1st Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment Flash with Crest Patch

Count the colors on this flash: green, blue, red, khaki, orange and white. That is six, and Merrill's Marauders, the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), went into Burma in 1944 as six combat teams. Four of those colors went onto the 75th's regimental crest, and khaki and orange were left off it. The flash carries all six. Every Ranger battalion traces its line back to the Marauders, and the 1st Battalion does it directly.

Its headquarters company was organized on October 3, 1943 in the China-Burma-India Theater as part of the 5307th, then consolidated with Company C, 475th Infantry in August 1944. The line came back as Company C, 75th Infantry on Okinawa in 1954, and again in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971. On January 31, 1974 it was activated at Fort Stewart, Georgia as the 1st Battalion, 75th Infantry, the first Ranger battalion of the modern Army. On February 3, 1986 it was consolidated with Company A, 1st Ranger Infantry Battalion of World War II and became the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. Its campaign credits include Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq, with a Valorous Unit Award for Grenada and a Presidential Unit Citation for Afghanistan in 2010.

The patch is a small shield, 2 inches wide and 2.25 inches tall, with a merrowed edge rolled in black thread. A small red bar sits in the border on each side. The green and blue field is cut by a diagonal of red, khaki, orange and white stripes, and the regimental crest sits in the center. Its white sun stands for close work with Chinese forces, the white star for the Star of Burma where the Marauders fought, and the red lightning bolt for strikes behind enemy lines. It has an iron-on backing and can be sewn on.

Rangers switched from the black beret to the tan beret in 2001, and the flash border changed from white stitching to black at the same time. That black border is what this one carries. Enlisted Rangers wear the crest pinned on the flash, officers their rank. The 1st Battalion was the first Ranger battalion of the modern Army, and every Ranger battalion since has been measured against the standard it set. Generations of its Rangers have lived by the Ranger Creed and the regimental motto Sua Sponte, of their own accord.

Mount it in a shadow box beside a scroll and a tab, or sew it on a range bag or jacket. It makes a meaningful gift for a son or father who wore the tan beret with 1st Battalion. A small patch that tells the whole Marauder story.