A Note on Pride

"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon"
Napoleon Bonaparte

I write today about pride. Almost even more than pride in general is pride in one's own accomplishments. In order to set those apart who have accomplished greatly, the military has certain traditional markings to bestow. The first, and most well-known is the medal/ribbon, which is worn on dress uniforms. I have ribbons for rifle marksmanship, being on the best ship in the squadron, and achievement as a junior officer, to name three. Also, there are rating badges, like my "dolphins", the pin that shows that I am a qualified submarine officer who can save the ship from fire, flooding, or torpedo attack if necessary. One that is less known, especially to us Navy folks, is the combat patch

In the army, one organizational patch is worn on the left shoulder. This denotes the unit to which a soldier currently belongs, showing pride in one's current job. On the right shoulder is the combat patch, the unit patch for a unit (of your choice if you rate multiple) you have deployed with to a combat zone. A soldier's favorite combat patch is his badge of honor. A soldier without a combat patch is less than a first-class citizen, a non-hacker if you will.

It has come to my attention that some Navy PRT commanders, nameless of course, believe that the unity created by all of the soldiers wearing only a PRT patch (unauthorized in country, by the way) is more important than the pride in one's own accomplishment shown by proudly displaying your combat patch.

This may cause some discontent in the ranks....

That's all from the wall