24th Infantry Division Patch

The 24th Infantry Division was at Schofield Barracks on December 7, 1941, and less than nine years later its soldiers were the first American ground troops to fight in Korea. The division was born in Hawaii, redesignated from the Hawaiian Division on October 1, 1941, and the green leaf on its patch is the taro leaf of the islands. It fought across the Southwest Pacific in World War II, went into Korea first in 1950, and fought in Desert Storm in 1991. Veterans call it the Victory Division. To most of them it is simply the Taro Leaf.

After Pearl Harbor the division landed at Tanahmerah Bay for the Hollandia operation on April 22, 1944, made the assault landing on Leyte on October 20, 1944, and in 1945 fought on Luzon and Mindanao. In June 1950 the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry went to Korea as Task Force Smith and met the North Korean advance near Osan on July 5, and at Taejon later that month the division fought a hard delaying battle, and its commander, Maj. Gen. William F. Dean, was captured and later awarded the Medal of Honor. Reactivated at Fort Stewart, Georgia in September 1975, the division deployed to Saudi Arabia in August 1990 and drove 260 miles into Iraq once the ground war opened on February 24, 1991.

The patch is a small, solid circle just over 2 inches across, with a black merrowed border around a red field. In the middle is the green taro leaf, outlined in yellow, its stem curled into a small loop at the top. There is no lettering and none is needed; a soldier who wore it recognizes it from across a parking lot. The red, green and yellow are the colors the division carried from Hawaii to the Philippines, Korea and the Gulf. It is a plain design, and that is why it reads so well.

The 24th took hard losses in the summer of 1950, and the men who went in with Task Force Smith and at Taejon are remembered with the same respect as any unit that held a line when it counted. The division also carried the war in the Pacific from New Guinea to Mindanao, and in 1991 it crossed into Iraq in Desert Storm. It was inactivated in 1996, its soldiers and colors reflagged at Fort Stewart, and brought back at Fort Riley in 1999 before a final inactivation there on August 1, 2006. Few divisions have a record that starts at Pearl Harbor. The Taro Leaf does.

Mount it in a shadow box with your Combat Infantryman Badge and a photo from Fort Stewart or Korea, or sew it on the vest you wear to the 24th Infantry Division Association reunion. It is also a good gift for a grandchild who wants to know what Grandpa did in Korea or the Gulf. The iron-on backing holds, and a few stitches around the merrowed edge make it permanent. Taro Leaf.