (drivers badges had shingles for different vehicles for hours of safe operation) folks could clank when they walked. It could get silly. forinstance besides merely the word RIFLE on a shingle there were shingles that read M16A1 and M14 and Smallbore Rifle. Even one marked BAR was avalible for a bit until the guard finally got rid of them in the 1970's. The neatest I saw was a custom made one by a former Drill Baby he wore as a joke. We had to know the Soldiers Code of Conduct which included statements like "I will never surrender troops under my command while they have the means to resist." We were told this meant while they had weapons available and when we asked what weapons were a minimum were told a BFR which is what this custom shingle read. It stood for Big "Fine" Rock.

-kBob