17th Airborne Division Patch

On 24 March 1945 the 17th Airborne Division jumped east of the Rhine near Hamminkeln in Operation Varsity, the only airborne operation the division ever made. It had already fought through the snow of the Ardennes before it ever left the ground. The Golden Talons were activated at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, on 15 April 1943 under Major General William M. Miley. The division motto was Thunder From Heaven. This patch carries the gold claw those paratroopers and glidermen wore.

The division was built around the 507th and 513th Parachute Infantry Regiments and the 193rd and 194th Glider Infantry Regiments. It entered combat in the Battle of the Bulge on 4 January 1945 and was pulled back to Luxembourg after taking Espeler on 26 January. Staff Sergeant Isadore S. Jachman earned the division's first Medal of Honor in that fighting. Varsity came two months later as part of Operation Plunder, the crossing of the Rhine. Private George J. Peters of the 507th and Private First Class Stuart S. Stryker of the 513th each earned the Medal of Honor on 24 March, and Technical Sergeant Clinton Hedrick of the 194th earned his at Lembeck Castle in the days after.

This patch measures 2.5 inches wide by 3.25 inches tall with a cut edge. A black disc with a thin olive green border holds a gold eagle's leg and claw, feathered at the top with four curved talons spread below. A black AIRBORNE tab with gold lettering sits above the disc as one piece. The gold on black reads clearly from across a room. The back is iron-on, and it can be sewn on as well.

The 17th was in combat for only a few months, and it paid heavily in that time. All four of its Medal of Honor recipients were killed in action. The division was inactivated at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts, on 16 September 1945, after only two and a half years of existence. Men who wore the talon went from Camp Mackall to the Ardennes to the far bank of the Rhine in less than two years. That is a short history, and a hard one.

It fits a shadow box next to a jump wing and a photo from 1945, or a vest worn to a World War II airborne reunion. It is also a good gift for a grandson who wants to understand what his great-grandfather did over the Rhine. Press it on or stitch it down. Ardennes, Rhine, one gold claw.