CONTINGENCY OPERATING LOCATION Q-WEST, Iraq - 15th Special Troops Battalion, 15th Sustainment Brigade Soldiers received their shoulder sleeve insignia - former wartime service, better known as the combat patch, in a ceremony Oct. 15 at the Morale Welfare and Recreation building here.
The combat patch, which may be permanently worn on the right sleeve of most common Army uniforms, shows that the Soldier wearing it deployed to a combat zone with a specific unit.
During the ceremony, the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Paula Lodi, put the "Wagonmaster" combat patch on Command Sgt. Maj. Clarence Miller, the battalion's senior noncommissioned officer. Together they put patches on the color guard Soldiers and then the company commanders who then repeated the cycle with their first sergeants and Soldiers.
During her remarks, Lodi recounted a recent trip to another base where she saw a sergeant wearing a Wagonmaster combat patch that was twice as large as normal.
"I asked the sergeant where he got the patch and he proudly told me he and some others paid out of pocket to have the [local] shop make our patch because they just couldn't wait to wear it.
"... if you aren't proud to be part of a team that others want to join you don't appreciate what we are all about," Lodi told her Soldiers.
Pvt. Nichlas Pierce, a radio maintainer operator and San Diego, native said, "It feels pretty good ... honorable."
Pierce, who is on his first deployment, also noted the deployment was about what he expected so far.
"There [are] a lot of activities at the MWR [and] good food," he added.
The 15th Sustainment Brigade arrived in Iraq about one month ago. The brigade is responsible for logistical support to all of Multinational Division - North, including the movement of thousands of troops and tons of equipment as the U.S. military reduces its presence in Iraq.
The tradition of the shoulder sleeve insignia, commonly called the unit patch, started during World War I when American vehicles and bags were marked with regional symbols in France. The 81st Infantry Division "Wildcat" became the first authorized shoulder sleeve insignia in 1918. Near the end of the war, the Department of the Army authorized the wear of the patch on the right side to signify Soldiers who supported or served in combat operations.
"...on the left it is temporary - the unit we happened to be assigned to at a particular moment in time..." Lodi said, impressing upon the troops the importance of the combat patch.
"...but Soldiers, today you are branded a Wagonmaster forever."
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